Forgotten Fold: Academic Realism, Lost Voices, and the Art Historiography of Bengal

Forgotten Fold marks a critical intervention in the historiography of Bengal’s academic realist tradition, offering a singular focus on Ananda Mohan Shaha—an artist largely omitted from mainstream narratives, yet pivotal to understanding the visual culture of early 20th-century Bengal. This richly documented volume revisits a neglected chapter in Indian art history by reconstructing the life, work, and context of Shaha through rare archival images, journal facsimiles, and freshly restored reproductions of his only known masterpiece, Ashru-Kumva (1918) . With over one hundred images—many previously unpublished—this volume not only documents visual material but also provides rich scholarly interpretation. Essays by Uma Nair, Soujit Das, Mrinal Ghosh, Dr. Anuradha Ghosh, Debdutta Gupta, and Vikram Bachhawat offer layered perspectives: from critical theory and archival restoration to personal curatorial reflections and historiographic insights. The inclusion of primary sources—such as the 1920 Puja issue of The Indian Academy of Art, which first described Ashru-Kumva—further anchors the volume in the period’s own aesthetic discourse.

Binding Hardbound, Language English,