Search results for: 'Historical pictures'

DAG has been a pioneer in curating exhibitions that have historical significance. These have ranged from themes around different genres and art movements to artist retrospectives as well as engagements with forgotten masters. Most exhibitions are sourced from its own inventory and in recent years DAG has begun to explore eighteenth and nineteenth century art and artists in addition to its presence as a stakeholder of twentieth century art. Exhibitions are routinely organised at its galleries in New Delhi, Mumbai, and New York, as well as in collaboration with museums and other institutions. All exhibitions are accompanied by well researched and designed books, adding considerably to the documentation of Indian art history.

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Shanti Dave’s abstracts resemble—at first—the familiar and the unknown. There are writings, figures, deities, forms and shapes that resonate with what we seem to know. If the language is indecipherable, perhaps it belongs to some ancient texts lost to history. Is this his ode to a civilisation that existed in the past, or a prophesy of one to come? Is it a world hidden underwater? Or perhaps one alien to us because it comes from some other planet? Are these tombstones, or markers, of some mythological or historical realm?

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For its debut in London, DAG created a booth-in-booth display space at the historical exhibition venue, Olympia London, that offered glimpses of the artworks from all around, thereby improving its visibility and attracting visitors. Its choice of art too reflected the best from its collection of the twentieth century modern masters of Indian art, who, in turn, had been influenced by movements and artists in the West. Several of these had worked, briefly or for the duration of their careers, in London and Europe. These included Avinash Chandra, F. N. Souza, Ram Kumar, S. H. Raza, Laxman Pai, Manjit Bawa,
S. K. Bakre, Sakti Burman and Sohan Qadri among others. The room within the booth was reserved solely for the paintings by F. N. Souza. Akbar Padamsee Ambadas Anjolie Ela Menon Avinash Chandra B. Prabha Bikash Bhattacharjee Dharamnarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G.R. Santosh George Keyt Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali Jogen Chowdhury K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud Krishen Khanna Laxman Pai M. F. Husain Manjit Bawa N. S. Bendre P. T. Reddy Prodosh Das Gupta Rabin Mondal Ram Kumar S. H. Raza S. K. Bakre Sakti Burman Sohan Qadri Sunil Das

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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

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Born in 1907, Gobardhan Ash came into his own as an artist at a time when Indian art was in a state of historical flux, when the imagination of young artists was infused with the spirit of country’s freedom from colonial rule. He trained at the Government College of Art in Calcutta from 1926-30, and at the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Madras, till 1932. He was an active member of various artist collectives such as the Calcutta Group that he joined in 1950, the Art Rebel Centre, and the Young Artists Union, of which he was a founder member. Learn More

Have you wondered how people looked at paintings and photographs in the nineteenth century? For DAG’s annual Heritage Festival ‘The City as a Museum’, we explored various aspects of the city’s visual culture. As we are about to launch the DAG Journal let us revisit the walk co-led by Sarbajit Mitra and Amreeta Das at the Uttarpara Jaykrishna public library to delve into the periodical archive and trace the evolution of printed pictures in India. Flipping through the pages of these periodicals offered glimpses into the everyday habits of consuming art—from simple wood-cut and lithograph illustrations, to full plate colour reproductions of paintings and photographs, artist albums, and exquisitely ornate typography.

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English painter George Chinnery, who spent almost his entire career in the East and is today celebrated for his Oriental pictures of idyllic, daily scenes from India and China, was born in London on 7 January 1774.

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As printing technologies improved around the turn of the 18th century, a large number of cheaply reproduced printed pictures—illustrated books, almanacs and mythological images—became available to the common people. This became an important vehicle of social change because people could own, produce and disseminate images of all kinds—from their beloved deities and favourite fictional characters to political cartoons critiquing colonial authorities. Printmaking was equally treasured by artists for its aesthetic potential, as techniques like lithography, etching, metal engraving, viscosity, gave practitioners infinite opportunities for creative exploration. This landmark exhibition gives us a comprehensive overview of the history of the printed picture in India.

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‘Iconic Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art, Edition 02’, the second iteration of DAG’s annual exhibition that redefines the concept of modernism in the Indian context, will be on view in New Delhi this month. Timed to coincide with the launch of its new gallery in the capital, ‘Iconic Masterpieces’ brings together the finest instances of art created in the country by Western and Asian travelling artists and Indian masters spread a little over two centuries. Selected for their rarity, historicity, and excellence, each work of art in this exhibition marks the zenith in terms of the quality of art created in different periods and styles in the subcontinent.

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Calcutta, flourishing with commerce and maritime trade during the nineteenth century, was regarded as the ‘second city’ of the British Empire. People thronged there in large numbers to make a livelihood, or in holy pilgrimage, seeking blessings at the Kali temple at Kalighat that had been re-built in 1809. Annada Prasad Bagchi Bamapada Banerjee B. C. Law C. W. Lawrie Kshetradas Chitrakar Panchanan Karmakar Madhav Chandra Das Ramadhan Swarnakar Ganganarayan Ghosh Nritya Lal Datta Press Kristohurry Das Chorebagan Art Studio Kansaripara Art Studio Calcutta Jubilee Art Studio Bat-tala

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The exhibition Tantra on the Edge: Inspirations and Experiments in Twentieth Century Indian Art is a pioneering attempt to gather together works of sixteen prominent Indian artists under the single thematic rubric of the transient but least definable phases of contemporary art in the last century. The exhibition features the artworks, inspirations, and experiments, of artists that had a sustained relationship with tantra philosophy, its vivid, abstract, sacred symbols, or their personal spiritual illuminations. Biren De G. R. Santosh Gogi Saroj Pal J. Swaminathan Jyoti Bhatt K. C. S. Paniker Manu Parekh P. T. Reddy Prabhakar Barwe R. B. Bhaskaran S. H. Raza Satish Gujral Shobha Broota Sohan Qadri Sunil Das V. Viswanadhan

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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

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