Search results for: 'nightcap no faith in the dolphin'

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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

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Shown at the Shanghai Biennale, exhibited in New York, widely admired for his consistency throughout his career, Rabin Mondal’s excoriating paintings are a savage indictment of social and political ills. A reticent, reserved artist, Mondal’s works offer a scathing commentary on the pursuit and abuse of power. A primal, primordial figuration describes his work in which people in positions of authority are rendered vulnerable because of the very power they aspire to. Their contorted features and clawed hands and feet represent their venality. Strong outlines, naked brushstrokes and potent use of green and red characterise most his work.

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Born in 1902 in Tripura, Ramendranath Chakravorty went to the Government College of Art in Calcutta in 1919 but left it in 1921 to join the newly founded Kala Bhavana at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. Soon after graduation, he began his teaching career, first at Kalashala at Andhra National Art Gallery in Machilipatnam, and then at Kala Bhavana. He then joined Government School of Art, Calcutta, as a teacher in 1929, when Mukul Dey, the pioneer of dry point etching in India, was its principal. In 1943-46, Chakravorty was the school’s officiating principal when he set up its graphics department. Eventually, he became the school principal in 1949. Learn More

An artist whose eponymously named art institution groomed some important Indian modern artists such as Ram Kumar and J. Swaminathan, Sarada Charan Ukil was an early pioneer of the Bengal School. Born on 14 November 1888 in Bikrampur near present-day Dhaka, Ukil shifted later to Calcutta with his family and studied at the city’s Government Art School under Abanindranath Tagore. Learn More

Jogesh Chandra Seal was an active member of the enthusiastic art scene of Calcutta in the early decades of the twentieth century. However, due to his short life of thirty-one years, he could not leave behind a comprehensive body of work. His academic oil paintings, Untitled (Disappointed), 1919, and Lady Lighting a Diya, 1921, have recently appeared at international auctions, bringing spotlight on this accomplished artist who was closely associated with the values of the Bengal School of painting. Learn More

Born in Dacca (now Dhaka) in present-day Bangladesh, Suhas Roy had a difficult childhood after the early demise of his father. Yet, he pursued his passion for the arts with the support of his mother and studied at Indian College of Arts and Draughtsmanship, Calcutta, where he would eventually return as college principal. Learn More

Born in New Delhi on 4 June 1961, Subba Ghosh has carved a niche for himself with art that overturns reality to show a mirror to society’s lived hyperreality, through paintings, prints, animation, installations, puppets, and video art. Ghosh’s mirror throws not just a passive light on reality but also makes a critical, political comment on issues such as the relationship between the state and its subjects. Learn More

The most definitive painter of the portraits of the Sikh gurus, Sobha Singh was born on 29 November 1901 at Gurdaspur in the Punjab. Interested in the arts since childhood, he learnt to draw and sculpt on his own, the early death of his parents depriving him of formal training in art. He joined the British Indian army as a draughtsman and continued to learn from studying the works of English and European artists. Learn More

Born on 15 August 1894 in the north Calcutta neighbourhood of Nather Bagan, Satish Sinha showed an aptitude for the arts since childhood. He enrolled at the Government School of Art at the age of eighteen as a pupil of Abanindranath Tagore. However, he had to give up studying within three years due to his father’s death. He joined an insurance company as an agent to earn his livelihood but continued to study painting privately. Learn More

One of India’s most seminal modernists, Syed Haider Raza was born on 22 February 1922 in Mandla, Madhya Pradesh, and forged a new language of art by integrating Indian symbolism with Western expression. A student of Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay (1943-47), and one of the first members of the Progressive Artists’ Group, the turning point of his career was his journey to Paris in 1950 on a French government scholarship to study at École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 1956, he became the first non-French artist to win the critic’s award, the Prix de la critique.

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Born in Devakottai in Tamil Nadu, Rm. Palaniappan often incorporates the syntax of the sciences such as diagrammatic notations, and symbols, in his work. The memory of the first sight of the earth from above, while on a flight, also appears frequently in the form of maps, grids, and aerial terrain. Another important trope in his works has been imagery associated with the flying machine, inspired by his fascination with Second World War cinema. Learn More