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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.

This exhibition looks at landscape painting in India over a period of two hundred years, from 1780 to 1980. We start with English artists who travelled in India from the late eighteenth century onwards, to rediscover what they were looking for, and how they saw what they found. The introduction of new materials, and the teaching of new methods in the art schools from the middle of the 19th century, encouraged some Indian artists to adopt similar academic style approaches. In the twentieth century, a reaction set in, as Indian artists sought new modes of expression. As if reclaiming their patrimony and the right to represent it, they invented a glorious array of new landscape styles.

Nine artists find special mention in India as ‘art treasures, having regard to their artistic and aesthetic value’, a directive by the Archaeological Survey of India in the 1970s. Spanning a period of one hundred years of art practice, these artists represent a diversity of art traditions and movements but are unified by one common thread: a return to Indian roots through context, theme, subject, and an engagement with identity.

Kripal Singh Shekhawat of Jaipur worked his entire life to bridge the gap between the vernacular and the contemporary, combining what was considered the craft of a kumhar—potter—with the fine art of miniature painting. He paved a new path for a pioneering social and aesthetic mode of life in twentieth century India.

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.

In celebration of birds and the long relationship art has shared with the winged creatures, this exhibition brings together four folios to present portraits of Indian birds made in the early nineteenth century. While representations of birds date back to the Ajanta murals, naturalistic imagery reached its peak in Mughal art under Emperor Jahangir. In the late 18th century two connected developments emerged in Lucknow and Calcutta. While General Claude Martin provided imported European paper to the artists in Lucknow to prepare botanical studies and other natural history works, in Calcutta Mary, Lady Impey (wife of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Bengal, Elijah Impey) had a menagerie where she employed artists to portray variety of animals and birds. Dr. William Roxburgh, superintendent of Calcutta Botanical Garden from 1793, also added to the discourse of natural history by appointing local artists to make botanical studies of the specimens in his charge. The efforts of Martin, Impey, Roxburgh and their artists gave rise to a large body of Company Paintings dedicated to natural history.

Poet, novelist, musician, playwright, and Asia’s first Nobel Prize awardee—which he won for literature in 1913—Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7 May 1861, and took to painting and drawing only in his sixties.

The Dutch artist Marius Bauer was born on 25 January 1867 at The Hague, the Netherlands, to a stage painter who encouraged his son’s early interest in drawing.

Shown at the Shanghai Biennale, exhibited in New York, widely admired for his consistency throughout his career, Rabin Mondal’s excoriating paintings are a savage indictment of social and political ills. A reticent, reserved artist, Mondal’s works offer a scathing commentary on the pursuit and abuse of power. A primal, primordial figuration describes his work in which people in positions of authority are rendered vulnerable because of the very power they aspire to. Their contorted features and clawed hands and feet represent their venality. Strong outlines, naked brushstrokes and potent use of green and red characterise most his work.

