The School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU is organising a talk by Prof. Frederick Asher on the 12th of August, 2011, Friday. The details are as follows:
Title: Indian Visual Culture as World Commodity
About the talk: In this talk Prof. Asher discusses the role and presence of classical Indian art beyond India, that is, Indian visual culture as part of a world system. He will argue that much as India borrowed visual ideas from distant parts of the world and, it exported ideas across the world to areas with which India was and remains connected, though in diverse ways through time. Following the work of Janet Abu-Lughod, who argues that India was central to a world system long before the age of European colonialism, as Immanuel Wallerstein had argued, Asher will extend that notion even further back in time, to the time of Aśoka, as well as forward to the present day. The various factors that stimulate the transmission of visual ideas which will be discussed in this lecture include: Appropriation of the Other, pilgrimage, trade in luxury goods, war, colonialism, and diasporas.
Dr Frederick (Rick) Asher is a major figure in the study of Indian art history. Known for his important early work on Gupta and Pala period art, his current research considers the architecture of contested religious space, issues related to art as commodity and patterns of trade. He is Professor, Department of Art History, University of Minnesota.
Time: 4:30 pm
Tea: 4:00 pm
Venue: SAA Auditorium, JNU