In the nineteenth century, Company paintings led to a new relationship between Indian artists and their colonial patrons – the East India Company.
These artists were schooled in the tradition of easel painting and they were employed to depict the life of the British in India. Within this context, the drawn line was used as a means of defining social and physical space.
Drawing Space brought together the work of three contemporary Indian artists, who use the drawn line as a device for negotiating space in ways that are self-empowering, exploring the complexity of making and exhibiting work in an increasingly global context.
Nasreen Mohamedi, Sheela Gowda and N.S.Harsha’s practice encompasses visual forms from the West filtered through an Indian sensibility.
Co-produced by the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) and Beaconsfield, in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the exhibition was held at Beaconsfield, London from 7 October – 29 October 2000, before it travelled to Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham in 2001.