Search results for: 'Histories in the m'

K. C. S. Paniker, a towering personality in the world of Indian modern art, is remembered most for spearheading the Madras Art Movement and founding the Cholamandal Artists’ Village on the outskirts of Madras in 1966. Learn More

Born in a Bombay-based business family, J. Sultan Ali’s first act of rebellion was to leave the safety of the family trade and join sculptor-teacher D. P. Roy Chowdhury at the Government College of Art in Madras in 1945. He also studied textile design at the Madras Government Textile Institute, and pursued a photography course in London. Learn More

An ‘India wanderer’, as he liked to call himself, Gopal Ghose spent his formative years away from Calcutta, where he was born on 5 December 1913. His art training began at the Maharaja School of Arts, Jaipur. From 1935-38, Ghose studied at the Government College of Art and Craft, Madras. Once, while painting on the Marina beach in Madras, he caught the attention of C. Rajagopalachari—statesman, activist, writer and leader of the Indian National Congress—who offered to arrange his further studies abroad, which the college authorities, however, did not permit. Learn More

Born in Baroda, Altaf Mohamedi’s interest in painting began while at the Scindia School in Gwalior under the tutelage of his art instructor Niyogi. His nascent interest was also encouraged by his elder sister and noted painter Nasreen Mohamedi. Learn More

January 2022 marked an incredible culmination in the life and career of Madhvi Parekh whose journey began from a small village in western India and has taken her, against incredible odds, to the world’s most glittering cities and capitals on the strength of her art practice. At the Paris Haute Couture Week in January, audiences around the world saw Dior launch its new spring/ summer 2022 range against striking tapestries inspired by her paintings made over a six-decade career that has had no parallel in Indian art. Often extolled as a ‘woman’ painter, Madhvi Parekh’s art has never been premised on gender. Instead, she occupies an artistic realm with strong ethical values based on a sense of humanitarianism, environmental inclusion, and memory.

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Perhaps the least celebrated of the nine National Treasure artists of India, Sailoz Mookherjea was one of the earliest modern painters of the country, and also one of the earliest to study in Paris, in 1937.

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The son of a mechanical draughtsman, Mondal took to drawing and painting at the age of twelve when he injured his knee and was confined to bed. The Bengal famine of 1943 and the Calcutta communal riots of 1946 deeply impacted his psyche; he joined the Communist Party and became an activist. Mondal’s final refuge was art as the ultimate weapon of protest. Learn More

Born in Karachi, a year before it became part of Pakistan, Nalini Malani’s art, unsurprisingly, is built on observing the struggles and strife of people, socio-political changes, and how she observes this. More recently, the lockdown in India on account of the corona pandemic and its impact on migrant workers has impacted her work, even prompting her to post short animations on social media platforms. Learn More

One of the pioneers of surrealism in Indian modern art, Hemanta Misra was born in Sivasagar, Assam, on 13 October 1917. He went to school in his hometown and later studied at Cotton College, Guwahati, and St. Edmund’s, Shillong. As for the arts, he was self-taught, polishing his skills through a correspondence course with British artist John Hassal. Learn More

A seminal and well-known contemporary Indian sculptor, Dhruva Mistry’s art, in his own words, is a ‘dialogue of an artist as a maker pursuing enigma of an omnipresent consciousness’. Learn More

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