Turning page after page of Moving Focus, a compendium on Indian art edited by Mumbai gallerist Mortimer Chatterjee, one hopes that there would be a parallel universe in which the two volumes would serve as guidebooks for an actual public collection of art in India, made since 1900, which we would be able to experience together in all its eclectic, idiosyncratic and cacophonous expansiveness.
To make Moving Focus, Chatterjee invited 54 artists, curators, historians and writers to each nominate five artworks made by artists living in India or identifying as part of its diaspora. In the overall selection, there are, of course, a lot of paintings, some sculptures, photography, installations and new media art, a fair number of them recognisable and iconic, but also unexpected objects like Dashrath Patel’s in-flight…