Much Maligned Monsters: History of European Reactions to Indian Art - Hardcover

Originally published by the Clarendon Press in 1977, Much Maligned Monsters, one of the first comprehensive work dealing with the Western response to Indian art, is considered a classic on the subject. In this fascinating study interspersed with more than 120 visuals, eminent historian Partha Mitter traces the history of European reactions to Indian art, from the earliest encounters of explorers with the Exotic East to the more sophisticated but still incomplete appreciations of the early-twentieth century. This revised and updated edition includes an Introduction that reflects upon the profound changes in Western interpretations of non-Western societies over the past 35 years since the book was first published in 1977.

Partha Mitter is Emeritus Professor of art history at University of Sussex, England; a member of Wolfson College, Oxford University; and past fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He is the author of Art and Nationalism in Colonial India, 1850-1922 (1994), Indian Art (2001), and The Triumph of Modernism: Indian Artists and the Avant-garde, 1922-1947 (2007).