Born in Baler in Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur district in 1905, Ramgopal Vijaivargiya developed a keen interest in painting at an early age, initiated by a wandering sadhu of the Ram Snehi sect. He joined Maharaja School of Art and Craft in Jaipur, where Asit Kumar Haldar was principal. Learn More
A graduate of Delhi College of Art, Rameshwar Broota has been an art teacher throughout his career. He was a lecturer at his alma mater before moving to Jamia Millia Islamia University and then Sarda Ukil College, eventually taking over as head of department at Triveni Kala Sangam, a position he has held since 1984. Learn More
Ram Kumar was born in Simla on 23 September 1924. Completing his master’s in economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, he attended evening classes at Sarada Ukil School of Art, where he learnt the ‘Western style’ of painting under Sailoz Mookherjea. Learn More
Born in Sylhet district of present-day Bangladesh, Partha Pratim Deb trained under Ramkinkar Baij and Benode Behari Mukherjee at Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, from where he graduated in 1966. He then took a post diploma from M. S. University, Baroda, in 1968. Learn More
Globally renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray called his photographer Nemai Ghosh ‘Boswell with a camera, instead of a pen’. Just like James Boswell’s biography of English writer Samuel Johnson is considered the finest in the language, Ghosh’s photo-biography of his mentor is one of the finest photo essays on a legend’s life; Ghosh was Ray’s photographer from 1968 until Ray’s death in 1992. 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
India’s first creatively trained printmaker and pioneer of dry point etching in the country, Mukul Chandra Dey was born on 23 July 1895 in Sridharkhola, Bengal. He joined Santiniketan’s Brahmacharya Ashram school at the age of eleven and trained in art under the Tagore family stalwarts, becoming a close associate of Abanindranath Tagore. Learn More
Born in Dhuri, Punjab, Manjit Bawa was encouraged by his brothers to pursue art and he studied at Delhi Polytechnic from 1958-63 under eminent artist-teachers Somnath Hore, Dhanraj Bhagat, B. C. Sanyal, and Abani Sen. He moved to England in 1964, where he worked as a silkscreen printmaker and studied at London School of Painting. Learn More
Madhvi Parekh was born and raised in Sanjaya, a village in Gujarat. Though she is self-taught and took up painting only in 1964, inspired by her artist-husband Manu Parekh, art remained a part of her consciousness through childhood memories, her family’s rituals such as the traditional floor designs of rangoli, popular folk stories, and simple village life. While expecting their first child, Parekh’s husband gifted her a book on drawing exercises by Paul Klee, and soon she was taking the first steps towards creating her own art vocabulary. Learn More
Born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, M. K. Parandekar was a prolific painter—he made panoramic views of archaeological sites, landscapes and portraits. His initial training was under his father, a Sanskrit scholar and painter, and he followed that up with formal study at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay. Learn More
Born into a family of artists in Lahore on 21 September 1897, M. Abdur Rahman Chughtai learnt to draw from his father, Mia Karim Baksh. He joined Mayo School of Art in Lahore in 1911, where Samarendranath Gupta, a pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, was vice-principal. He obtained a diploma in photo lithography from Mayo School in 1914, where he went on to become the head instructor in chromo-lithography. He honed his printmaking skills during visits to London in the mid-1930s and exhibited his works across Europe; he also exhibited with Indian Society of Oriental Art in Calcutta around this time. Learn More
Born in Margao, Goa, on 21 January 1926, Laxman Pai studied and later taught at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay. He participated in Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement against the British rule that led to his imprisonment. Later, he participated in the movement to liberate Goa from centuries of Portuguese rule. Learn More