A commitment to modernity is the underlying theme of this volume. Through essays that are interpretive and theoretical, the author seeks to situate the modern in contemporary cultural practice. The essays divide into three sections. The first two sections, Artists and Artworks and Film/Narratives, raise questions of authorship, genre and contemporary features of national culture that materialize into an aesthetic in the Indian context. The last sectionFrames of Referenceformalizes the polemical options developed across the book. The essays here propose resistance to the depoliticization of narratives, and affirm an open-ended engagement with the avant-garde. They explore the possibility of art practice finding its own signifying space that is still a space for radical transformation. Contents Artists and artwork. -- Body as gesture : women artists at work. -- Elegy for an unclaimed beloved : Nasreen Mohamedi 1937-1990. -- Mid-century ironies : K. G. Subramanyan. -- Representation dilemmas of a nineteenth century painter : Raja Ravi Varma. -- Film/narratives. -- Articulating the self in history : Ghatak's "Jukti Takko ar Gappo". -- Sovereign subject : Ray's Apu. -- Revelation and doubt in "Sant Tukaram" and "Devi". -- Frames of reference. -- Detours from the contemporary. -- National/modern : preliminaries. -- When was modernism in Indian art? -- New internationalism. -- Globalization : navigating the void. -- Dismantled norms : apropos an India/Asian avantgarde