The grandnephew of the well-known sculptor V. P. Karmakar, and the son of an artist who worked in Bombay film studios, Prabhakar Barwe was born on 16 March 1936 in Nagaon, Maharashtra. He joined Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, in 1954. Learn More
The grandnephew of the well-known sculptor V. P. Karmakar, and the son of an artist who worked in Bombay film studios, Prabhakar Barwe was born on 16 March 1936 in Nagaon, Maharashtra. He joined Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, in 1954. Learn More
Born in Bombay, Pestonji E. Bomanji joined Sir J. J. School of Art at the age of thirteen. While there, the principal, John Griffiths, identified his talent and appointed him a draughtsman on an expedition to the Ajanta caves in 1872, which he came to head in 1880. Though Bomanji initially wanted to be a sculptor, his interest in portraiture was triggered after 1877, when Griffiths recommended him as an apprentice to Valentine Prinsep, a visiting artist; he went on to train under John Lockwood Kipling. Learn More
Born in Karimnagar district in undivided Andhra Pradesh, Thota Vaikuntam is known for powerfully-delineated and brightly-coloured portraits of robust men and women of the Telangana region where he grew up. He studied at College of Fine Arts, Hyderabad, from 1965-70, before training under K. G. Subramanyan at M. S. University, Baroda, in 1971-72, on a Lalit Kala Akademi fellowship. Learn More
Hailing from Tripura, Dharmanarayan Dasgupta remained almost entirely within the fold of the Calcutta art world throughout his life. He trained at Santiniketan, from where he received his diploma in fine arts in 1961. Learn More
Modernist sculptor Amar Nath Sehgal was one of the earliest Indian artists to take legal action under the Indian Copyright Act defending his moral right over his work. In 1957, Sehgal created a mural for Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, on a government commission, which was pulled down without his permission or any intimation in 1979. Sehgal went to court and won the lawsuit. Learn More
Born in Graz, Austria, Walter Langhammer came to India in the 1930s with his wife Käthe Urbäch, escaping Nazi Germany like other refugees. Some media reports suggest that British authorities had arrested the couple on their arrival in India till a friend, noted art critic Rudolf von Leyden, came to their rescue. Learn More
A founder-member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, Sadanandji K. Bakre was born in Baroda, Gujarat, on 10 November 1920. He obtained a diploma in modelling and stone carving from Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, following which he was a pilot with the Air Force during the Second World War. Learn More
Born on 31 October 1958 in Bangalore, Rekha Rodwittiya is an artist aligned with the Baroda School whose work engages with gender politics, socio-political subjugation, human degradation, violence and discrimination, all filtered through the prism of self-questioning. Learn More
Born in 1936 in New Delhi, Rajendra Dhawan studied at the Polytechnic (later renamed College of Art) from 1953-58, and at Belgrade in erstwhile Yugoslavia from 1960-62. While in New Delhi, he became a founding member of the group called The Unknown that survived from 1960-64. Learn More
Possibly the most popular academic Indian artist after Raja Ravi Varma, M. V. Dhurandhar was born in Kolhapur. An early interest in drawing led his father to admit him to Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, where he received special encouragement from its principal, John Griffiths. Learn More