The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998

The fraught period in India between 1975 and 1998 was marked by social upheaval, economic collapse, and rapid urbanisation. Within this turbulence, ordinary life continued and artists made work that distilled historically significant episodes as well as intimate moments and shared experiences. Across a range of media, the vivid, urgent works on show are deeply personal documents from a period of tremendous change. This is the first institutional exhibition to cover these definitive years, with many works never before seen in the UK.

Dr Diva Gujral is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford, working between historical and art historical scholarship of independent India. She is co-author of Photography in India: A Visual History from the 1850s to the Present (2019), and has written for Aperture, Frieze and Source.