A large number of anonymous oils on religious and mythological themes began to emerge in Bengal in the late eighteenth–early nineteenth century from the French colony of Chandernagore and the Dutch colony of Chinsurah. Variously called French or Dutch Bengal oils, they also came from other areas like Chitpur and Garanhata localities of Calcutta and thus came to be known as Early Bengal Oils. Learn More
A miniature landscape artist par excellence, Bireswar Sen is known for evolving a unique style wherein he painted vistas of the gigantic Himalayas and the deep valleys on a minuscule scale. Learn More
Born in 1922, pioneering modernist sculptor Ardeshir M. Davierwalla—fondly called Adi—was a pharmaceutical chemist by training; he went to school in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, and studied pharmaceutical engineering at the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute (now known as the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute) in Bombay. Learn More
Vasudha Thozhur is known for her conscious art practice that seeks to give expression to conflicts which humans encounter daily in a tension-ridden contemporary society. Born in Mysore on 14 October 1956, Thozhur received a diploma in painting from the College of Art and Craft, Madras, in 1972. She received a post diploma in painting from Croydon School of Art and Design, U.K., in 1982. Learn More
Known for his portraits and landscapes rendered in academic-realist style, V. B. Pathare studied painting under S. L. Haldankar in Bombay and Prof. Martin Latuterburg in Bern, Switzerland. After studying portraiture under the renowned Sir Charles Dugdale in London, Pathare painted portraits of several national leaders over time, from Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule to Indira Gandhi and Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad of Baroda. Learn More
One of India’s most important post-modernist painters, Sunil Das is known for his iconic drawings and paintings of horses and bulls. He rose to prominence early when he became the only Indian artist to win the Lalit Kala Akademi’s national award while still an undergraduate student, in 1959. Learn More
Born in Madras, R. B. Bhaskaran is best known for his series on cats, and on couples, as also for his rejection of the ‘restrictive’ need to establish an Indian cultural identity through his works, which he feels is ‘an instinctive by-product of one’s work’. Learn More
An early Indian abstractionist who forged his own vocabulary, distinct from the dominant forces that gripped India’s art community in the early years of Independence, Piraji Sagara came to be known for his collages made of wood relief amalgamated with abstract paintings. Learn More
Well-known for his silkscreen prints, Paramjeet Singh was born and brought up in Jamshedpur in present-day Jharkhand where career prospects appeared limited to engineering or medicine. His parents hoped he would study architecture, but destiny had other plans as a friend took Singh to a local art class, which spurred his interest in drawing and painting. Learn More
A watercolourist par excellence known for his paintings on silk, Maniklal Banerjee was born in Borisal in present-day Bangladesh. He studied at Government College of Art in Calcutta and while still a student, became the first Indian artist to receive the Government of India’s scholarship for the arts. Learn More
A student of K. C. S. Paniker—the influential artist-teacher and founding father of the Madras Art Movement—M. Senathipathi is known for his richly textured works drawn from mythology and contextualised in contemporary social issues. Learn More
A. M. Mali was born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, to a professional artist-father who painted mythological illustrations on the walls of local temples. Mali’s initial training in painting was under the well-known landscape artist Abalall Rahiman. Learn More