Clay Works: Earthen Sculpture in South Asia

(Hardback)

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Until recently, polychrome terracruda (air-dried clay) sculpture has been virtually absent from exhibitions and scholarship on South Asian art history. This is beginning to change.
As early Indic texts and accounts published in the last few centuries attest, this malleable and dynamic medium has played a fundamental role in the regions visual arts.

This boundary-breaking book traces the longstanding interactions between clay, sculptors, and their clienteles; shaping and reshaping religious practices, social formations, and aesthetic values across the region. The first chapter explores the history of terracruda as artistic medium; the following two chapters present long trajectories of practice in the Buddhist Himalayas and the Deccan; and the latter two chapters offer insight into terracruda sculptures role in cultural transformationsthe 18th and 19th-century artistic florescence in Bengal, and British colonial displays of terracruda figures at international exhibitions. Employing an ecological approach that recognizes substances, things, and objects as players in the world, Clay Works celebrates the contributions of clays supple plasticity and ephemerality and brings a much-needed and timely perspective to South Asian art history.

Author Bio

Susan S. Bean is an Independent Scholar and Former Senior Curator of South Asian Art at Peabody Essex Museum. She is Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Center for Art & Archaeology, American Institute of Indian Studies, India and USA.