51茶馆

Dear All,

The Department of Visual Arts is delighted to invite you to the third colloquium in the Visual Arts Colloquium Series, Spring 2026.

Title: Mad Metaphors and Slippery Similarities: A search for an early 'Indian' Art Theory

Speaker: Professor Parul Dave Mukherji, Dean School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Date: Tuesday, 17th March, 2026

Time: 1: 30 PM

Venue: Visual Art Studio (near sports block)

Abstract: 

 A Search for Early Indian Art Theory via 础苍耻办谩鹿鈥篓颈惫脛聛诲补&苍产蝉辫;or performative mimesis.

The lasting legacy of A. K. Coomaraswamy has shaped art historiography by molding the way we ‘see’ early Indian art and ‘hear’ the textual sources. Caught in these debates is the question of visual similarity which I argue is deeply cultural and historical. Moving between what art historian Whitney Davies terms as visibility (as images appear to us now) and visuality (as how images were seen in their time), I point towards an overlooked theory of 础苍耻办谩鹿鈥篓颈惫脛聛诲补&苍产蝉辫;or performative mimesis.  Not only is this theory present in art treatises, art practice (eg. Ajanta caves), Sanskrit plays, poetry and poetics but made visible if artistic illusion and literary allusion are taken as inextricably linked. It entails a new way of seeing the overlooked and an ethics of listening to the sources. My paper concludes with contemporary resistance to 础苍耻办谩鹿鈥篓颈惫脛聛诲补&苍产蝉辫;via what I call the Coomaraswamy effect and gestures towards decolonizing art history from the global south. 

Speaker’s Bio: Professor Parul Dave Mukherji, Dean School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

We look forward to your active participation in the talk.

Warm regards,

Visual Arts Department