Search results for: '20th Century Indian Modern Art'

Any new exhibition brings with it a frisson of excitement, but by any measure India Modern: Narratives From 20th Century Indian Art has been extra special. Most art lovers take Indian modernism for granted—but how many can truly claim to know what it really means. For too many years, the term has been loosely used, with very little awareness of what it includes, or omits. What the West understands and takes as a given is something that in India still remains a mystery, perhaps because art in India cannot strictly be viewed from the same trope as Western art. Perhaps this is true of most countries, but it is especially true of colonised nations where new engagements with art in the West were imposed without the benefit of growing their own local practices organically. This hybrid custom developed at various levels, which makes it exciting when viewed from some distance, but also imposes a challenge. Therefore the question: What does modernism in Indian art imply? Akbar Padamsee Ambadas Anjolie Ela Menon Avinash Chandra B. Prabha Bikash Bhattacharjee Bimal Dasgupta Biren De Dhanraj Bhagat Dharamnarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Ganesh Haloi Ganesh Pyne George Keyt Gieve Patel H.A. Gade Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali J. Swaminathan Jehangir Sabavala Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury K. G. Subramanyan K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. S. Kulkarni Krishen Khanna Laxman Goud Laxman Pai M. F. Husain Manjit Bawa P. Khemraj P.T. Reddy Rabin Mondal Ram Kumar S. K. Bakre S.H. Raza Sakti Burman Sohan Qadri Somnath Hore Sunil Das

Manifestations VI features an assortment of seventy-five significant artists curated from its collection. Not organised around theme or style, Manifestations features a single work or a related series of works by each chosen artist, which reflect an important facet of their unique artistic journeys. Usually dominated by 20th century modern Indian art, Manifestations VI features works spanning three centuries, from a ‘Company Painting’ set in Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, done by Thomas Daniell for the East India Company in the 1790s, to an Early Bengal work of a ferocious Kali astride a supine Shiva, to several 20th century modern works. A A. Raiba Ambadas Amitava Anonymous (Early Bengal) Asit Kumar Haldar Avinash Chandra Amitava N. Arya Benode Bihari Mukherjee Bikash Bhattacharjee Bimal Dasgupta Biren De Bireswar Sen Charan Bagchi Chintamani Kar Chittaprosad P. Roy Chowdhury Dharamnarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Ganesh Haloi George Keyt Gopal Deuskar Gopal Ghose Gulammohammed Sheikh Himmat Shah Indra Dugar J. P. Gangooly J. Sultan Ali Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jyoti Bhatt Jogen Chowdhury K. C. S. Panicker K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni Khagen Roy Kshitindranath Majumdar Laxman Pai M. A. R. Chughtai M. F. Husain M. F. Pithawalla M. V. Dhurandhar N. S. Bendre Nandalal Bose Nikhil Biswas P. Khemraj P. V. Janakiram Paritosh Sen Pestonji E. Bomanji Prodosh Das Gupta Prokash Karmakar R. Vijaiwargiya Rabin Mondal Raja Ravi Varma Ram Kumar Rameshwar Broota Ramkinkar Baij Ranbir Singh Kaleka Rasik Durgashankar Raval Radha Charan Bagchi S. H. Raza Satish Gujral Shanti Dave Shobha Broota Shyamal Dutta Ray Sohan Qadri Somnath Hore Suhas Roy Sunil Das Thomas Daniell Tyeb Mehta V. Nageshkar V. S. Gaitonde V. Viswanadhan

