Search results for: 'every saint has a past and every sinner has a future wallpaper'

Born on 25 April 1908, Prosanto Roy joined Brahmacharya Ashram at the age of thirteen, under Rabindranath Tagore’s tutelage. He took to art at a young age, copying the paintings of the great masters. After initial training in art under a European teacher, Roy joined the Tagore residence at Jorasanko in the 1920s. Groomed by Gaganendranath and Abanindranath Tagore, he worked on stage design and illustrated student magazines. Learn More

The search for abstraction in Indian art in the early years of Independence was born out of a desire among artists to attain an independent idiom of modernism. Rooted in the country’s philosophical and religious aesthetic, Prabhakar Kolte is among the leading practitioners engaged in this quest. A master of poetic and metaphysical abstractionism, Kolte received a diploma in painting from Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, in 1968. Initially, he freelanced as an illustrator, also working as a designer at Bombay Dyeing. Learn More

Born in Calcutta, Nikhil Biswas was an indefatigable art activist and a firm believer in collective action. A founder member of Calcutta Painters Group, Chitrangshu Group, and Society of Contemporary Artists, Calcutta, Biswas was committed to bringing about technical innovations as well as transformations in contemporary artistic thought. Learn More

Born in Gujarat to a family of farmers, Nagji Patel grew up making clay toys as part of playing with village children. He joined the painting course at Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University, Baroda, but eventually switched to sculpture, which he found less daunting than painting. He obtained an M.F.A. in sculpture in 1964 and in the same year won a travelling scholarship from the Government of India, which allowed him to visit quarries across the country and interact with stone carvers. Learn More

N. R. Sardesai was born in 1885 in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, and completed his early education at the Ratnagiri School of Industry. Here, he studied carpentry and drawing in 1906, before joining Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, for formal training in art. Thereafter, he began work as a drawing teacher in a school in Fort, Bombay. In 1915, he had a short stint as a drawing teacher at his alma mater too. Learn More

India’s first creatively trained printmaker and pioneer of dry point etching in the country, Mukul Chandra Dey was born on 23 July 1895 in Sridharkhola, Bengal. He joined Santiniketan’s Brahmacharya Ashram school at the age of eleven and trained in art under the Tagore family stalwarts, becoming a close associate of Abanindranath Tagore. Learn More

Moti Zharotia was born in Delhi and remembers taking impressions of patterns carved on potatoes in childhood as his earliest artistic activity. He loved creating works of art but dreamt of becoming a lawyer, and therefore graduated in political science from Delhi University. 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

A dynamic artist, intellectual, and educator, L. Munuswamy was a prominent practitioner within the Madras Art Movement who made abstraction a personal language in his artistic vocabulary. What made his works appealing was the international character, his individualistic vision and single-minded pursuit in his artistic endeavours. 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

Born on 12 March 1934 in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, Jyoti Bhatt studied painting and printmaking at M. S. University, Baroda. Inspired by his mentor, artist K. G. Subramanyan, Bhatt explored the academic divide between art and craft. Learn More

Born in Bombay, Jitish Kallat’s earliest memory of art was of helping his elder sister as a five-year-old for a drawing in her biology book. By the time he was in his mid-teens, he was, in his own words, ‘persistently and obsessively drawing’. Kallat secured a degree in fine arts in 1996 from Sir J. J. School of Art. An internationally acclaimed artist, his work includes painting, photography, collages, sculpture, installations, and multimedia. Learn More