Search results for: 'Shobha br'

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

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One of India’s most important artists, Chittaprosad recorded pivotal political and social movements in the country, such as the Great Bengal Famine of 1943-44 and its fallout, in heart-wrenching sketches and drawings, alongside protests against colonialism, economic exploitation, urban poverty and depravity, just as beautifully as the many drawings, linocuts and scraper board illustrations he made for children, recording a beatific phase of plenitude and family values, and involving himself with marionettes for their entertainment.

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Born in Karimnagar district in undivided Andhra Pradesh, Thota Vaikuntam is known for powerfully-delineated and brightly-coloured portraits of robust men and women of the Telangana region where he grew up. He studied at College of Fine Arts, Hyderabad, from 1965-70, before training under K. G. Subramanyan at M. S. University, Baroda, in 1971-72, on a Lalit Kala Akademi fellowship. Learn More

Jogesh Chandra Seal was an active member of the enthusiastic art scene of Calcutta in the early decades of the twentieth century. However, due to his short life of thirty-one years, he could not leave behind a comprehensive body of work. His academic oil paintings, Untitled (Disappointed), 1919, and Lady Lighting a Diya, 1921, have recently appeared at international auctions, bringing spotlight on this accomplished artist who was closely associated with the values of the Bengal School of painting. Learn More

Born and brought up in Benaras, Biswanath Mukerji left home as a teenager to become an artist. From 1939-45, he studied at the Government School of Arts, Lucknow, under Asit Kumar Haldar, Lalit Mohan Sen, Hiranmoy Roychoudhuri, and Bireswar Sen. He learnt to paint watercolours in the wash technique under Haldar, who himself had trained under Abandindranath Tagore. Learn More

Raja Ravi Varma’s singular impact on Indian art is unparalleled by any artist. Largely self-taught, he is probably the first Indian artist to have articulated Indian subject matters through naturalism and the use of oil paints with brilliant mastery, considered until then a European idiom. Learn More

Born in Graz, Austria, Walter Langhammer came to India in the 1930s with his wife Käthe Urbäch, escaping Nazi Germany like other refugees. Some media reports suggest that British authorities had arrested the couple on their arrival in India till a friend, noted art critic Rudolf von Leyden, came to their rescue. Learn More

Born into a family of painters in Kolhapur, Vasant Anant Mali studied art professionally at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, in the 1920s. It was here that he grasped the nuances of painting through academic realism. Working mostly in the medium of watercolour and oil, Mali keenly observed how some of his teachers, including Walter Langhammer, worked with various tools and applied bold brushstrokes with knife. Mali’s work had a forcefulness, a depth that was unique and could be seen, particularly, in portraits done by him. Learn More

One of the earliest British artists to arrive in India on a painting expedition, Thomas Daniell is one half of the famous painting duo, the Daniells, the other being his nephew William, with whom he created some of the earliest and most celebrated views of India.

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Enamoured by watercolour as a medium, Sushil Chandra Sen studied at Government School of Art, Calcutta; in 1936, he joined the school as a lecturer. He also taught briefly at Delhi Polytechnic before returning to Calcutta to officiate as vice-principal of his alma mater. Learn More

Sunayani Devi was born on 18 June 1875 in the Tagore family of talented writers and painters—Nobel-laureate Rabindranath Tagore was an uncle, and Gaganendranath and Abanindranath Tagore were her elder brothers. Essentially a self-taught artist, she witnessed the Bengal renaissance, but it was only in her thirties that she began to paint, encouraged by her husband, the grandson of reformist Raja Ram Mohun Roy. Learn More

A multifaceted artist who spent a lifetime exploring human suffering through his sketches, prints and sculptures, Somnath Hore was born in Chittagong in present-day Bangladesh in 1921. Studying briefly at Government School of Art, Calcutta, in the mid-1940s, Hore trained under Zainul Abedin, and, later, under printmaker Saifuddin Ahmed. A participatory practice with fellow artists like Chittaprosad led to his intellectual growth. Learn More