- 289 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
About this book
Until recently, polychrome terracruda (air-dried clay) sculpture has been virtually absent from exhibitions and scholarship on South Asian art history. This is beginning to change.
As early Indic texts and accounts published in the last few centuries attest, this malleable and dynamic medium has played a fundamental role in the region's visual arts.
This boundary-breaking book traces the longstanding interactions between clay, sculptors, and their clienteles; shaping and reshaping religious practices, social formations, and aesthetic values across the region. The first chapter explores the history of terracruda as artistic medium; the following two chapters present long trajectories of practice in the Buddhist Himalayas and the Deccan; and the latter two chapters offer insight into terracruda sculpture's role in cultural transformations-the 18th and 19th-century artistic florescence in Bengal, and British colonial displays of terracruda figures at international exhibitions. Employing an ecological approach that recognizes substances, things, and objects as players in the world, Clay Works celebrates the contributions of clay's supple plasticity and ephemerality and brings a much-needed and timely perspective to South Asian art history.
As early Indic texts and accounts published in the last few centuries attest, this malleable and dynamic medium has played a fundamental role in the region's visual arts.
This boundary-breaking book traces the longstanding interactions between clay, sculptors, and their clienteles; shaping and reshaping religious practices, social formations, and aesthetic values across the region. The first chapter explores the history of terracruda as artistic medium; the following two chapters present long trajectories of practice in the Buddhist Himalayas and the Deccan; and the latter two chapters offer insight into terracruda sculpture's role in cultural transformations-the 18th and 19th-century artistic florescence in Bengal, and British colonial displays of terracruda figures at international exhibitions. Employing an ecological approach that recognizes substances, things, and objects as players in the world, Clay Works celebrates the contributions of clay's supple plasticity and ephemerality and brings a much-needed and timely perspective to South Asian art history.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Clay Works by Susan S. Bean in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Art & Art Techniques. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue: Adventures with Clay
- 1 Clay Matters
- 2 Precious Earth in Bhutan and the Buddhist Himalayas
- 3 The Career of Clay in the Deccan
- 4 Modeling Modern Bengal
- 5 Pax Britannicaāthe Empireās clay subjects
- Epilogue: Inside OutāTerracruda and contemporary art practices
- Glossary: Non-English Words in Clay Works
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index