Empire in a City: Art and the Mughal Non-Modern in India's Long 18th Century

India’s long 18th century was marked by the political crisis of the Mughal State (1526-1857) as it transformed from an omnipotent early modern Empire to a colony of the British East India Company. In this talk, Yuthika Sharma will explore a phase of extraordinary artistic gestation at Delhi, the longstanding capital of the Late Mughals (1707-1857), where artists reformulated and “refreshed” an aesthetics of simplicity, moving their emphasis from the court to the city. Using the modality of a “qalam” (reed pen or brush) and local language source material, Sharma will discuss the intellection of a practice that was recursive and radical, remaining occluded from British revisionist, and later, nationalist discourses on Indian art.

Yuthika Sharma is Assistant Professor in Art History at Northwestern University. Sharma is a historian of visual culture in early modern and colonial South Asia. Her research examines the intersecting artistic, spatial, and material histories of the Mughal and British empires, race and gender politics, and the agency of native artists as agents of technological change in the age of European colonialism. During AY 2024-25, Sharma will be working on monograph on the critical reformulation of Mughal art, artistic revival, and artmaking in an era of colonial change in the long eighteenth-century and teaching two related courses as visiting faculty.

VISITOR INFORMATION: Oshman Hall is located within the McMurtry Building on Stanford campus at 355 Roth Way. Visitor parking is available in designated areas and is free after 4pm on weekdays. Alternatively, take the Caltrain to Palo Alto Transit Center and hop on the free Stanford Marguerite Shuttle. If you need a disability-related accommodation or wheelchair access information, please contact Julianne Garcia at juggarci [at] stanford.edu (juggarci[at]stanford[dot]edu). This event is open to Stanford affiliates and the general public. Admission is free.