February 3, 2012 — The University of Virginia Art Museum will host Rebecca Brown for an Ellen Bayard Weedon Lecture in the Arts of Asia on Feb. 28. Her lecture, "Modern Indian Art and the University Art Museum," will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Campbell Hall, room 158.

In 1985 and '86, the nationwide Festival of India blanketed the United States with 77 art exhibitions across 32 states. Three of these exhibitions focused on contemporary Indian art, two of which were hosted by galleries in universities – at New York University and the University of California, Los Angeles. Brown will discuss these two exhibitions as contrasting examples of pushing the boundaries at the university museum, and explore whether the exhibits encouraged wider acceptance of India's 20th-century art. Brown is a visiting associate professor in the history of art and political science at Johns Hopkins University. She researches colonial and post-1947 South Asian visual culture and politics and has served as a consultant and curator for modern and contemporary Indian art exhibitions. She has published widely on architecture in colonial India, modernity and visual culture in 20th-century India and the imagery of the spinning wheel from the early 19th century through to Gandhi's deployment of it for the nationalist movement. Her current work investigates the 1985-86 Festival of India in the U.S.

The Weedon Lectures in the Arts of Asia are made possible by support from the Ellen Bayard Weedon Foundation.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For information, call 434-243-2050 or email museumoutreach@virginia.edu.

— By Jane Ford