The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975- 1998

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The Barbican presents The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975- 1998, the world’s first exhibition to explore and chart this period of significant cultural and political change in India, from October 5, 2024. Featuring nearly 150 works of art across painting, sculpture, photography, installation and film, this landmark group show examines the ways in which 30 artists have distilled significant episodes of the late 20th century and reflected intimate moments of life during this time. A specially curated film season, Rewriting the Rules: Pioneering Indian Cinema after 1970, will run alongside the exhibition.

Bookended by two pivotal moments in India’s history – the declaration of the State of Emergency by Indira Gandhi in 1975 and the Pokhran Nuclear Tests in 1998 – The Imaginary Institution of India aims to delve into a transformative era marked by social upheaval, economic instability, and rapid urbanisation.

The exhibition takes the declaration of the Emergency in 1975 and the ensuing suspension of civil liberties as a moment of national awakening, signalling how it provoked artistic responses, directly or indirectly. It surveys the artistic production that unfolded over the next two decades or so, within the turmoil of a changing socio-political landscape. Culminating in the 1998 nuclear tests, the show illustrates how far the country moved from the ideals of non-violence, which once had been the bedrock of its campaign for independence from British colonial rule.

Works on display include:
- Gulammohammed Sheikh’s painting Speechless City
- Gieve Patel’s empathetic paintings
- Sunil Gupta’s photographic series Exiles
- Sheba Chhachhi’s Seven Lives and a Dream
- Savi Sawarkar’s bold etchings
- Bhupen Khakhar’s paintings