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William Hodges (1744-97) was a pioneer in more ways than one. He was the first British landscape painter to visit India, and to portray scenery across the whole breadth of the Gangetic plain. As a writer, he gave the first detailed descriptions of numerous historic Indian buildings, and he theorised about the origins and evolution of Indian architectural design. His art illustrates his exploration into terrain which—in its breadth and scope—was at the time almost as unfamiliar to Indian as to Western eyes.

He was the colossus of the Indian art world whose reign over twentieth-century modern art remains unparalleled. M. F. Husain (1913-2011) was the face of Indian modernism and owned it completely. Having started out as a painter of billboards in Bombay, he became its unchallenged monarch as a member of the influential Progressive Artists’ Group in 1947. He claimed the first National Award instituted by the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1955, and went on to become India’s most celebrated artist. In a practice that spanned over seventy years, Husain was playful, experimental, provocative, controversial—but never mediocre.

The Madras Art Movement that emerged in the early 1960s was a late phenomenon of modernity in south India within the national context. It developed as a regional phenomenon that began to take shape from the mid-1950s onwards as a search for authenticity in modernism derived largely from the region’s cultural heritage. D. P. ROY CHOWDHURY A P SANTHANARAJ ACHUTHAN KUDALLUR AKKITHAM NARAYANAN ALPHONSO DOSS C DOUGLAS C J ANTHONY DOSS J. SULTAN ALI K C S PANIKER K M ADIMOOLAM K RAMANUJAM K SREENIVASULU K V HARIDASAN L MUNUSWAMY M SENATHIPATI M SURYAMOORTHY P GOPINATH P PERUMAL P S NANDHAN PANEER SELVAM R B BHASKARAN REDDEPPA NAIDU Rm. PALANIAPPAN S G VASUDEV S. DHANAPAL S. NANDAGOPAL V. VISWANADHAN VIDYASHANKAR STHAPATI

From 1797, when British artist Thomas Daniell painted his masterly landscape of Mahabalipuram, to 2003, the year Rameshwar Broota's painting pitching man against metal resulted in a powerful image, the Indian art world has seen a succession of artists and movements that have enriched its vocabulary in more ways than one. Thomas Daniell Sita Ram Early Bengal School Raja Ravi Varma Edwin Lord Weeks Marius Bauer Ustad Allah Bakhsh Studio of Bourne & Shepherd M. V. Dhurandhar Hemendranath Mazumdar M. A. R. Chughtai Nandalal Bose Jamini Roy Laxman Pai J. Swaminathan Francis Newton Souza J. Sultan Ali Rabin Mondal S. H. Raza K. K. Hebbar Akbar Padamsee Tyeb Mehta K. H. Ara S. K. Bakre Bireswar Sen Nirode Mazumdar Shanti Dave Gulam Rasool Santosh Madhvi Parekh Satish Gujral Bikash Bhattacharjee Maqbool Fida Husain Meera Mukherjee Rameshwar Broota

England shaped Altaf’s political consciousness as well as his persona. He engaged in the anti-apartheid demonstration at Trafalgar Square held against the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela; a peaceful protest at the American Embassy opposing the bombing in North Vietnam; the Aldermaston March against the nuclear bomb; the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; he became a member of the Youth Wing of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Young Communist League (YCL). Any examination of the theoretical aspect of Altaf’s work must start with the knowledge that the work in question exemplified an element of ‘existentialist’ thought. 

Photographer Nemai Ghosh has been the quintessential Satyajit Ray biographer through his decades-long close association with the master filmmaker. Over a lifetime of work, he has built up a vast and valuable photographic archive, now housed at DAG.

Among all attempts by foreign artists to present a complete view of India, none is so focused on people as the work of François Baltazard Solvyns, who lived in Calcutta for a decade starting in 1791. While picking up odd jobs, he embarked on an ambitious project to produce a comprehensive survey of ‘the manners, customs, and dresses, of the Hindus’. The first edition contained 250 hand-coloured etchings and was published by Solvyns between 1796 and 1799.

The 1960s was a period of immense change around the world, and it had deep ramifications on India’s socio-political scenario. The country had left behind the jubilation of Independence and was feeling the pinch of a nation grappling with the issues of development that impacted society and environment. A war with China in 1962 and Pakistan in 1965 had far-reaching implications on the national psyche— the first of shame, the latter of pride. Crippling shortages and unemployment were impacting life, even as the country’s success with the Green Revolution was directed at self-sufficiency. Migration from the villages to urban centres was increasing. Disparities—economic, gender or class—provided fertile ground for the alienation of the other. The more anglicised among the youth found themselves being drawn into the vortex of a global hippie movement. A. A. RAIBA AMBADAS ANUPAM SUD AVINASH CHANDRA BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE BIMAL DASGUPTA DHANRAJ BHAGAT F. N. SOUZA G. R. SANTOSH HIMMAT SHAH J. SULTAN ALI J. SWAMINATHAN JAMINI ROY JERAM PATEL JOGEN CHOWDHURY JYOTI BHATT K. G. SUBRAMANYAN K. LAXMA GOUD KRISHEN KHANNA LAXMAN PAI M. F. HUSAIN MADHVI PAREKH P. T. REDDY PARITOSH SEN PRABHAKAR BARWE PRODOSH DASGUPTA PROKASH KARMAKAR RABIN MONDAL RAM KUMAR RAMESHWAR BROOTA S. H. RAZA S. K. BAKRE SAKTI BURMAN SATISH GUJRAL SHANTI DAVE SOHAN QADRI SOMNATH HORE SUNIL DAS ZARINA HASHMI

