Viewing The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975 – 1998 at Barbican Art Gallery

This highly anticipated, first-of-its-kind exhibition opens to the public this week at the Barbican Art Gallery: a major exploration through the work of thirty Indian artists of a tumultuous period in India’s history, beginning with Ghandi’s declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 and ending in 1998, the year of the Pokhran nuclear tests.

The exhibition takes these two major, transformative events as ‘bookends’ to dive into the artwork that was produced as India experienced huge social upheaval, economic collapse and rapid and prolific urbanisation nationwide. What the art reveals is how, despite hardships and politic shifts, ordinary life must go on, and creativity remains alive, and a positive force and response. Dancing through a range of mediums, the works convey a shared urgency for expressing all the gamut of human emotions.

Many of the works displayed have never been seen in the UK before, and also includes influential figures such as Jyoti Bhatt, the modernist painter, and M.F. Husain, one of the most important Indian artists of the 20th century. On the eve of Diwali and Bandi Chor Divas, on 26 and 27 October respectively, entry to the exhibition is free. Don’t miss the Barbican’s widely-celebrated Darbar Festival of Indian classical music (24 – 27 October) too.