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The showstoppers at the entrance of the DAG booth at the India Art Fair 2020 included a poignant painting of Draupadi’s saree being unfurled in the Kaurava court painted by M. V. Dhurandhar, alongside a work by an unknown artist in the style of the Early Bengal School—the oldest work on display. Together, they were a pointer to the masterpieces on display at the DAG booth, covering over roughly a century of art practice in India. DAG’s representation included some fine artworks such as a huge canvas by K. H. Ara, a ceramic sculpture by Mrinalini Mukherjee, a stunning canvas by Sohan Qadri, colourful abstract paintings by J. Swaminathan, Shanti Dave and G. R. Santosh, a masterful work by S. H. Raza, a lovely Jamini Roy, and paintings by M. F. Husain, Krishen Khanna, Paritosh Sen, J. Sultan Ali, Madhvi Parekh and others—each of unparalleled quality. J. SULTAN ALI BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE G. R. SANTOSH PARITOSH SEN EARLY BENGAL OIL K. C. S. PANIKER MADHVI PAREKH S. H. RAZA KRISHEN KHANNA SHANTI DAVE K. H. ARA PRABHAKAR BARWE M. V. DHURANDHAR M. F. HUSAIN HEMEN MAZUMDAR KSHITINDRANATH MAJUMDAR MRINALINI MUKHERJEE SOHAN QADRI JAMINI ROY J. SWAMINATHAN

This exhibition takes us on a journey into the lives and works of artists from a diverse range of traditions and practices. Despite differences in technique, philosophy and politics, they are united by an attempt to forge a new language of Indian art which rebels against existing visual vocabularies while seamlessly combining influences from European modernism and the rich history of visual arts from South Asia. This assimilation is achieved in different ways. From M. F. Husain’s figurative renditions of Indian deities to the many languages of abstraction developed by artists like Ram Kumar, Ganesh Haloi and others—we see artists responding variously to the socio-cultural problems of a post-colonial nation.

This is the first-ever retrospective of the Indian modern artist Avinash Chandra who lived most of his life in the West, in London and New York. The artist, who had trained in New Delhi, left soon after for London, and most of his practice was limited to London and New York, the two cities he called his home till his unfortunately early death in 1991. In the roughly three-and-a-half decades of his career, Avinash’s work changed amazingly, reflecting his environment and milieu as he grew and adapted to cities vastly different from their Indian counterparts, with their own sub-cultures. That this happily coincided with a discovery of India, however superfluously, as a land of spirituality and sexuality, seemed to serve him well as his muse.

Spanning five decades of her painterly career, this retrospective includes iconic works by Madhvi Parekh which represent every phase of her illustrious career. The show also includes rare drawings and paintings from the 1960s, when the influence of Paul Klee’s abstraction on her early work was evident. Given the solid representation of Parekh’s paintings from every decade, the exhibition allows viewers to see the continuity in her vision and focus.

Sunayani Devi picked up a paintbrush in 1905 when she was thirty years old while supervising her kitchen duties, self-taught, but with enough talent to attract the critical attention of Stella Kramrisch who organised an exhibition of her paintings in Germany in 1927. It was in her worthy footsteps that India’s women artists followed. Devayani Krishna was born five years after Sunayani Devi began painting; Amrita Sher-Gil already had a career in Paris by the time India’s first art school-trained woman artist, Ambika Dhurandhar, earned her diploma in Bombay. B. Prabha followed next, her work reflecting the realities of the marginalised in a piquant language. By the time Nasreen Mohamedi and Zarina Hashmi, both born a decade before Independence, established their careers, women were joining art schools in greater numbers, validating their practice not on the basis of their gender but on its context. Anupam Sud Devayani Krishna Gogi Saroj Pal Latika Katt Madhvi Parekh Mrinalini Mukherjee Navjot Rekha Rodwittiya Shobha Broota Zarina Hashmi

Prabhakar Barwe (1936-95) could well have ended up a theoretician whose book 'Kora Canvas' (Blank Canvas) was a manifesto that established the multi-dimensional relationship between an artist, the object on which he paints, and his subjects. That he was not just an intellectual scholar but an artist whose work speaks for him, is evident through a range of works in which Barwe dissects our understanding of the world and how we view it. Taking commonplace objects and our perception of their existence in the space they occupy, he shifts the dialogue to a point of discomfiture that makes us question our understanding of them. Using scale, discordant juxtapositions, and displacements, he reimagines the everyday in a manner that is thought-provoking, even provocative, as alternate realities—whether perceived or imagined.

Given Singapore’s sizeable Indian population and its position as a leading financial centre, DAG’s debut at Art Stage Singapore was an obvious corollary. Indian artists are avidly collected in this city-state but DAG’s attempt, as always, was to introduce the masters to visitors at the fair. While keeping in mind the best modernists, it also curated a selection most likely to appeal to Eastern sensibilities—thereby displaying its range and the diversity of Indian art. Akbar Padamsee Ambadas Avinash Chandra B. Prabha Bikash Bhattacharjee Dhanraj Bhagat F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Gogi Saroj Pal Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali Jeram Patel K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar Laxman Pai M. F. Husain N. S. Bendre P. T. Reddy Paramjit Singh Prokash Karmakar Rabin Mondal Ram Kumar S. Dhanapal S. H. Raza Sakti Burman Sohan Qadri 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

Gogi Saroj Pal, seen often as one of the first ‘feminist’ women painters in modern Indian art, has consistently explored the condition and inner life of women. Women’s lives, their desires and compulsions, and the complex and magical world of the feminine have been Gogi’s frequent subjects. In her work, Gogi explores and responds to the vast reserve of myths, fables and lore that abound in India, interested in excavating, in particular, its religious and literary traditions. She traces and frequently creates new mythical/celestial female beings of great strength and potency, such as the Hathyogini-Kali—skilled yoga practitioner and potent female force—who assert themselves in a modern landscape where women are frequently denied agency.

Steeped in sacred iconography particular to the Indian artist, Sohan Qadri (1932-2011), whose practice in Copenhagen brought him international renown, the ink and dye works represent the artist’s modernist vocabulary – minimalist, rendered in vibrant colours, with a tactile dimensionality that established him as a twentieth century painter whose legacy has impacted viewers around the world. Perhaps no other Indian artist has been as widely collected as Sohan Qadri.

Nemai Ghosh (1934-2020) is primarily remembered today as the photographer who, through his lens, composed a visual biography of Indian filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, for a period spanning close to three decades. This exhibition draws from DAG's extensive collection of Nemai Ghosh's ouevre to explore his work with Ray, while also exploring his contribution to documenting and immortalising the best of Indian cinema.

Continuing its theme of introducing Indian abstractionists at Art Dubai, DAG handpicked works by eight eminent abstract artists and juxtaposed them to bring into focus how brushwork and colour are imbued with emotion and can compel viewers to spend hours studying such works. The artists presented by DAG at Art Dubai 2018—Ambadas, Sohan Qadri, Natvar Bhavsar, Avinash Chandra, Rajendra Dhawan, Shanti Dave, Ram Kumar and S. H. Raza—worked in different styles but their use of vivid colours highlighted this somewhat neglected genre of art in India that has begun to enjoy a premium in recent years. These artists had their studios in different parts of the world—Copenhagen, Oslo, New York, Paris, London, New Delhi—but had one thing in common: they were all of Indian origin and had trained and begun their careers in India. AMBADAS SOHAN QADRI NATVAR BHAVSAR AVINASH CHANDRA SHANTI DAVE G. R. SANTOSH J. SWAMINATHAN RAM KUMAR JERAM PATEL RAJENDRA DHAWAN K. V. HARIDASAN