The exhibition, Indian Divine, begins with the late nineteenth century art on mythological and religious themes from regions as diverse as Bombay and Bengal—these include Western style oil paintings of deities by such well-known artists of the academic realist styles as Raja Ravi Varma and M. V. Dhurandhar, and mythological/ religious episodes and figures featured in the hybrid style, a mix of Western realistic painting and traditional Indian art and concerns—the Early Bengal style, a very popular form, of which the exhibition presents over fifty works. It goes on to document Kalighat paintings on religious and mythological themes from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that were very popular, as well popular bazaar prints on these themes that flooded the markets with the advent of lithography and mechanical printing. 19th-20th century Popular Print Art School Print A. A. Almelkar A. A. Raiba A. P. Bagchi Asit Haldar B. C. Law B. N. Jija Baburao Painter Bat-tala Print (Anonymous) Bikash Bhattacharjee Bipin Behari Goswami Bishnupada Roychowdhury Chittaprosad D. B. Onkar D. D. Burman D. N. Sharma Debabrata Chakraborty Devyani Krishna Dhanraj Bhagat Dhirendra Narayan Dhruva Mistry Dipen Bose Early Bengal Early Bengal (Anonymous) F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Ganesh Pyne Gogi Saroj Pal Haren Das Heramba Kumar Ganguly Indu Rakshit J. Sultan Ali Jamini Roy K. C. Pyne K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni Kalighat pat (Anonymous) Kalipada Ghoshal Kamal Chattopadhyay Kanwal Krishna Krishen Khanna Kshitindranath Majumdar Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. V. Dhurandhar Madhvi Parekh Mukul Dey Nandalal Bose Nihar Ranjan Sengupta P. T. Reddy P. V. Janakiram R. Vijaivargiya Rabin Mondal Radha Charan Bagchi Raja Ravi Varma Ramananda Bandhopadhyay Ramendranath Chakravorty Ranada Charan Ukil Ravi Varma School (Anonymous) Reddappa Naidu Roopkrishna S. Dhanapal S. G. Vasudev Sanat Chatterjee Sanjay Bhattacharya Sarada Charan Ukil Shyamal Dutta Ray Sohan Qadri Sudhanshu Ghosh Sudhir Ranjan Khastagir Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Surendranath Ganguly V. Nageshkar

By the end of the century, however, the scene was changing, and infrastructure—following the economic reforms in 1991—began to improve, creating an interest in collecting art. Twentieth century Indian modern art has since been at the forefront of collecting and investing in Indian art, and DAG, which has the largest private collection of Indian art has a marked focus on this period of Indian art. Ambadas F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh George Keyt Jamini Roy K. K. Hebbar Kanwal Krishna Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. F. Pithawalla M. V. Dhurandhar Madhvi Parekh Nandalal Bose Nemai Ghosh Prokash Karmakar Rabin Mondal

The art of the twentieth century may be too recent for us to judge it from the viewpoint of longevity, but if the past is any criterion, art is set to outlive us by far—a reason why its documentation is one of the more important tasks before us. This is where the Manifestations series is so important. It encourages discussion and debates around the selection of unique works by seventy-five acknowledged artists spanning a century (or more) of Indian modernism across a range of variously permutable combinations: periods, movements, mediums, materials, regions.  Raiba Ambadas Arpana Caur Arun Bose Asit Kumar Haldar Avinash Chandra Bal Chhabda Bikash Bhattacharjee Bimal Dasgupta Biren De Bireswar Sen C. Douglas Chittaprosad Devayani Krishna Dhanraj Bhagat Dharamnarayan Dasgupta Early Bengal (Anonymous) F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Ganesh Pyne Gogi Saroj Pal Himmat Shah Indra Dugar J. C. Seal J. Sultan Ali J. Swaminathan Gaganendranath Tagore Raja Ravi Varma Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jyoti Bhatt K. Adimoolam K. C. S. Paniker K. G. Subramanyan K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Radhakrishnan Kalighat Pat (Anonymous) Khagen Roy Krishen Khanna L. Munuswamy Laxman Pai Laxman Shrestha M. F. Husain M. Senathipathi M. V. Dhurandhar N. S. Bendre Nandalal Bose Navjot Nemai Ghosh Nikhil Biswas P. Khemraj P. T. Reddy Paritosh Sen Partha Pratim Deb Prokash Karmakar Prosanto Roy Rabin Mondal Rabindranath Tagore Radha Charan Bagchi Ram Kumar Ranbir S. Kaleka Robert Ker Porter S. H. Raza Sakti Burman Satish Gujral Shanti Dave Shyamal Dutta Ray Gopal Ghose Sohan Qadri Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Thota Vaikuntam Ved Nayar

The term ‘abstract’ has been loosely used, more so in the Indian context, where we have only a vague notion of what it implies. Even the slightest distortion in art is popularly referred to as abstraction. And while distortion ultimately results in abstraction, the two are at opposing ends of the visual pole as far as understanding the genre goes. Over several years, viewers have been guided almost by a gut instinct of what constitutes abstract art. And though one concedes that rigid compartments to demarcate genres are neither practical, nor desirable, some understanding of what constitutes abstract art is essential. A. M. Davierwalla Akbar Padamsee Ambadas Amitava Amrut Patel Asit Kumar Haldar Avinash Chandra Baburao Sadwelkar Benode Behari Mukherjee Bikash Bhattacharjee Bimal Dasgupta Biren De Bishamber Khanna Biswanath Mukerji Devayani Krishna Devraj Dakoji Dhanraj Bhagat Dharamnarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Ganesh Haloi H. A. Gade Hemanta Misra Himmat Shah J. Swaminathan Jeram Patel Jyoti Bhatt K. C. S. Paniker K. G. Subramanyan K. S. Kulkarni Krishna Reddy L. Munuswamy Laxman Pai Laxman Shrestha M. F. Husain Nasreen Mohamedi P.Khemraj P.T.Reddy Partha Pratim Deb Piloo Pochkhanawala Prabhakar Barwe Prabhakar Kolte Prokash Karmakar R. M. Palaniappan R. N. Pasricha Rabin Mondal Raghav Kaneria Ram Kumar S. G. Vasudev S. H. Raza S. K. Bakre S. R. Bhushan Sanat Kar Sankho Choudhuri Satish Gujral Shanti Dave Shobha Broota Sohan Qadri Somnath Hore Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Tapan Ghosh V. S. Gaitonde V. Viswanadhan Vivan Sundaram Zarina Hashmi

