After a short but scathing heat wave, it looks like an early monsoon is on it’s way to Delhi. This issue explores the development and existence of pop today, globally and in the Indian Art scene. Further, we have reports, reviews and a photo feature of some interesting exhibitions and books.

Pop Art was a movement manifested a fascination with popular culture imagery, celebrating everyday objects such as soup cans, washing powder, comic strips and soda pop bottles, turning the everyday ordinary into arresting icons. It is one of the most recognizable genres of Modern Art, mostly associated with the work of New York based artists of the early 1960s such as Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol, with his screen prints of Coke bottles, Campbell’s soup tins and vivacious images of Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe brought Pop Art to public notice in a huge way. Waswo X. Waswo studies the devolution of Pop with reference to Warhol and Koons.

British artist Richard Hamilton defined Pop Art as – “popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business”. Clyde Dmello explores the comic side of Pop.

Pop seems to be seeping back into the contemporary art scenario with artists like Chila Kumari Burman, N. Pushpamala, Waswo X. Waswo, Ketna Patel and Vinita Dasgupta, to name a few, taking Indian /Asian popular iconography to a global podium.

We have H.A Anil Kumar’s take on the same in the Indian context. Vanita Gupta talks to Premjish Achari about her formative days, influences, challenges and passion for art. Santanu Ganguly decodes an exhibition of renowned photographer Raghu Rai “Trees”. He also reports on a multidimensional art project conceptualized around the notion of the devotional in Indian Art -‘Forms of Devotion: The Spiritual in Indian Art’.

A cultural residency was held by the Inspire Trust, an NGO in Goa, to establish a platform for cultural exchange of art and ideas between national and international artists, reports Lina Vincent Sunish. This issue also features a photo essay of the exhibition ‘Five Quartets’ curated by Uma Nair featuring five renowned artists including S. H Raza; followed by several interesting national and international reviews. Do send us your feed back at artanddeal@gmail.com. Happy reading!

Siddhartha Tagore