‘Respectable Exotics’: Exhibiting South Asian Modernists in Britain, 1958 and 2017

Abstract

In 1958, Gallery One, London, staged an exhibition titled, ‘Seven Indian Painters in Europe’ featuring work by some of the most prestigious contemporary artists of South Asian origin. In 2017, the Whitworth Art Gallery revisited this earlier exhibition, staging ‘South Asian Modernists 1953–1963ʹ. Visiting this recent show prompted a reconsideration of the 1958 exhibition, its content and reception, and a reflection upon the ways in which South Asian artists exhibiting in London during the 1950s and ’60s have and have not been included within narratives of British art, then and now.