What Shall We Do with Culture?

Currently out of stock. Special Centenary Edition forthcoming in February 2024.

K. G. Subramanyan (1924–2016) was one of India’s most eminent artists who worked with diverse media and materials, and exhibited extensively both within and outside the country. He was known as much for his wide-ranging scholarship as for his artworks which are full of wit, subversion, folklore and critical social commentary. Member of the arts faculty at M. S. University, Baroda, he was professor emeritus oat Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan. In 2012, he received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award, for his outstanding contribution to the arts.

In this lecture delivered in 1992, the artist grapples with a single important question: What does culture mean today? Reflecting on both popular culture and critically acclaimed works of art, and multiple governments’ apathy towards culture in general, he concludes on the necessity to redesign our own lives.