The 1970s was a decade like no other for a young India gaining in confidence nationally as well as on the global firmament. In 1971, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi led the country to a decisive victory against Pakistan, leading to the creation of Bangladesh. The Green Revolution had borne fruit, and Operation Flood now launched a milk revolution in the country, and the culmination of the privy purse turned it into a socialist republic with a strong handle on its economic button. Internationally, much was made of India’s resilience, and the country’s soft power began to win it recognition for its films, fashion, food and culture. India had arrived. ALTAF AMBADAS AMITAVA AVINASH CHANDRA BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE BIREN DE BIRESWAR SEN ERIC BOWEN F. N. SOUZA G. R. SANTOSH GANESH HALOI GOGI SAROJ PAL INDRA DUGAR J. SULTAN ALI J. SWAMINATHAN K C S PANIKER K. K. HEBBAR K. LAXMA GOUD KRISHNA REDDY LAXMAN PAI M. F. HUSAIN MADHVI PAREKH NAVJOT ALTAF P. T. REDDY PARITOSH SEN PRABHAKAR BARWE PRODOSH DASGUPTA PROKASH KARMAKAR RABIN MONDAL RAJENDRA DHAWAN RAM KUMAR S G VASUDEV SATISH GUJRAL SHANTI DAVE SHYAMAL DUTTA RAY SOHAN QADRI TYEB MEHTA V. VISWANADHAN ZARINA HASHMI

Landscape art arrived in India through travelling European artists who brought the aesthetic of painting mountains, rivers and trees against the sky and a distant horizon—nature as a subject in itself —to Indian art, where it had traditionally only formed a backdrop in narrative-driven, figural paintings. The genre remained popular throughout the nineteenth century with a great demand for landscapes of India both in Europe and among the newly anglicised elite in India. Its popularity began to wane with the advent of modernism and a growing emphasis on the human figure, but several Indian artists, a significant name among them Gopal Ghose, continued to practice the form, now absorbing a wide range of new artistic trends and influences. A.A. Almelkar Abanindranath Tagore Ambika Dhurandhar Amitava Anonymous (Company School) Anonymous (Early Bengal) Atul Bose Avinash Chandra B. C. Gue B. N. Arya Bhupen Khakhar Bijan Choudhary Bikash Bhattcharjee Bimal Dasgupta Bireswar Sen Bishnupada Roychowdhury Chittaprosad D. C. Joglekar D. J. Joshi Devraj Dakoji Devyani Krishna Dharamnarayan Dasgupta Dulal Gue E. A. Dadi Edward Cheney F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh G. S. Haldankar Ganesh Haloi Gobardhan Ash Gopal Ghose H. A. Gade Haren Das Hirachand Dugar Indra Dugar J. P. Gangooly Jamini Roy John Deschamps Jyoti Bhatt K H. Ara K. C. S. Panicker K. K. Hebba K. Laxma Gou K. S. Kulkarni Kanwal Krishna Kisory Roy Kripal Singh Shekhawat L. N. Taskar L. P. Shaw Lalit Mohan Sen Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. V. Dhurandhar Manishi Dey Mukul Dey N. R. Sardesai N. S. Bendre Nandalal Bose Nikhil Biswas Olinto Ghilardi P. Khemraj Paramjit Singh Pestonji E. Bomanji Prokash Karmakar Prosanto Roy Radha Charan Bagchi Raja Ravi Varma Ram Kumar Ramendranath Chakravorty Ramkinkar Baij Ranen Ayan Dutta Richard Barron Robert Grindlay S. G. Thakur Singh S. K. Bakre S. L. Haldankar Satish Sinha Sudhir Khastgir Sunil Das Thomas Daniell William Carpenter William Hodges

It is strange that Natvar Bhavsar, one of Indian art’s leading names, should never have been shown in India before. Having lived and worked in USA from 1962 onwards, it remains a mystery why his work has been seen in America but almost not at all in India. In spite of a few eminent collectors who have his work, Bhavsar has remained inexplicably ignored—an anomaly DAG is happy to correct with this seminal exhibition.