चित्रगोष्ट: Art Writings in Marathi (1930s–1960s), an anthology of translated texts originally published in Marathi periodicals and mainly circulated in Marathi-speaking regions in India, is an attempt to document and disseminate an immensely dynamic field of art writing shaped by artists, critics and writers in the twentieth century. Focusing on four decades, from the 1930s to the 1960s, the volume brings together writings on visual arts printed and circulated in multiple ways. These writings emerged at the intersections of important historical phenomena: on the one hand, the growing globalisation of the period between the two World Wars, and, on the other, colonialism, colonial modernity, nation-building and linguistic state formation in the context of the Indian subcontinent. This text reflects the intense activity and turmoil in the political as well as cultural landscape during the four decades of the early to mid-twentieth century.

The anthology includes English translations of writings by Madhav Khanderao Bagal, P. A. Dhond, V. S. Gurjar, Sambhaji Kadam, G. V. Karandikar, N. M. Kelkar, B. S. Mardhekar, Baburao Sadwelkar, Madhav Satwalekar, Shripad Satwalekar and Yagneshwar Shukla as well as two original texts by V. N. Adarkar and William Ewart Gladstone Solomon.

चित्रगोष्ट: Art Writings in Marathi (1930s – 1960s) has been conceived and edited by Noopur Desai and Ashutosh Potdar as an initiative of हाकारा । hākārā, a peer-reviewed bilingual journal of creative expression that was the recipient of Sharjah Art Foundation’s Publishing Grant in 2020. Organised annually by the Foundation, the Grant supports original research and projects that take an experimental and innovative approach to bookmaking.