Ranjit Hoskote’s The Complicit Observer provides an art-historical account of Sudhir Patwardhan’s career, which spans over three decades and ranges across painting, drawing, sculpture and composite works. This book situates Patwardhan’s art in its cultural and political contexts, inviting the reader into the artist’s distinctive universe: his robust yet subtly stylised images of truckers and labourers, scenes from working-class neighbourhoods, and panoramas of the shifting margin between the metropolis and the satellite township.

Ranjit Hoskote (born 1969) is a poet, cultural theorist and curator. He is the author of 19 books. He has curated 20 exhibitions of Indian and International art, including a mild-career survey of Atul Dodiya and retrospective of Jehangir Sabavala (National Gallery of Moder Art, New Delhi and Mumbai, (2005-2006). He co-curated the Trans-Asian collaborative project,Under Construction (Japan Foundation, 2000-2002). Hoskote and Hyunjin Kim co-curated, with Artistic Director Okwui Enwezor, the 7th Gwangju Biennale ( Korea, 2008).

He has been writer-in-residence at the International Writing Program, University of Iowa (1995), Villa Waldberta and The Promised City project, Berlin (2010). Hoskote is curatorial director, foundation b & g, Mumbai.