Cold War Art Worlds

Simone Wille, Institute of Art History, University of Innsbruck.

• Erratum: p. 79 figure 21: © Bildrecht, Wien 2025Notes on Image Titles and Reproductions AcknowledgementsChapter 1. Introduction 1.1 Cold War Art Worlds: South Asian Art and Artists in Prague, 1947–1989 1.2 The Formation of Art Worlds and Artistic Careers through Mobility 1.3 Cold War Art Worlds 1.4 Prague: Co-creating Alternative Art Worlds 1.5 Looking Towards India 1.6 Activating Art History through the Archives 1.7 The Mobility of South Asian Artists and Cold War Art WorldsChapter 2. A Pakistani Artist in Prague 2.1 Visualising Transformation at a Crossroads in History 2.2 Shakir Ali: Ideological Affiliations of Artist and Traveller 2.3 Decolonisation and Sites of Production 2.4 Codes of AffiliationChapter 3. Exhibiting and Collecting South Asian Art in Prague and Lidice 3.1 Indian Art Exhibitions in Czechoslovakia and an Indian Art Collection in Prague 3.1.1 Mobility across Waters and Divides 3.1.2 Exhibiting India as a Collaborative Effort 3.1.3 Fostering “Indicki-Czech[oslovak] Bhai-Bhai” 3.1.4 Appreciation from the Margins 3.1.5 Mobility across a “Curtain of Lace” 3.1.6 Establishing a Collection of Modern Indian Art in Prague 3.1.7 Curatorial Efforts to Foster Friendship 3.1.8 The 1979 Indian Art Exhibition: Modernist Art at Home in Prague 3.2 A Solidarity Collection in Lidice 3.3 Exhibiting and Collecting South Asian Art in Socialist Central EuropeChapter 4. Individual Journeys to Prague 4.1 Ram Kumar (1924–2018): Voyaging into Communism 4.1.1 “Displaced Things”: Stranded between Locations 4.1.2 Two-Person Exhibitions 4.2 Maqbool Fida Husain’s Prague Connection: Mobility and Art Worlds 4.2.1 The Perception of the Margin 4.2.2 A Strong Connection with Prague: Intersecting and Co-creating Place 4.2.3 Capturing Prague as a Significant PlaceChapter 5. Chittaprosad’s Immobile Mobility 5.1 A Single Room with a Central Function 5.2 A Single Room as a Stage for a Puppet Theatre 5.3 Exhibiting in Prague 5.4 The Anatomy of a Film about the History and Life of an Artist 5.5 A Symbolic Personal FriendshipChapter 6. Conclusion 6.1 Indian Art Students in Prague 6.2 Czechoslovak Engagement with India through the Camera Lens 6.2.1 Filmic Documentation about Cultural Exchange 6.2.2 Moderní indickí maliari (1967) 6.3 Final RemarksNotesBibliographyIndex

'This book brings in archives hitherto unexplored – primarily from central and eastern Europe – and nuances the personal histories and transnational footprints of key artists of postcolonial South Asia.' – Sanjukta Sunderason, University of Amsterdam