From the 1992 riots to the 2020 migrant crisis, Patwardhan’s empathetic eye has tirelessly drawn attention to po­litical conflicts, economic inequalities and social injustice

Although his lifetime’s work can be seen as an unstoppable anthol­ogy of Mumbai’s hope, aspiration and struggle, he has also documented the most tumultuous mo­ments in the city’s recent history.

As its title suggests, Unnamed Figures not only illuminates Black appearances in the visual culture of this period but also asks how our encounters with them are shaped by the erasure of Blackness from art and archives.

“My name is Modigliani. I am a Jew.”

That was how the artist Amedeo Modigliani would introduce himself to his fellow Parisians in the early 1900s. It was a risky declaration. At a time when ethnic nationalism was surging in France, Jews were frequently subjected to racist remarks and outlandish conspiracy theories.

The Tuscan-born painter found... See more