Madhvi Parekh was born and raised in Sanjaya, a village in Gujarat. Though she is self-taught and took up painting only in 1964, inspired by her artist-husband Manu Parekh, art remained a part of her consciousness through childhood memories, her family’s rituals such as the traditional floor designs of rangoli, popular folk stories, and simple village life. While expecting their first child, Parekh’s husband gifted her a book on drawing exercises by Paul Klee, and soon she was taking the first steps towards creating her own art vocabulary. Learn More
Born in Nashik, Maharashtra, M. S. Joshi studied at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, in the 1930s. Joshi combined his training in academic realism with a sense of vitality, precision and aesthetics to reveal India’s rich cityscapes and landscapes in his watercolour and gouache works. There was immense depth in the rendering of his subjects, which included people, places, architectural elements, all done in a subdued yet textured palette. Learn More
Laxman Narain Taskar’s paintings mirror the ideals of academic realism introduced by the British within their art education system. Indian artists were trained in naturalism, with lessons in soft effects of chiaroscuro and the three-dimensionality of the external world. History painting, perspective, and the copying of Victorian portraits became a vital ingredient within these art schools. Learn More
Kshitindranath Majumdar, born on July 31, 1891, in Jagtai village of Murshidabad in West Bengal, is often referred to as a saint-artist who considered art as a form of devotion. Strongly influenced by Vaishnavism as propounded by the fifteenth century saint, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Majumdar trained in hymn singing, interpreted legends from Indian epics, and acted in productions of the theatre group owned by his father. Learn More
Born in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, on 15 July 1925, Krishna Reddy is best remembered for pioneering the simultaneous colour printing technique, or the colour viscosity process, along with S. W. Hayter, in Paris. His journey to that seminal moment in Paris was preceded by a stint at Santiniketan, studying under Nandalal Bose (1942-47), and then, as head of the art section at Kalakshetra, Madras (1947-50). Learn More
Khagen Roy hailed from Medinipur in present-day West Bengal and came to Calcutta to study art. However, he left the Government School of Art in Calcutta as well as the College of Arts and Crafts in Lucknow dissatisfied with their curriculum. A chance encounter with painter and sculptor D. P. Roy Chowdhury convinced him to join the Government College of Art and Craft, Madras. Learn More
Maiya and Musui—the thinly-fluted male and female bronze figures, often swaying or leaping in joy—are perhaps as well-known as their creator, K. S. Radhakrishnan. One of the most significant contemporary sculptors, Radhakrishnan often refers to the bronze characters as his alter egos. Learn More
A painter with a strikingly elegant bearing, Jehangir Sabavala was born on 23 August 1922 in an affluent Parsi family in Bombay and grew up in an intellectually charged environment. He studied at Elphinstone College, Bombay, before graduating from Sir J. J. School of Art in 1944. Thereafter, he studied at some of the leading art schools of Europe—The Heatherly School of Art, London (1945-47), Académie André Lhote, Paris (1948-51), Académie Julian, Paris (1953-54), and Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris (1957). Learn More
Jaya Ganguly is known for turning the concept of aesthetics on its head while portraying social hypocrisies through her paintings. However, it’s not just the duplicity of the privileged vis-à-vis the have-nots that she seeks to express, but also the pretenses that the former keep up with in their comfortable yet orthodox existence. Learn More
Born in Faridpur in present-day Bangladesh, Bijan Chowdhury moved to Calcutta to study at the Government School of Art, but due to his leftist activities, was expelled. He then went to the Government Institute of Arts, Dacca, headed by his erstwhile teacher, Zainul Abedin, from where he graduated in 1953. Learn More
Born in Simla on 28 August 1931, Avinash Chandra studied painting at Delhi Polytechnic, where he also taught for a few years. His students included Paramjit Singh and Arpita Singh, who would go on to make a name for themselves in later years. Learn More
Born in present-day Bangladesh, Amalnath Chakladhar belongs to that category of Bengali modernists who carved an identity uniquely their own, despite the overarching influence of the three prominent strains of modern art in Bengal in the first half of the twentieth century—the Bengal School, academic training in art schools of Calcutta, and expressionism in Santiniketan. His contribution to furthering modernism in India, therefore, assumes importance for being a seminal, individual effort. Learn More