Untitled (portrait of a woman against optical illusion background)

1970s

Untitled (portrait of a woman against optical illusion background), 1970s. India, 20th century. Gelatin silver print, photomontage on black mount; diameter: 16 cm (6 5/16 in.); mounted: 17.1 x 16.8 cm (6 3/4 x 6 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund 2018.14 The pop graphic whorl reminds viewers of the relationships between India and the psychedelic drug culture in the West that flourished during the 1960s. The tiny photograph in the center of a young Indian woman with an earnest and sober expression, along with an inscription associating the image with a marriage in Rajasthan, shows the adoption of modern design into a traditional Indian context, apparently stripped of any bohemian connotations.