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At the turn of the twentieth century, Abanindranath Tagore asked himself if the emerging artists of modern India should continue to paint in the manner of their European colonizers; or was there a new path waiting to be forged? His answers led him to envision a pan-Asian cultural identity, spanning traditions from Persia to Japan, and culminating in a ‘new “Indian” art.’ Regarded as the founder of the Bengal School, Abanindranath left an unparalleled legacy both in terms of his own diverse body of work, and through his pupils, like Nandalal Bose, who shaped the contours of art across the subcontinent in the twentieth century.

Colonization is perhaps best understood as a process that unfolded over time than as a single historical event. In India and South Asia it began with the East India Company acquiring rights over land in different parts of the country, with the occasional political victories won on the battlefields. Since the Battle of Plassey (1757), their power over legislative and judicial matters grew steadily, backed by a strong military presence. Following the First War of Independence in 1857, the British Crown brought most parts of the Indian subcontinent under its direct rule, continuing to hold power until 1947.

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.

One of the most distinguished families in Bengal, the Tagores exercised unparalleled influence over the cultural landscape of the region. The Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), and two of his nephews, Gaganendranath Tagore (1867-1938) and Abanindranath Tagore (1871 - 1951) were recognised as India’s National Art Treasure artists. Sunayani Devi (1875 -1962), their sister, is regarded as one of modern India’s first women painters known by name. Her lyrical paintings and embroideries often looked inward to an imagined world of fables and myths. At the turn of the twentieth century, we see Abanindranath emerging as the founder of the Bengal School as he envisioned a new Indian art that was free of colonial influence, rooted in pan-Asianism. Gaganendranath, on the other hand, was a prolific satirist and cartoonist, who imagined new forms and perspectives inspired by Cubism. Together they formed the influential Indian Society of Oriental Art in 1907, while Rabindranath’s school and university at Santiniketan would continue to shape modern art in Bengal for generations to come.

The wash technique has come to be associated in India with the art of the Bengal School, but the story of its origins in India takes us back to an era of rich cultural exchanges. In the early twentieth century artists like Abanindranath Tagore were trying to imagine a pan-Asian cultural identity, and they turned for inspiration to traditions from across Persia to Japan. Rabindranath Tagore's friendship with Okakura Kakuzō occasioned the arrival of several Japanese artists in Kolkata, such as Yokoyama Taikan, Hishida Shunsō and Katsuta Shōkin. While the latter found inspiration in the Hindu epics, artists in Bengal adapted techniques that were used by the Japanese, such as the wash technique or the subtle use of ink and brush. Since then, the wash technique has been interpreted widely by individual artists, offering an ethereal quality of light to their works, or, in some cases, like for Gaganendranath Tagore and Prosanto Roy, new possibilities of painting in various shades of darkness.

Indian art defies any easily tailored silos to carve for itself a confident assertion of its own identity within a global context, while being a part of its larger assimilative journey. it is this rich legacy of Indian modernism that we hope to explore with The Centum Series which opens a window to the tantalising glimpse of the extraoridnary depth and breadth of its scope and variety. Akhilesh J. Sultan Ali Altaf Ambadas Amit Ambalal Amitava Anonymous (Early Bengal) Dattatraya Apte Radha Charan Bagchi Ramkinkar Baij S. K. Bakre Prabhakar Barwe R. B. Bhaskaran Jyoti Bhatt Natvar Bhavsar Bikash Bhattacharjee Nikhil Biswas Nandalal Bose Shobha Broota Sakti Burman Avinash Chandra Chittaprosad Jagmohan Chopra Bijan Choudhary Jogen Chowdhury Anita Roy Chowdhury D. P. Roy Chowdhury Thomas Daniell Haren Das Sunil Das

As with its history, trade, and culture, so with its art, India has always stood at the crossroads of assimilation, adaptation, change, and experimentation. Ancient and medieval art practices have informed her artists in the 20th century—a point when European and Asian movements found acceptance before being turned into a vibrant lexicon that has remained central to the pursuit of art in the subcontinent. Singapore

A close look at bus art with artist Sumantra Mukherjee as we join him on a walk through a bus depot, and a bus ride through the city where we try our hand at this popular visual language through paint and text. 

As in previous editions, ‘Iconic Masterpieces’ allows viewers to experience the pinnacles of Indian art through its lens of quality, historicity, and rarity—to which the element of surprise adds an unexpected piquancy. An ‘Iconic’ exhibition from DAG is like a museum tour where the best Indian art can be enjoyed through a lively and perceptive curatorial eye that acknowledges and helps extend our knowledge of it.

A photographic expedition around Kolkata with contemporary artist Surajit Mudi and his portable box camera and mobile studio.