Skip to main content

thinking art beyond representation

how could it happen that in thinking about art, in reading the art object, we missed what art does best? in fact we missed that which defines art: the aesthetic because art is not an object amongst others, at least not an object of knowledge (or not only an object of knowledge).


rather, art does something else. Indeed, art is precisely antithetical to knowledge. which is to say that art might well be a part of the world (after all it is a made thing), but at the same time it is apart from the world. and this apart-ness, however it is theorised, is what constitutes art's importance.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Raghu Rai: The Unflinching Eye That Framed India’s Conscience by Prabuddha Ghosh

Raghu Rai: The Unflinching Eye That Framed India’s Conscience by Prabuddha Ghosh In the long and unsettled narrative of modern India, few visual chroniclers have worked with the moral clarity, emotional depth, and sustained intensity of Raghu Rai. To speak of him merely as a photographer is to understate the scope of his engagement. He is, more precisely, a witness to India’s becoming—its fractures, its continuities, its silences, and its eruptions. Across decades, his lens has moved with a rare steadiness through the country’s most defining moments, refusing spectacle while never relinquishing the power of the image. Born on 18 December 1942 in Jhang, in undivided Punjab—now in Pakistan—Rai belonged to a generation marked indelibly by the trauma of Partition. Geography, for him, was never inert. It was memory, rupture, and inheritance. Punjab was not simply a birthplace; it was a divided consciousness. That inheritance would quietly shape his sensibility. There is, in his work, an unm...

A Timeless Gaze, A Global Ascent: When Raja Ravi Varma Redefined the Place of Indian Art by Prabuddha Ghosh

A Timeless Gaze, A Global Ascent: When Raja Ravi Varma Redefined the Place of Indian Art by Prabuddha Ghosh ( The recent sale of Yashoda and Krishna by Raja Ravi Varma marks a defining moment in the trajectory of Indian art. Achieving an unprecedented ₹167.2 crore at Saffronart ’s Spring Live Auction in Mumbai, the painting has become the highest-valued work of Indian art ever sold. Acquired by Cyrus S. Poonawalla , it surpasses the earlier record set by M. F. Husain ’s Gram Yatra , indicating not only a shift in market dynamics but also a renewed cultural recognition. This article approaches the event as more than an auction milestone. It connects the sale to broader questions shaping the present and future of Indian art, including the evolution of collecting practices, the continued relevance of Varma’s legacy, the distinctive qualities of his paintings, the ongoing surge in the Indian art market, and the factors contributing to such extraordinary valuation. Drawing on current ...

A New Vista in My Creative Journey: Entering Digital Art by Prabuddha Ghosh

A New Vista in My Creative Journey: Entering Digital Art in 2025 by Prabuddha Ghosh A fter more than thirty-five years of dedicated engagement with photography and nearly two decades of sustained practice in digital photography, I have now entered a new and significant phase of my creative journey: the field of Digital Art. This transition has emerged organically through reflection, experimentation and encouragement from individuals whose guidance and faith have been deeply meaningful to me. In particular, I wish to acknowledge the constant motivation and mentorship of my friend and senior artist, Shri Atul Padiaji of Vadodara, Gujarat, whose encouragement gave me the confidence to explore this medium with greater seriousness and depth. Equally important has been the role of my younger brother, Shri Jayanta Khan of Kolkata, who, through his persistent inspiration over more than a year, urged me to take this decisive step and begin a new chapter in my artistic life. I also believe t...