Essays on New Art History: Studies in Indian Sculpture ( In 2 Volumes)

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These essays are a culmination of zealous research, field work and post graduate teaching conducted zestfully for years by now retired Professor of art history, Ratan Parimoo, who is also a distinguished practicing painter. Having studied Stella Kramrisch and keenly analysed Ananda Coomaraswamy, Parimoo has also kept abreast with the current trends in international Art History. Kramrisch’s thinking was formulated under the influence of the Vienna school of Art History combined with her own deep insight of form analyses and symbolic significance. Parimoo perceives the development of form and style in a fresh manner combining his own understanding of the original writings of art historians of style such as H. Wolfflin, A. Riegl and H. Focillon along with promoters of the iconological method like E. Panofsky, E. Gombrich and Meyer Schapiro. Being one of the few Indian art historians to apply the western methodologies to Indian art, he has also probed into the relevance of several overlooked Sanskrit sources in analysing traditional Indian sculpture and architecture. In India, the art historical situation has come to a point when several regions in the country have continuously been explored and breathtakingly new material has come to light, which was not available to scholars who wrote about a half century ago. It is now possible to look with fresh eye and empirically, the problem of the classical quality, the development of sculpture and architecture during the medieval period, the notion of naturalism/realism in Indian sculpture and the least recognised contribution of regional schools. Written with the painter’s sensitivity, these essays cover the areas of style, to some extent iconology and show possibilities of opening research in temple architecture. After having writings on Indian sculpture by Coomaraswamy, Stella Kramrisch and C. Sivaramamurti, these essays by Ratan Parimoo being released at the beginning of the new millennium, is a contribution in the direction of ‘New Art History’ and will have as much significance as Heinrich Zimmer’s classic work, the ‘Art of Indian Asia’.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ratan Parimoo

Prof. Ratan Parimoo is a noted art historian and critic and art teacher who has specialized in traditional and contemporary arts of India. He was Head of the Department of Art History & Aesthetics from 1966 to 1991 at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. As a Commonwealth scholar, Prof. Parimoo studied History of European Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London (1960-63). He received the Rockfeller Grant to study in the USA in 1974. He was invited to participate in the twenty third World congress of the International Society of Education through Art, held in Autralia in 1968.He is the editor of the encyclopaedic critical anthology Creative Arts in Modern India. In 2010 he edited “Historical Development of Contemporary Indian Art 1880-1947.” His publications include Paintings of the three Tagores: Abanindranath, Gaganendranath and Rabindranath; Studies in Modern Indian Art; Sculptures of Sheshasayi Vishnu; and Essays on New Art History: Studies in Indian Sculpture. He is also an eminent painter.