The Nazis staged the largest art theft in history from 1933 until 1945. Many of the works plundered from Jewish art patrons are now housed in major museums, raising troubling considerations. Few people realize that numerous European Jews, notably those fleeing Hitler and Fascist Europe, were instrumental in the development of Indian art in the early twentieth century. The involvement of Jews in the formation of the Indian National Art Project, which attempted to connect India to its past and drew on its rich Indian customs and artistic legacy, is explored in Jews and the Indian National Art Project.
Kenneth X Robbins and Marvin Tokayer highlight a crucial point: there was never a “hermetically sealed quest for purity” to invent and create “Indian” modern art. Even though the movement included Indian artists, scholars, critics, and supporters, it was always an outward-looking endeavor. Maharaji Sayaji Rao III Gaekwad of Baroda, the Tagores and the Bengal School of Art, and the J J School of Art and the Progressive Artists’ Group of Bombay, as it was then known, were all key actors in this movement.
With its visual delight of bright works of art and photographs, this one-of-a-kind book illustrates the vital roles played by numerous European Jews in this artistic blooming.
