Tanya Talwar
Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
E-Mail: tanya.talwar@hu-berlin.de
project description
Tanya Talwar is a postdoc researcher at De:link//Re:link. Her work explores the pedagogical exchanges between South Asia and China from an art historical perspective. This is an extension of her PhD project, ‘Art Education between Heritage-Making and Critical Transregionality’ (2021-2025), in which she examined the transformations in art pedagogy and praxis in relation to the schools of art established in South Asia during British rule. The study focuses on the four schools of industrial arts opened chiefly in the cities of Madras (Government School of Industrial Arts, 1851), Calcutta (School of Industrial Art, 1854), Bombay (Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art or J.J. School of Art, 1857) and Lahore (Mayo School of Arts, 1875). These art schools are now known as the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, Government College of Art & Craft (GCAC), Kolkata, Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai and the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore.
A uniform syllabus was designed for instruction in both academic and industrial arts. The strictures of a syllabus also left room for creative ways of artmaking for artists and makers. This project studies these alternative ways of making and spaces as they respond to colonial art pedagogy and the emergent demands for artistic productions. Using archival records from South Asia and parts of Europe (Kolkata, Delhi, Punjab, Mumbai, Lahore, Berlin, and London), this work explores examples that reflect the complexities of modernity, artistic/artisanal forms of making and expression, and their transregional and transcultural entanglements.
PhD Supervisors
Prof. Dr. Eva Ehninger, Professorin für Kunstgeschichte der Moderne, Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte (IKB), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin; Co-director, inherit. heritage in transformation, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Prof. Dr. Monica Juneja, Senior Professor of Global Art History at the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Universität Heidelberg
Research Interests
- Art education in colonial South Asia
- Art schools and aesthetic education
- Artistic/artisanal pedagogy and politics of making
- Critical approaches to museum, heritage, and exhibition studies
- Transregional-transcultural networks of art
- Modernism(s) and South Asian art history
Vita
Born in Delhi, Tanya Talwar completed a BA in English literature and an MA in mass communication. She specialised in print journalism and worked as a journalist at the Hindustan Times between 2011 and 2016. She moved to Heidelberg to pursue a Master’s at the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS), Universität Heidelberg. Her MA thesis focused on the emergence and artistic praxis of a short-lived artists’ collective from Kerala known as the Indian Radical Painters’ and Sculptors’ Association. Her doctoral thesis was titled ‘Transregionality in Art Education: Pedagogies and Practices of Making in Colonial India’ (2026).
Teaching
WiSe 2024/25 – Seminar for BA students at IKB – Regimes of Visibility and Artistic Modernism(s) in South Asia (533634)
SoSe 2023 – Seminar for BA students at IKB – ‘Terms and Conditions Apply: Unpacking art historical shifts from a South Asian perspective’ (533629)
SoSe 2023 – Study excursion to Rotterdam with Dr. Johanna Függer-Vagts and BA students – ‘Rotterdam & Tilburg: Kunst, Handel und materielle Kultur der postmigrantischen Niederlande’ (533652)
Events / Conferences / Transferveranstaltungen
July 2025 – LNDW Berlin, Film screenings and discussions organised with Dr Johanna Függer-Vagts, Humboldt University, Summer 2025
May 2024 – “India on View: Early Attempts at German Travel Expeditions and Filmmaking”, co-presenter, Research Forum for German Visual Culture, The University of Edinburgh
May 2023 – “Kaschmir das Land über den Wolken” (1934) – Film screening and conversation
October 2022 – Exhibition Opening + Film Screening | Wake Up Calls For My Ancestors
October 2022 – Workshop participation (online), World Art History through Syllabi, held in Berlin
May 2022 – Ein Bild von Indien/An Image of India: Eine Bilinguale Filmveranstaltung des Fachbereich Kunstgeschichte der Moderne Film screening and Discussion – “Indiens steinernes Wunder” (1934)
May 2022 – Online conference, Pioneers of Design Education hosted by the Design Campus, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
November 2021 – Moderation, Transcultural Perspectives in Art (History), The Berlin Graduate Symposium in Modern and Contemporary Art History, held online