Mitchell A K Crites
In this illustrated talk, Mitchell A K Crites records some of his experiences over the last half-century interacting with the folk, tribal and traditional artists of India. He examines the lives and challenges faced by some of the early indigenous artists who managed to achieve master status as well as for those who didn’t and why. Other topics include the joy, importance, and rewards of collecting folk and tribal art, the pressures that these gifted artists have to navigate in today’s art world, and the urgent need and possibilities that exist to support and nourish indigenous art in all its diverse forms. In addition, we explore the exciting new directions and trends in these remarkable art forms – from Uttarakhand to Kanyakumari.
(This event will be on Zoom and YouTube)
Bookings are closed for this event.
Art Historian
Mitchell A K Crites is an American art historian who has lived, researched, and worked in India for more than fifty years. His primary focus has been the revival of classical Indian and Islamic arts and crafts as well as maintaining a keen interest in folk, tribal and traditional art as a collector, reviver, and nourisher of diverse arts and crafts. Crites was a close friend of the legendary Pardhan Gond artist, Jangarh Singh Shyam until his untimely death in 2001. He believes passionately in the unique power and creativity of Indian indigenous art and continues to collect the work of the early masters and to search for promising new artists as well as exciting developments and trends emerging deep within the primordial roots of the art itself.
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Unseeing Empire: Photography, Representation, South Asian America February 13, 2021
How the Horse Shaped India February 26, 2021
Blurring the Lines: Fact, Fiction & Everything In-between February 27, 2021
Conservation: Now and the Future February 16, 2021
Mediating the Gaze in a Lens-based Culture March 10, 2021