Known for his portraits and landscapes rendered in academic-realist style, V. B. Pathare studied painting under S. L. Haldankar in Bombay and Prof. Martin Latuterburg in Bern, Switzerland. After studying portraiture under the renowned Sir Charles Dugdale in London, Pathare painted portraits of several national leaders over time, from Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule to Indira Gandhi and Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad of Baroda. Learn More
Born into a family of painters in Kolhapur, Vasant Anant Mali studied art professionally at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, in the 1920s. It was here that he grasped the nuances of painting through academic realism. Working mostly in the medium of watercolour and oil, Mali keenly observed how some of his teachers, including Walter Langhammer, worked with various tools and applied bold brushstrokes with knife. Mali’s work had a forcefulness, a depth that was unique and could be seen, particularly, in portraits done by him. Learn More
Born in Onkkoor, Kerala, Surendran Nair graduated in painting from College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum, in 1982, and studied printmaking from M. S. University, Baroda, in 1986. Nair began his art practice with strongly realist pen and ink drawings, etchings and lithographs, and commemorated people from his immediate surroundings or literary heroes in his portraiture. Learn More
One of India’s most important post-modernist painters, Sunil Das is known for his iconic drawings and paintings of horses and bulls. He rose to prominence early when he became the only Indian artist to win the Lalit Kala Akademi’s national award while still an undergraduate student, in 1959. Learn More
Shobha Broota’s pictorial interpretation of the resonance of classical Indian ragas forms the essence of her celebrated style in which she conveys their subtle variations through minimal use of colours. Born in 1943 in New Delhi in an artistic family that inspired her to study art, Broota obtained a diploma in painting from College of Art, New Delhi, in 1964. Learn More
S. L. Haldankar was born in Sawantwadi, a princely state in the Bombay Presidency of the British Raj, or present-day Maharashtra. His talent for the arts was spotted by his school headmaster and Haldankar received a scholarship to study at Sir J. J. School of Art, from where he took a diploma in painting in 1903. Learn More
Born in 1899 in the village of Verka near Amritsar, S. G. Thakar Singh showed early aptitude for the arts by drawing on the walls of his home with coal. With no formal training, he went on to excel in the academic style of painting, rendering stunning landscapes, portraits and still-lifes. He apprenticed under local artist Mohd. Alam and moved with him to Bombay when the latter found a job as a stage artist with a theatre company. Learn More
Prokash Karmakar learnt painting at his father, artist-teacher Prahlad Karmakar’s atelier, till the socio-political turmoil of the 1940s and his father’s early death put an end to it. After his matriculation, Karmakar joined Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta, but quit soon thereafter for reasons of poverty. In between, he designed book covers and worked as an illustrator for his livelihood; he even joined the army but absconded after two years, driven by his desire to paint. Learn More
The search for abstraction in Indian art in the early years of Independence was born out of a desire among artists to attain an independent idiom of modernism. Rooted in the country’s philosophical and religious aesthetic, Prabhakar Kolte is among the leading practitioners engaged in this quest. A master of poetic and metaphysical abstractionism, Kolte received a diploma in painting from Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, in 1968. Initially, he freelanced as an illustrator, also working as a designer at Bombay Dyeing. Learn More
An early Indian abstractionist who forged his own vocabulary, distinct from the dominant forces that gripped India’s art community in the early years of Independence, Piraji Sagara came to be known for his collages made of wood relief amalgamated with abstract paintings. Learn More
Hailing from an artistic family based in Bombay, P. Khemraj was fascinated with manifestations of all things fine in every aspect of life. On completion of his training in drawing and painting at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, Khemraj, a fine violinist, left for New Delhi to learn the sitar from Pandit Ravi Shankar. Learn More
Born in Shivpur Diyar in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, Muni Singh studied at College of Art, Lucknow. In 1963, he received formal training in fresco-making from Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan. A contemporary of Badri Nath Arya, R. S. Bisht, and Sanat Chatterjee, Singh’s preferred medium was watercolour. He mastered the miniature style of painting—Mughal, Rajput, and Pahari—and translated it into his own idiom and technique. Learn More