Kasauli Art Centre, 1976–1991

This book on the Kasauli Art Centre, located at Ivy Lodge, Kasauli – which functioned as a centre for the arts and was actively engaged in numerous art activities for a decade and a half, from 1976 to 1991 – contextualizes the events held there within the broader framework of the cultural scene in India and examines the idea of art camps through the particularity of what took place at Kasauli. Developments in the visual arts, experiments in performance, seminars held at Ivy Lodge and the inception of the Journal of Arts & Ideas are among the subjects discussed.

Given the paucity of written documentation, the author’s research is partly reliant on interviews and conversations with participants and her analytical readings of these narratives. The text is written in brief sections in several registers, and includes the use of devices from fiction writing, including the mediating of time between an event and its recall.

The book also has valuable contributions from several artists and scholars who participated in the events, and a detailed timeline of the many art camps, performances, seminars and discussions held at Kasauli. It is richly illustrated with images of artworks and photographs.