Hidden in Plain Sight: Clay Sculpture in South Asia

Hidden in Plain Sight: Clay Sculpture in South Asia

Speaker: Susan Bean curates, writes, and consults on the visual arts and culture of modern South Asia, she Chairs of the Advisory Committee of the Art & Archaeology Centre of the American Institute of Indian Studies and Associate of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.

Chair: Naman P Ahuja, Professor, Indian Art and Architecture, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Air-dried clay (a.k.a. terracruda), along with stone, metal, wood, and fired clay, stands among South Asia’s oldest and most widely used mediums for sculpture. This presentation brings together some of the most prominent practices across the region to consider why painted air-dried clay has been so valued as medium for figural sculpture, and what its side-lining reveals about the study of art and visual culture.

(Collaboration: American Institute of Indian Studies, Center for Art and Archaeology)