Affinities and Exchanges: The Encounter between the Bengal School and the Bauhaus through two Exhibitions (Calcutta 1922 - Berlin 1923)

Abstract

Two exhibitions, which took place within a short space of time, serve as a starting point to study the network of artistic and cultural exchanges between Indian modernism and German avant-garde in the early twenties. In 1922, a major Bauhaus art exhibition was held in Calcutta. In 1923, the following year, modern Indian watercolours were shown in Berlin. These two exhibitions generated a theoretical debate in both the Indian and the German press, in which Indian modernism was formulated and the affinities between Indian and German avant-garde were acclaimed as early as the 1920s, thus establishing the existence of a worldwide modernism.