The Creative Circuit

The Creative Circuit looks at the burden of history and the pressure to be original that weigh on the contemporary artist. K. G. Subramanyan draws on his long experience as a practicing artist and theoretician to ask how modern artists and critics understand art activity today, how artists respond to their surroundings and cultural inheritance, and what general standards of achievement can apply in such a varied art scene. He answers from a modern Indian perspective.

The book is built from five lectures. In them Subramanyan examines concepts that have become central to talk about contemporary art, including modernity, eclecticism and nostalgia. He questions the perceptions, illusions and emotional motives behind artistic expression, and invites readers to reconsider accepted measures of achievement as artistic practice changes. More than one hundred colour illustrations accompany the text and illustrate the interplay between tradition and innovation.

Subramanyan helped shape India's artistic identity after Independence. Known affectionately as Mani-da, he combined modernism with folk expression in paintings, murals, sculptures, prints, set designs and toys. His writings also provide a basis for understanding what art asks of the individual. This edition is one of several new editions of his writings that Seagull is publishing in the year of his centenary.