The modernist paintings in the exhibition suggests that landscape became a recognizable form of expression in this period as a means for artists to come to terms with the vastness and diversity of India as a newly sovereign nation. Explorations of landscape—especially rural landscapes—by painters inadvertently paralleled official initiatives of government organizations like the Films Division of India, which commissioned many films of rural and distant regions like Orissa and Himachal Pradesh for a primary audience of citizens in urban centers. These activities reflect a country creating a new identity. Radical Terrain shows the great variety of landscapes created by artists in India after independence from British rule, including figural and abstract landscapes, specific sites, and conceptual landscapes painted in a wide range of styles and from many social, political, and formal perspectives.
The contemporary interventions in the exhibition vary in modes and media, reflecting the diversity of what landscape means to contemporary artists of various backgrounds. The artists include Lisi Raskin, Marc Handelman, Seher Shah, Janaina Tschäpe, and others.
This exhibition was supported, in part, by the Dedalus Foundation, Inc.
