USER-MANUAL-1

BAIJU PARTHAN | ‘A USER’S MANUAL’ | RANJIT HOSKOTE

Baiju Parthan (1956) who entered the contemporary Indian art scene as a self-declared ‘outsider’, is today an acclaimed painter. He is also one of the pioneers of intermedia art in India. Written by the noted art critic, poet and curator Ranjit Hoskote, Baiju Parthan: A User’s Manual takes the reader on a tour through the artist’s diversely populated imagination. It maps Parthan’s journey from his childhood, through his student years, to his gradual improvisation of a niche for himself in the contemporary Indian art scenario. This book records Parthan’s participation in the countercultural hippie scene, his encounters with spiritual teachings and shamanic lore, his formal experiments and his engagement with media flows and alternative reality environments. It includes a monographic essay on the artist by Hoskote as well as a freewheeling conversation, between artist and author, extracts from Parthan’s journal, a section on his intermedia works and a selection of the artist’s occasional writings. The book has been published by Afterimage, a publishing initiative of Art Musings.

?>