Search results for: 'indian art pre independence'

Rabin Mondal is like a striding colossus of our times, scorching up the firmament with images that reflect societal malaise and his own inner turmoil. His determination to paint in a market-unfriendly manner is characteristic of his resolve. His canvases provide no safety net for the unwary viewer. Here is a confident artist aware of his self and his role with no fig leaf to offer those seeking beauty in art—not that his work is unbeautiful.

Continuing its theme of introducing Indian abstractionists at Art Dubai, DAG handpicked works by eight eminent abstract artists and juxtaposed them to bring into focus how brushwork and colour are imbued with emotion and can compel viewers to spend hours studying such works. The artists presented by DAG at Art Dubai 2018—Ambadas, Sohan Qadri, Natvar Bhavsar, Avinash Chandra, Rajendra Dhawan, Shanti Dave, Ram Kumar and S. H. Raza—worked in different styles but their use of vivid colours highlighted this somewhat neglected genre of art in India that has begun to enjoy a premium in recent years. These artists had their studios in different parts of the world—Copenhagen, Oslo, New York, Paris, London, New Delhi—but had one thing in common: they were all of Indian origin and had trained and begun their careers in India. AMBADAS SOHAN QADRI NATVAR BHAVSAR AVINASH CHANDRA SHANTI DAVE G. R. SANTOSH J. SWAMINATHAN RAM KUMAR JERAM PATEL RAJENDRA DHAWAN K. V. HARIDASAN

The exhibition brings together important and unusual works of art that span a wide range of genres, forms, periods and styles. They are grouped by genre, of abstract art, figurative art, landscape art, portraiture and still-life. Each thematic arrangement features a select collection of artworks from the artist’s mature period, several of which are of substantial art historical significance. Ambadas S. K. Bakre Avinash Chandra V. S. Gaitonde Ganesh Haloi Hemanta Misra Jeram Patel Sohan Qadri S. H. Raza Krishna Reddy G. R. Santosh Laxman Shreshtha Figurative J. Sultan Ali A. A. Almelkar Amitava Radha Charan Bagchi Bikash Bhattacharjee Nikhil Biswas Sakti Burman Chittaprosad Bijan Choudhary Prodosh Das Gupta Dharamnarayan Dasgupta Biren De S. Dhanpal M. V. Dhurandhar Shyamal Dutta Ray Early Bengal (Anonymous) K. Laxma Goud Satish Gujral M. F. Husain Kalighat Pat (Anonymous) Prokash Karmakar George Keyt Krishen Khanna P. Khemraj K. S. Kulkarni Ram Kumar Kshitindranath Majumdar Tyeb Mehta Anjolie Ela Menon Rabin Mondal M. Reddappa Naidu Badri Narayan Navjot Laxman Pai Gogi Saroj Pal Gieve Patel Ganesh Pyne Ravi Varma School (Anonymous) P. T. Reddy Jamini Roy Paritosh Sen Sunil Madhav Sen B. Vithal Landscape Akbar Padamsee Kisory Roy F. N. Souza J. Swaminathan Portraits Anonymous Jyoti Bhatt Sankho Chaudhuri Jogen Chowdhury Sunil Das Olinto Ghilardi Surendran Nair M. F. Pithawalla A. A. Raiba Himmat Shah Rabindranath Tagore Still-life K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar B. Prabha Jehangir Sabavala S. G. Thakur singh

Spanning five decades of her painterly career, this retrospective includes iconic works by Madhvi Parekh which represent every phase of her illustrious career. The show also includes rare drawings and paintings from the 1960s, when the influence of Paul Klee’s abstraction on her early work was evident. Given the solid representation of Parekh’s paintings from every decade, the exhibition allows viewers to see the continuity in her vision and focus.

The exhibition features several works of academic realist portraiture from early 20th century—vivid oil portraits by masters of the form such as Pestonji Bomanji, M. F. Pithawalla, Baburao Painter and L. N. Taskar as well as charcoal sketches by M. V. Dhurandhar, an academic artist of renown of the same period. The selection features Western academic oil-influenced works on mythological themes by the school referred to as Early Bengal and two works painted in a Raja Ravi Varma-derived style—an anonymous work by the Ravi Varma ‘School’ and Aroomoogam Pillay. A. A. Almelkar Abalall Rahiman Abani Sen Akbar Padamsee Ambadas Anonymous (EarlyBengal) Anonymous (Portraiture ) Anupam Sud Aroomoogam Pillay Avinash Chandra Baburao Painter Badri Narayan Bijan Choudhary Bikash Bhattacharjee Biren De Chintamoni Kar Chittaprosad D. P. Roy Chowdhury Devyani Krishna Dharamnarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh G. Ravinder Reddy Ganesh Haloi Gogi Saroj Pal Gopal Ghose H. A. Gade Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali J. Swaminathan Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury Jyoti Bhatt K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni K. V. Haridasan Kshitindranath Majumdar L. Munuswamy L. N. Taskar Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. F. Pithawalla M. V. Dhurandhar Madhvi Parekh Mukul Dey N. S. Bendre Nandalal Bose Nasreen Mohammedi Nicholas Roerich Nikhil Biswas P. Khemraj P. T. Reddy Paritosh Sen Pestonji E. Bomanji Prosanto Roy Rabin Mondal Ram Kumar Ramkinkar Baij Ravi Varma ‘School’ S. H. Raza S. K. Bakre Sadequain Sailoz Mukherjea Shanti Dave Shyamal Dutta Ray Sohan Qadri Sudhir Patwardhan Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Tarak Garai Ved Nayar Walter Langhammer

At the three-day show, DAG will present Celebrating the Modern, an ode to the vibrancy of Indian art with a hand-picked selection that guides us through the development of Indian modernism through diverse movements and genres—a tribute to its appeal that has extended beyond time to be part of a distinctive global language.

