Research

Crafting Knowledge: Colonial Art Schools in South Asia

A study of colonial art education and the production of disciplinary knowledge.

Colonial art schools in South Asia have been interpreted as bastions of western art education, in terms of curriculum and pedagogy. Through the study of textual and visual archival materials, this project examines this interpretation. Soon after the establishment of colonial art schools around 1850, their focus shifted to the study of South Asia’s artistic past. Further, several schools attempted to follow what was perceived as “traditional” pedagogy, such as craft workshops led by a master artisan. This shift was connected to developments in British art education and the central art school in London, the South Kensington School of Art and Design.

One layer of this project is to examine the complicated intersection of South Asian and British art education in the latter half of the 19th century. Art schools in the 19th-century played a crucial role in collecting, documenting, assembling and disseminating textual and visual representations of South Asia’s artistic past. This was done through illustrated journals, publications, reports, etchings, and photography. This was also done by the objects produced and gathered by the art schools circulated to regional and international exhibitions. The monuments documented by early art schools still form the central core of the canon of South Asian art history. This project examines the arena of colonial art education as an entry point into the exploration of the history of the discipline of South Asian art history.

This project has been generously supported by the Social Science Research Council, the MacArthur Program at the University of Minnesota, the American Institute for Indian Studies, and the College Art Association.

Curator
Deepali Dewan

 

 

Madras School of Arts & Craft, Panel of Shisham wood in style of Jali from Sidi Saiyid Mosque, Ahmedabad, c. 1900, 927.53.15. Gift of the Imperial Institute.

John Lockwood Kipling, Woodcarver, reproduced in Watt’s Catalog of 1903 Delhi DurbarArt Exhibition, Library.

Government College of Art, Chennai (formerly Madras School of Arts & Craft) established 1850 by Alexander Hunter. Photo: Deepali Dewan.