The exhibition features several works of academic realist portraiture from early 20th century—vivid oil portraits by masters of the form such as Pestonji Bomanji, M. F. Pithawalla, Baburao Painter and L. N. Taskar as well as charcoal sketches by M. V. Dhurandhar, an academic artist of renown of the same period. The selection features Western academic oil-influenced works on mythological themes by the school referred to as Early Bengal and two works painted in a Raja Ravi Varma-derived style—an anonymous work by the Ravi Varma ‘School’ and Aroomoogam Pillay. A. A. Almelkar Abalall Rahiman Abani Sen Akbar Padamsee Ambadas Anonymous (EarlyBengal) Anonymous (Portraiture ) Anupam Sud Aroomoogam Pillay Avinash Chandra Baburao Painter Badri Narayan Bijan Choudhary Bikash Bhattacharjee Biren De Chintamoni Kar Chittaprosad D. P. Roy Chowdhury Devyani Krishna Dharamnarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh G. Ravinder Reddy Ganesh Haloi Gogi Saroj Pal Gopal Ghose H. A. Gade Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali J. Swaminathan Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury Jyoti Bhatt K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni K. V. Haridasan Kshitindranath Majumdar L. Munuswamy L. N. Taskar Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. F. Pithawalla M. V. Dhurandhar Madhvi Parekh Mukul Dey N. S. Bendre Nandalal Bose Nasreen Mohammedi Nicholas Roerich Nikhil Biswas P. Khemraj P. T. Reddy Paritosh Sen Pestonji E. Bomanji Prosanto Roy Rabin Mondal Ram Kumar Ramkinkar Baij Ravi Varma ‘School’ S. H. Raza S. K. Bakre Sadequain Sailoz Mukherjea Shanti Dave Shyamal Dutta Ray Sohan Qadri Sudhir Patwardhan Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Tarak Garai Ved Nayar Walter Langhammer

We might think of landscape as the most obvious and natural subject for painting. What could be simpler than an artistic response to the world of nature? And yet, civilisations have not always produced landscape paintings. Landscape as an independent genre—with the primary focus not on action but on scenery—was first championed by the Chinese in the ninth century. It was introduced into English art only in the eighteenth century. Elements of nature have appeared in Indian art since the murals of Ajanta, but in supporting roles, in images that are primarily sacred or courtly. Pure landscape painting arose in India only in the nineteenth century, in response to colonial practice. A A ALMELKAR AVINASH CHANDRA BABURAO SADWELKAR BHUNATH MUKERJEE BIJAN CHOUDHARY BIRESWAR SEN CHITTAPROSAD DEVRAJ DAKOJI DEVYANI KRISHNA DHARAMANARAYAN DASGUPTA GANESH HALOI GOBARDHAN ASH HAREN DAS K. K. HEBBAR KANWAL KRISHNA KISORY ROY M. K. PARANDEKAR M. V. DHURANDHAR MANISHI DEY MUKUL DEY New Found Lands NIKHIL BISWAS PESTONJI E BOMANJI PRAN KISHAN PAUL RABIN MONDAL RAMENDRANATH CHAKRAVORTY RAMKINKAR BAIJ SAKTI BURMAN SUNIL DAS THOMAS DANIELL WILLIAM HODGES WILLIAM PARKER

The Story of Bengal Art presents a panoramic view of the evolution of visual arts in the region. The final episode, presented by artist and academician, Prof. Chhatrapati Dutta, speaks of the fractious modernism that marks Bengal art in the mid and late 20th century. The series was shot in the majestic galleries of DAG's Ghare Baire museum-exhibition at Kolkata's Currency Building.

