Reshaping Art

Reshaping Art by T. M. Krishna is a thoughtful collection of writings on music, art, culture, society, and the politics surrounding artistic expression. Krishna, an acclaimed Carnatic vocalist and cultural commentator, uses the book to question established assumptions about what art is, who gets to participate in it, and how artistic traditions evolve within changing societies.

The book goes beyond discussing music as a purely aesthetic experience. Krishna examines the relationship between art and social structures, including caste, class, accessibility, cultural identity, tradition, institutions, and the role of the artist. His arguments encourage readers to look at Indian classical arts not as fixed traditions preserved unchanged through generations, but as living cultural practices capable of being questioned and reshaped.