Robert Dale Parker

In Indian studies, we might remind ouselves that Indian identity is unthinkable without contact and exchange between Indian and non-Indian cultures. Before that, there could be no concept of Indians. Hence the notion of an Indian aesthetic depends on non-Indians, just as the notion of non-Indian or "western" culture gathers is illusory coherence by depending on the worlds it seeks to expel. That does not necessarily mean there is no such a thing as an Indian (or European) aesthetic, but it makes it recursively tricky to pin down what an Indian aesthetic might be. Thus, when Adell goes on to quote Lewis Nkosi writing that "the further back the African artist goes in exploring his tradition, the nearer he gets to the European avant-gard," we need to match Nkosi's insight by remembering that European, modernist avant-garde art depended on African and, broadly, on so-called non-western art.