This exhibition looks at the diverse range, moods and styles that primitivism has taken in India, some artists practicing entirely in that style, while others experimenting with it in part, or sporadically. One can count simplicity and a move away from sophistication as key components, as also an inclination or at least a nod towards the folk. The exhibition does not attempt to be a comprehensive survey of India’s primitivists—there are others who would bear inclusion—but is an attempt to understand a body of work and how, given its Western countenance, it can be understood in the Indian context. More than anything else, it offers a clearer view than in the past of what primitivism might mean in the context of modern Indian art. Amrita Sher-Gil F. N. Souza George Keyt Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali Jamini Roy Jogen Chowdhury K. G. Subramanyan K. S. Kulkarni M. F. Husain Madhvi Parekh Mohan Samant Rabin Mondal Rabindranath Tagore Ramkinkar Baij Sunayani Devi

The fifth edition in the Manifestations series continues the tradition of showcasing the very best of Indian modern art. Seventy-five artists feature in Manifestations 5, bringing together the country’s best known and most established modern artists. To reduce the work of one whole century (give or take a few decades more or less) could be flawed, for this most dynamic period in Indian art history covers many genres, styles, mediums, and influences, and is difficult to paraphrase, especially in the absence of a theme for the collection. It is for this reason that the selection has to be incisive, open to change till the very end, where the addition, or deletion, can change the contextual bird’s eye-view we hope to provide in every series. The exhibition is accompanied by our traditional publication that helps to create a comprehensive understanding about the exhibition’s curatorial decisions. A. H. Muller Altaf Ambadas Amit Ambalal Amitava Arpita Singh Avinash Chandra Badri Narayan Bhupen Khakhar Bikash Bhattacharjee Bimal Dasgupta Biren De Bireswar Sen C. Douglas Chintamani Kar Chittaprosad D. P. Roy Chowdhury Dhanraj Bhagat Dharamnarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Ganesh Haloi Ganesh Pyne Gogi Saroj Pal Gopal Ghose Himmat Shah Indra Dugar J. C. Seal J. Sultan Ali J. Swaminathan Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury Jyoti Bhatt K. C. S. Panicker K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni Krishen Khanna Kshitindranath Majumdar L. Munuswamy Lalu Prasad Shaw Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. V. Dhurandhar Nandalal Bose Navjot Nikhil Biswas P. Khemraj Paritosh Sen Partha Pratim Deb Prabhakar Barwe Prodosh Das Gupta Prokash Karmakar Prosanto Roy Rabin Mondal Rabindranath Tagore Rameshwar Broota Ramkinkar Baij Rekha Rodwittiya S. H. Raza S. L. Haldankar Satish Gujral Shobha Broota Sohan Qadri Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Surendran Nair V. S. Gaitonde Vasudha Thozhur Ved Nayar Viswanadhan Vivan Sundaram Zarina Hashmi

'Iconic Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art' is an exhibition specially curated to commemorate the opening of DAG’s new galleries at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai. The pathbreaking exhibition of some of the finest nineteenth and twentieth century art related to India consists of fifty outstanding works, each of them exceptional for their historicity, rarity, and quality. Established in 1993, DAG has created an enviable reputation over the decades for its collection and exhibitions of twentieth century art. But with 'Iconic Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art', it draws attention to its growing strength in nineteenth century art, a new area that it has now committed itself to with a growing inventory of Western artists who travelled to India to paint, as well as Indian artists whose identities have remained unknown for lack of adequate documentation. The earliest work in this exhibition, dated 1805-10, is of one of the largest recorded Company Paintings, and concludes with a rare sculpture cast as recently as 2021 in Indonesia. Ramachandran Adi Davierwalla Ambadas Avinash Chandra Bikash Bhattacharjee Dhanraj Bhagat Early Bengal Oils Edwin Lord Weeks F. N. Souza Frank Brooks G. R. Santosh Ganesh Haloi J. Sultan Ali J. Swaminathan Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury K. C. S. Paniker K. G. Subramanyan K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Radhakrishnan Krishen Khanna Laxman Pai M. A. R. Chughtai M. F. Husain M. V. Dhurandhar Madhvi Parekh Marius Bauer Natvar Bhavsar Nicholas Roerich Nikhil Biswas Paritosh Sen Prabhakar Barwe Rabin Mondal Rabindranath Tagore Rajendra Dhawan Ram Kumar Rameshwar Broota Ramgopal Vijaivargiya Ramkinkar Baij Ranbir Singh Kaleka Satish Gujral Shanti Dave Sohan Qadri Stefan Norblin Studio of Raja Ravi Varma Sunil Das Tyeb Mehta Company Paintings