This volume explores the Indian artist, K. Venkatappa’s (1886–1965) life, his works and the political and cultural contexts that influenced and inspired his art. It looks at the artist’s style and examines the question of modernity in Indian art through the interstices of the regional and the national.

This richly illustrated book contextualizes Venkatappa’s work in the milieu of Calcutta and the Mysore state at the turn of the 20th century. Tracing both western and traditional Indian influences in his art, it historicises modern art and modernity in colonial India, at a time when boundaries, horizons and identities were shifting and going through great upheaval. The volume discusses Venkatappa’s engagements with Indian artistic nationalism, the Bengal Renaissance, asceticism, as well as western modernist art and highlights the ambivalences and contradictions in his work that represent the shifts in ideas and identities at the time. Through an in-depth reading of the diverse contexts that Venkatappa engaged with, the essays in this book examine the artist’s legacy and his relevance in contemporary artistic spaces in India.

This volume, part of the Visual Media and Histories Series, will be of interest to students and researchers of history of art, history, modern Indian art, visual studies, and cultural studies.