The contemporary art world has witnessed an explosion of interest in the book form, exemplified by Karkhana [Workshop] (2003-2005), a project in which six artists graduates of the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan modeled their work on the imperial Mughal kitabkhana (library). Taking its cue from such projects, this workshop examines art books and book arts in South Asia from 1100 C.E. to the present. Participants analyze the relationship of visuality, materiality, orality, and textuality in a society where “a painting was like the leaf of a book…not seen but read,” to quote art historian B.N. Goswamy.
Speakers include Iftikhar Dadi (Cornell), Sylvia Houghteling (Bryn Mawr), Sonal Khullar (University of Pennsylvania), Jinah Kim (Harvard), Yael Rice (Amherst), Holly Shaffer (Brown), Laura Weinstein (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), and Anand Yang (University of Washington).
Organized by Sonal Khullar, W. Norman Brown Associate Professor of South Asian Studies, Department of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania.
Photo: Daryaganj Book Bazaar, Delhi, 2010 by Sonal Khullar.
To register: https://wolfhumanities.upenn.edu/events/arts-book-south-asia