The midwestern city of Chicago hosts one of America’s most important art fairs—Expo Chicago—in which DAG participated in an attempt to introduce Indian moderns to the diaspora there as well as to art-lovers in general. To introduce art to this midwestern population, DAG picked on well-established names from the Indian art marquee. This included the National Treasure artist Jamini Roy whose works outside India are a rarity since they cannot be exported. Others included the Progressives F. N. Souza and M. F. Husain, New York-based printmakers Krishna Reddy and Zarina Hashmi (both now deceased) and artist Natvar Bhavsar, abstractionists Sohan Qadri and G. R. Santosh, a rare sculpture by Prodosh Das Gupta, and a body of other modernists representing the diverse range of works created by Indian artists in the twentieth century. A suite of small format watercolour landscapes by Bireswar Sen was a highlight of the booth. Avinash Chandra Bireswar Sen Chittaprosad F N Souza F N Souza G R Santosh Ganesh Pyne Jamini Roy K.S Kulkarni Krishna Reddy Laxman Pai M F Husain Madhvi Parekh Natvar Bhavsar Paritosh Sen Prodosh Das Gupta Rabin Mondal Sohan Qadri Zarina Hashmi

On the thirtieth year of DAG’s presence in the Indian art landscape, we are especially delighted to share with our readers the first issue of our Journal. DAG has upheld a high quality of research through exhibitions and publications that have shaped how people understand Indian modern art. Through this journal, we want to keep those discussions going and point towards newer ways to approach the period of modernism—joining the dots that lead those significant artistic breakthroughs into the contemporary. We also want to create a space where readers can gain privileged access into the people and organizations who works around the clock to keep the art world ticking.  

The fifth edition in the Manifestations series continues the tradition of showcasing the very best of Indian modern art. Seventy-five artists feature in Manifestations 5, bringing together the country’s best known and most established modern artists. To reduce the work of one whole century (give or take a few decades more or less) could be flawed, for this most dynamic period in Indian art history covers many genres, styles, mediums, and influences, and is difficult to paraphrase, especially in the absence of a theme for the collection. It is for this reason that the selection has to be incisive, open to change till the very end, where the addition, or deletion, can change the contextual bird’s eye-view we hope to provide in every series. The exhibition is accompanied by our traditional publication that helps to create a comprehensive understanding about the exhibition’s curatorial decisions. A. H. Muller Altaf Ambadas Amit Ambalal Amitava Arpita Singh Avinash Chandra Badri Narayan Bhupen Khakhar Bikash Bhattacharjee Bimal Dasgupta Biren De Bireswar Sen C. Douglas Chintamani Kar Chittaprosad D. P. Roy Chowdhury Dhanraj Bhagat Dharamnarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Ganesh Haloi Ganesh Pyne Gogi Saroj Pal Gopal Ghose Himmat Shah Indra Dugar J. C. Seal J. Sultan Ali J. Swaminathan Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury Jyoti Bhatt K. C. S. Panicker K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni Krishen Khanna Kshitindranath Majumdar L. Munuswamy Lalu Prasad Shaw Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. V. Dhurandhar Nandalal Bose Navjot Nikhil Biswas P. Khemraj Paritosh Sen Partha Pratim Deb Prabhakar Barwe Prodosh Das Gupta Prokash Karmakar Prosanto Roy Rabin Mondal Rabindranath Tagore Rameshwar Broota Ramkinkar Baij Rekha Rodwittiya S. H. Raza S. L. Haldankar Satish Gujral Shobha Broota Sohan Qadri Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Surendran Nair V. S. Gaitonde Vasudha Thozhur Ved Nayar Viswanadhan Vivan Sundaram Zarina Hashmi

Ghare Baire was a museum-exhibition showcasing over 200 years of art in Bengal. Presented by DAG in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Archaeological Survey of India, the exhibition was housed at the historic Currency Building, across twelve galleries featuring over 700 artworks. The exhibition was the largest showcase of Bengal Art, presenting a panoramic view of the evolution of art in a region that has been critical to the development of Indian modern art. The exhibition starts with the arrival of the travelling European artists at a time of exchange between Bengal and the world. This confluence of cultures stimulated new visual languages as we see in the Kalighat pat,  the Bengal School, and the subsequent emergence of artists who fearlessly and freely experimented with form and subject, reshaping the trajectory of art in India.