BALDESSARI, John
Ahmedabad 1992

In the early weeks of 1992, John Baldessari was invited to live and work in the expansive compound of the Sarabhai family, Indian industrialists and patrons of the arts, in the Shahibaug district of Ahmedabad. Members of the prominent family formally set up the residency in the 1970s, but the Sarabhais were interacting with artists, designers and architects long beforehand. Like many patrons and cultural protagonists of postindependence India, they actively engaged with foreign artists and established international networks, hoping to restrain revivalist currents and promote a new vision for the country.

The book gathers reproductions of the rarely seen multi-panelled works made by Baldessari in response to the surroundings: collages composed of photographs taken during his stay, rubber mudflaps by local sign painters, Formica pieces modelled after parts of rickshaws, printed handmade paper collected from the Gandhi ashram in Ahmedabad…

It is the works’ contingent quality—with each element modifying the next—Baldessari’s vibrant use of colour, and the keen eye of an outsider that render the Ahmedabad series an intimate commentary on what it means to look during a moment of reinvention. [publishers’ note]

With essays by Shanay Jhaveri and Mario D’Souza.

Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König / Sprüth Magers, 2024
Monographs