Vivan Sundaram Indian, b. 1943
Vivan Sundaram is one of Indian’s most prolific artists and active political voices. His own artistic practice which moved from painting during his college years to engaging with everything from readymades, photographs, videos to sculptural installation has been crucial in the definition and development of installation as a practice in the country. A great amount of his energy has been directed into developing platforms for robust political dialogue and collaborative spaces for artists and intellectuals. His work with activism during his student years later manifested into his work with Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat), of which he is a founder member and trustee. His initiatives at the Kasauli Art Centre in 1976 saw some of the most important artists come together and set the pedagogical frameworks within which contemporary art in India can be understood.
Vivan Sundaram was born in 1943, Shimla. He studied painting at M.S. University, Baroda and The Slade School of Fine Art, London in the 1960s. Since 1990 he has turned to making artworks as sculpture, installation, photography and video. He has exhibited in the Biennials of Kochi (2012), Sydney (2008), Seville (2006), Taipei (2006), Sharjah (2005), Shanghai (2004), Havana (1997), Johannesburg (1997) and Kwangju (1997). His work been part of several important exhibitions in Tate Modern, London; International Centre for Photography, New York; Queens Museum; Mori Museum, Tokyo; Haus der Kunst, Munich ; Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation, Vienna ; ZKM, Karlsruhe ; Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago ; Haus der Kulteren Welt, Berlin among others. He has had solo shows in many cities of India as well as in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Toronto, Montreal and Copenhagen.
His last solo exhibition, GAGAWAKA + Post-Mortem (2015), engaged the audience in compelling dialogue around material, fashion, ecology, body image and the idea of aging. In 2010, Amrita Sher-Gil: A Self-portrait in letters and writings, edited and annotated by Vivan Sundaram, was published by Tulika Books, Delhi.
Vivan Sundaram lives in Delhi.
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Lahore Biennale 02
ArtForum 1 May 2020For an Indian, like me, the biennial was a place of ambiguity, of familiarity mixed with otherness. In Vivan Sundaram’s black-and-white photomontages “Re-take of Amrita,”...Read more -
INTERVIEW WITH VIVAN SUNDARAM
By Kamayani Sharma | The White Review 1 May 2019When I meet Vivan Sundaram at his residence in Delhi, he pulls out the catalogue of his 2018 survey exhibition DISJUNCTURES at Haus der Kunst,...Read more -
Vivan Sundaram and his photographic eye
By Benita Fernando | Mint 30 March 2019There are numerous ways to describe Vivan Sundaram—conceptual artist, installer, archivist and sculptor—but surely, “photographer' is not one of them. Among India’s more notable contemporary...Read more -
History is refracted in the ongoing Vivan Sundaram retrospective
By Gayatri Sinha | The Hindu 2 June 2018Viewing an exhibition brings about its own kind of experience. ‘Step Inside And You Are No Longer A Stranger’, the first retrospective of the works...Read more -
Vivan Sundaram: My Experiments with Art
By Bhumika Popli | Sunday Guardian 14 April 2018It is difficult to understand an artist’s mind. Only his work could provide you with certain linkages to his psyche, and in some cases even...Read more -
Vivan Sundaram: Between Matter and Memory
By Rosalyn D'Mello | Open Magazine 11 April 2018MINIATURE terracotta figurines idle by the wayside. I am tempted, but do not dare touch them. As I await Vivan Sundaram’s arrival, his artist-assistants, Arun...Read more -
Vivan Sundaram: Indian art 'needed a new vocabulary'
By Somak Ghoshal | CNN 19 February 2018The title of artist Vivan Sundaram's retrospective at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in New Delhi welcomes the viewer in with a promise:...Read more -
Retrospective | 'Vivan Sundaram: FIFTY YEARS STEP INSIDE AND YOU ARE NO LONGER A STRANGER' at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art 9 February 2018KNMA is presenting this year, the first ever retrospective of eminent artist Vivan Sundaram, one of the most influential artists of his generation in India....Read more -
‘I am always responding to crisis’: Artist Vivan Sundaram on 50 years of his work
By Vandana Kalra | The Indian Express 29 January 2018Vivan Sundaram, one of India’s pioneering video and installation artists, brings together 50 years of his work in “Step inside and you are no longer...Read more -
Vivan Sundaram: A man of all mediums
By Avantika Bhuyan | Mint 26 January 2018It was 1966 and London was in the throes of a cultural renaissance. It was the era of Mick Jagger and The Beatles. And also...Read more -
A CONVERSATION WITH VIVAN SUNDARAM ON AMRITA SHER-GIL’S BIOGRAPHY
Verve Magazine 20 July 2017The early 20th century produced luminaries like Amrita Sher-Gil who, with her audacious paintings of women and rural Indian life, became one of the pioneering...Read more -
On the Record
By Pallavi Chattopadhyay | The Indian Express 6 March 2017A mammoth ship-shaped structure, decorated in hues of red, yellow and blue, awaited visitors at the studio of renowned contemporary artist Vivan Sundaram. Tucked in...Read more -
Art in Review; Vivan Sundaram
By Holland Cotter | The New York Times 30 June 2006Re-Take of Amrita Sepia International 148 West 24th Street, 11th floor, Chelsea Through July 28 This haunted show by Vivan Sundaram, one of India's most...Read more -
Amrita, family in a house of dreams
By Soumitra Das | The Telegraph 13 March 2003There comes a moment in the life of every human being when the forward march of time seems to come to a stop. The present...Read more