Stepping up its efforts to familiarise viewers with the extensive range of Indian modern art, DAG occupied an extensive booth at the India Art Fair 2014, where over 300 paintings and sculptures were displayed, featuring about 125 artists. The specially designed booth was the centre of attraction at the fair and the most prominent destination for art lovers wanting to understand the development of Indian art from the point of its history, chronology, movements, periods, regions, or genres. It was an art history lesson brought to life and was thronged by visitors. Special talks were organised at the booth. A 332-page catalogue was specially published for the fair and remains a compendium of India’s greatest artists ever. A. A. Almelkar A. A. Raiba A. D. Tavaria A. M. Davierwalla Abalall Rahiman Abanindranath Tagore Akbar Padamsee Altaf Amalnath Chakladhar Ambadas Amitava Aroomoogam Pillay Arpana Caur Avinash Chandra B. C. Law B. Prabha Badri Nath Arya Bal Chhabda Benjamin Hudson Benode Behari Mukherjee Bhupen Khakkar Bijan Choudhary Bikash Bhattacharjee Bimal Dasgupta Bipin Behari Goswami Biren De Bireswar Sen Chintamoni Kar Chittaprosad D. P. Roy Chowdhury Dhanraj Bhagat Dharamanarayan Dasgupta Early Bengal Oil (Anonymous) F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Gaganendranath Tagore Ganesh Haloi Ganesh Pyne George Keyt Gieve Patel Gogi Saroj Pal Gopal Ghose H. A. Gade Haren Das Hemanta Misra Hemendranath Majumdar Henry Singleton Himmat Shah Indra Dugar J. Sultan Ali J. Swaminthan Jacob Epstein Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury Jyoti Bhatt K. C. S. Panicker K. G. Subramanyan K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni Kalighat Pat Kanwal Krishna Khagen Roy Kisory Roy Krishen Khanna Kshitindranath Majumdar L. Munuswamy L. N. Taskar L. P. Shaw Laxman Pai M. A. R. Chughtai M. F. Husain M. F. Pithawalla M. V. Dhurandhar Manjit Bawa Manu Parekh Meera Mukherjee Mohan Samant N. R. Sardesai N. S. Bendre Nandalal Bose Nemai Ghosh Nikhil Biswas P. Chander Sheker P. Khemraj P. T. Reddy P. V. Janakiram Paritosh Sen Pestonji E. Bomanji Portrait (Anonymous) Prabhakar Barwe Prodosh Das Gupta Prokash Karmakar Prosanto Roy R. Vijaivargiya Rabin Mondal Rabindranath Tagore Radha Charan Bagchi Raghav Kaneria Raja Ravi Varma Ram Kumar Ramendranath Chakravorty Rameshwar Broota Ramkinkar Baij Ravi Varma School (Anonymous) S. Dhanapal S. G. Thakur Singh S. H. Raza S. L. Haldankar S.K. Bakre Sailoz Mukherjea Sankho Choudhuri Satish Gujral Shiavax Chavda Shyamal Dutta Ray Sohan Qadri Somnath Hore Suhas Roy Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Thomas Daniell Tyeb Mehta V. Nageshkar V. S. Gaitonde Ved Nayar

For its fourth consecutive outing at Masterpiece London, DAG continued with the tradition of showing artists who had grown in appeal at the city’s truly cross-collecting ‘masterpiece’ fair, but with enough surprises to interest even the most fair-hardened visitor. From a large and vivid G. R. Santosh to a collection of small-sized Bireswar Sen watercolours, the selection was sensitively curated keeping in mind the cosmopolitan nature of London city and the visitors to the fair. Along with the Progressives, the exhibition included one of the finest sculptures created by Adi Davierwalla, remarkable paintings by Tyeb Mehta, Bikash Bhattacharjee, J. Sultan Ali, Avinash Chandra, and Hemen Mazumdar. As always, the emphasis in the booth lay in creating a rarefied visitor experience in which a handful of works allowed visitors to enjoy them at leisure without causing visual fatigue. The response was overwhelming. G. R. SANTOSH BIRESWAR SEN MADHVI PAREKH S. H. RAZA F. N. SOUZA TYEB MEHTA J. SULTAN ALI DHANRAJ BHAGAT BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE AVINASH CHANDRA SHANTI DAVE ADI DAVIERWALLA SATISH GUJRAL HEMEN MAZUMDAR SOHAN QADRI BIREN DE

New York’s popular Armory Show required DAG to put forth its most emphatically modernist artists. These included several who had been fellows of the John D. Rockefeller III Fund and would thus have a resonance among art connoisseurs in America for their language and context. Instead of concentrating on the Progressives, therefore, DAG decided to curate a selection that included works by Avinash Chandra and Natvar Bhavsar with extensive careers in New York, and an important body of works by artists such as S. H. Raza, Ram Kumar, Krishen Khanna, Paritosh Sen, and Satish Gujral, among others. Avinash Chandra Jyoti Bhatt K G Subrmanyan Krishen Khanna Natvar Bhavsar Paritosh Sen Ram Kumar Tyeb Mehta Rekha Rodwittiya S. H. Raza Satish Gujral