The Trust looks forward to welcoming historian of South Asian art Dr Kalyani Madhura Ramachandran for a talk and workshop exploring sculpture, writing, and the work of modernist sculptor Isamu Noguchi in South and Southeast Asia.
Dr Ramachandran’s talk will look at Noguchi’s enduring engagement with the stonework of premodern South and Southeast Asia and how these influences informed Noguchi’s artistic philosophy and practice. The talk will specifically examine sculpture of early India, such as at Sanchi, Elephanta, and Mahabalipuram, alongside sites from across South and Southeast Asia, including Sigiriya in Sri Lanka, Borobudur in Indonesia, and Angkor in Cambodia. In tracing the centrality of the “matter of sculpture” in his approach, the talk will expand understanding of the sculptor’s oeuvre and advocate for new, material approaches to the study of premodern South and Southeast Asian sculpture.
Dr Kalyani Madhura Ramachandran is an art historian of South Asia. Her work focuses on early Buddhist art and its transmissions across South Asia, the eastern Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asia. She also has interests in colonial, contemporary, and curatorial approaches to premodern South Asian art. Dr Ramachandran holds a PhD from Columbia University, an MPhil at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and a B.A. from the University of Delhi, where she won the Department of History Prize. She previously served as a Research Assistant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at NYU Shanghai.