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K.B. GOEL: CRITICAL WRITINGS ON ART 1957-1998. By Shruti Parthasarathy (Ed). New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2020. 430+l pp.
In the introduction to her book, Parthasarathy begins by drawing attention to K.B. Goel's responses to "the avant-garde and the postmodern" (xvii). She dedicates specific sections to the discussion on Marcel DuChamp's rejection of Modernism (xxi-xxii), Cubism and Minimalism, working her way through Goel's skepticism towards the computerization of art and its subsequent ramifications that changed its traditional course (xxv). Using Walter Benjamin as a launch pad, she notes how Goel raises but refuses to answer the question on the inclusion of photography, and its contribution to art (xxxi). In the final section, she displays his gradual conservatism from earlier political tendencies by mysticizing his politically motivated criticism, referring to how his inclination for the Ishopanishad defined the apparent transcendental standards of Eastern art (xxxix-xl). The Book is divided into five sections. In 'Artists', Goel makes a few standard observations - how Indian painters become repetitive in their methods, lacking...