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A doyen of India’s art and theatre scenes, Ebrahim Alkazi has been credited with garnering worldwide visibility for Indian art. Directing Art explores how his unique way of locating Indian art within a broader framework led to several formal engagements for artists such as MF Husain, FN Souza, SH Raza, Gieve Patel, and Anish Kapoor, among others.

This volume brings together over 400 paintings, many of them exhibited at Art Heritage, and previously unpublished, thereby tracing Alkazi’s landmark exhibitions of European modern art in 1954, a result of his and his wife Roshan’s passionate engagement with contemporary artistic production.

Featuring several conversations and essays, Directing Art provides a context for the Alkazis’ participation in the evolution of a transnational history of modernism, and their long association with the Progressive Artists Group. Also included is an intimate portrayal by Amal Allana, Alkazi’s daughter, who talks of her father’s passion for art and theatre, his revolutionary multi-disciplinary paradigm, and the bohemian world of Mumbai’s post-colonial art scene.

A chronicle of the remarkable life and work of Ebrahim Alkazi, Directing Art is an invaluable education in Indian art.