This beautifully illustrated book explores the opinions of artists, critics and others involved with arts or crafts, arguing for a theory that considers the different discursive formations and related strategic practices of an art world.

Focusing on Orissan patta paintings in India the author examines the local, regional and national discourses involved. In so doing, the text demonstrates that, while painters' local discourses are characterised by pragmatism, the discourses of regional and especially national elites are concerned with the exegesis of local paintings and their association with the great Sanskrit tradition A central theme of the study focuses on the awards given for skill in craft making and their changing significance as they pass from national and regional elites to local painters. It is shown how certain key actions by local painters result from a clash between local discourses on the one hand and regional and national discourses on the other.

Helle Bundgaard

Chapter 1; Patta; Paintings and Their Institutions An Introduction; Chapter 2 The 'Revival' of; Patta Chitras; and the National Concern for Craft Production; Chapter 3 A Crafts Village and Its Making; Chapter 4 Painting for Ritual Purposes; Chapter 5 Local Discourses on; Patta Chitras; Chapter 6 Elite Discourses on; Patta Chitras; Chapter 7 The Changing Significance of Awards; Chapter 8 Cooperation and Conflict amongst; Patta Chitra; Painters of Puri District; Chapter 9 Analytic Discourse and Lived Practice; Chapter 10 Contesting Art Worlds: Conclusion;