Search results for: 'modern and contemporary'

The Devi or the female power in Hindu mythology appears in various avatars in our everyday lives—as idols during the puja, on covers of magazines, product labels, calendars and posters. The modern history of visualising the Devi goes back to naturalistic depictions in oil paintings by the Early Bengal artists, which were surpassed in popularity and fame by Raja Ravi Varma and his studio. His representation, however, was regarded as too human-like by artists of the Bengal School in the early twentieth century, who created idealised forms based on a synthesis of classical visual traditions. In the twentieth century, we find artists responding to distinctive traits of the goddess to portray specific aspects of her power, or to convey the artist's own relationship with divinity. Few artists who have turned to Hindu myths have been able to escape the temptation to interpret the female power in their own way, and the diversity in style, medium, and mood is a testament to that.

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

'Home is a Place’ explores the visual world of the home as a physical space having both an exterior and an interior—with all its magic, hope and memories—in villages and towns. Our homes are central to our existence and society, being the reason for shaping towns and countries, civilisations and histories. The exhibition covers the complexity of lives within the jurisdiction of the home—women at their toilettes, women painted alone gazing out of the window or gossiping in a group; figures working in their library, engaged in household work, or as parents bathing children; a family posing together or feuding over a game of cards, food or egos; and those fighting tyranny or painted as embracing lovers. Altaf Ambika Dhurandhar Amit Ambalal Anonymous Anonymous (Kalighat Pat) Anonymous (Waring & Gillow) Avinash Chandra Badri Narayan Bijan Choudhary Chakravorty Chittaprosad Dattatraya Apte Dhanraj Bhagat G. R. Santosh Ganesh Pyne Gogi Saroj Pal Gopal Ghose Haren Das Hemen Mazumdar Hiranmoy Indra Dugar Indu Rakshit Jagadish Dey Jagmohan Chopra Jamini Roy Jyoti Bhatt K. C. S. Paniker K. S. Kulkarni Kisory Roy M. A. R. Chughtai M. Bulkley M. F. Husain M. V. Dhurandhar Madhvi Parekh Maniklal Banerjee N. R. Sardesai Nandalal Bose Navjot Nemai Ghosh P. T. Reddy Partha Pratim Deb Piraji Sagara Prabhakar Barwe R. B. Bhaskaran Rabin Mondal Radha Charan Bagchi Ramendranath Rekha Rodwittiya Roychaudhuri S S. K. Bakre Sadequain Sakti Burman Sanat Kar Shanti Dave Shyamal Dutta Ray Somnath Hore Subba Ghosh V. A. Mali V. Nageshkar Ved Nayar Abani Sen Paritosh Sen Sunil Madhav Sen Sushil Chandra Sen Nataraj Sharma Shuvaprasanna Muni Singh Paramjeet Singh Paramjit Singh S. G. Thakar Singh Sobha Singh Satish Sinha F. N. Souza K. G. Subramanyan Anupam Sud L. N. Taskar Vasudha Thozhur

Indian modernism is rich in diversity with a dizzying succession of artists who have each carved a niche for themselves in the rich firmament of art practice in the country. Open to influences from the West, reaching deep into the roots of their own culture, exploring and experimenting across mediums, absorbing ideas, reinterpreting established norms, Indian art defies any easily tailored silos to carve for itself a confident assertion of its own identity within a global context, while being a part of its larger assimilative journey.

An ancient civilisation, India was always prized for her fabled wealth—textiles, crafts, spices—her knowledge—literature, scholarship, universities—and her culture—music, dance, theatre, art. It is the only country with an unbroken tradition in each of these disciplines extending all the way back to the Indus Valley Civilisation. Ambadas Anonymous (Kalighat Pat) Arun Bose Asit Kumar Haldar Avinash Chandra B. Prabha Balraj Khanna Bikash Bhattacharjee Bimal Dasgupta Biren De Chittaprosad Company Painting D. P. Roy Chowdhury Early Views of India G. R. Santosh Ganesh Haloi Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali Jamini Roy Jeram Patel K. S. Kulkarni Krishna Reddy L. Munuswamy M. F. Husain M. Suriyamoorthy Natvar Bhavsar Nikhil Biswas P. T. Reddy Paritosh Sen Prodosh Das Gupta Prokash Karmakar Prosanto Roy Rabin Mondal Rajendra Dhawan S. G. Vasudev Sakti Burman Sanat Kar Sankho Chaudhuri Satish Sinha Shanti Dave Shyamal Dutta Ray Sunayani Devi Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen V. Viswanadhan

The mid-twentieth century saw a churn in the practice of art in India with a number of artists beginning to explore a genre that had swept the West with its absence of figuration in favour of abstraction. The non-representational began to gain traction as artists found within it a way to express themselves purely through colour as a potent tool to communicate emotions. Abstraction emphasised the relationship between originality and expression in ways that were complex, leading one to debate about the eventual goal of art. Ambadas, Krishna Reddy, Sohan Qadri, Zarina Hashmi, Rajendra Dhawan

For the second year running at the India Art Fair, DAG built upon its theme with a second edition of ‘Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art’, on a scale as ambitious as the previous year. A portrait by Raja Ravi Varma was the highlight among the old masters, but a stunning painting by F. N. Souza—Man and Woman Laughing—stole the show. Once again, the lavish booth set new standards in terms of display, visitor experience, private lounges, and a souvenir and book store. Special lectures were organised at the booth, and a large number of walkthroughs were arranged for pre-booked groups. As in the previous edition, a large book was published on the displayed works, and a daily art newspaper was published for visitors to the fair. Avinash Chandra Nandalal Bose Chittaprosad F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh M. V. Dhurandhar J. Sultan Ali Jamini Roy K. H. Ara M. F. Husain Ram Kumar S. H. Raza Rabindranath Tagore