Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the exhibition ‘The empire strikes back: Indian art today’ held in 2010 at the Saatchi Gallery in London as an entry-point into the analysis of how neoliberal capital produces ‘culture’ in a postcolonial setting.

Paper long abstract:

Arjun Appadurai has argued that 'the materiality of objects in India is not yet completely penetrated by the logic of the market' (2006:18). However, the entry, and the visibility, of modern and contemporary Indian art into the circuits of the global art world and market increasingly challenge this statement. That of modern and contemporary Indian art is a story of inscribing local objects and their 'Indianness' into the above circuits - while market value is created in the process. If the globalisation of the art world provides a conceptual and material arena where objects are circulated, bought and sold through auction houses, international exhibitions, biennales, and art fairs, this paper analyses an event that epitomises the forces at play in this arena: the exhibition 'The empire strikes back: Indian art today' held in 2010 at the Saatchi Gallery in London. An artistic cum business instantiation of 'India in Europe'- and one that challenges the visual and aesthetic canons 'traditionally' associated to India - this exhibition is an entry-point into the analysis of how neoliberal capital produces 'culture' in a postcolonial setting, and into the tension between the symbolic and financial value of art.