Search results for: 'm.f. husain's indian household art impact'

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N. R. Sardesai was born in 1885 in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, and completed his early education at the Ratnagiri School of Industry. Here, he studied carpentry and drawing in 1906, before joining Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, for formal training in art. Thereafter, he began work as a drawing teacher in a school in Fort, Bombay. In 1915, he had a short stint as a drawing teacher at his alma mater too. Learn More

Born Gulam Rasool Dar in a Shia Muslim family in Srinagar in Kashmir on 20 June 1929, the artist took on his wife’s Hindu name ‘Santosh’ as his own, in a move opposing patriarchy and religion. His father’s death forced a young Gulam to work as a signboard painter, papier-mâché artist, and weaver. He learnt to paint watercolour landscapes from Dina Nath Raina in Kashmir before studying under N. S. Bendre at M. S. University, Baroda, on the recommendation of S. H. Raza. In Baroda, he produced a large body of figurative and landscape works, mainly in the cubist style. Learn More

An influential artist who is known for her richly detailed oils and watercolours, Arpita Singh was born in Calcutta in 1937. She studied art at Delhi Polytechnic (now College of Art) from 1954-59, and then joined the Government of India’s cottage industries restoration programme in 1959, which allowed her to meet weavers and artisans. 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

Are the histories of art and fashion distinct from each other? Even a cursory glimpse at the contemporary art landscape—on view during occasions such as the India Art Fair, 2023—tells us otherwise. Fabrics, textiles and weaving practices are being increasingly incorporated into the body of works produced by artists today. They bring with them a host of connotations, historical narratives and sensorial memories that working with other media does not. Uthra Rajgopal, a curator and collection adviser for museums, spoke with DAG briefly on the practice of collecting textiles for museums, their historical significance as artworks as well as trading commodities from South Asia, and how contemporary artists are responding to this complex colonial legacy through their own interventions.  

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Chittaprosad (1915 – 1978) was an artist of the people. A firm believer in the power of political art to bring tangible change in society, he is remembered for political cartoons and caricatures lampooning the ruling elite while championing the cause of the working class.

He was also a dedicated journalist working for the Communist Party of India (CPI) and was sent by the party to document the effects of the Great Bengal Famine of 1943 in Bengal’s villages and towns. He would come back with harrowing stories and sketches of hunger and death and publish them in the CPI’s journal People’s War, something that would prove to be extremely important in the face of British censorship on news about the famine.

Post-Independence, Chittaprosad distanced himself from the CPI due to ideological differences and moved to the outskirts of Bombay. He continued registering protest through his art but focussed increasingly on art for children. He setup a puppet studio, Khela-ghar and created beautiful retellings of epics and folk tales in print.

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Have you wondered how people looked at paintings and photographs in the nineteenth century? For DAG’s annual Heritage Festival ‘The City as a Museum’, we explored various aspects of the city’s visual culture. As we are about to launch the DAG Journal let us revisit the walk co-led by Sarbajit Mitra and Amreeta Das at the Uttarpara Jaykrishna public library to delve into the periodical archive and trace the evolution of printed pictures in India. Flipping through the pages of these periodicals offered glimpses into the everyday habits of consuming art—from simple wood-cut and lithograph illustrations, to full plate colour reproductions of paintings and photographs, artist albums, and exquisitely ornate typography.

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New York’s popular Armory Show required DAG to put forth its most emphatically modernist artists. These included several who had been fellows of the John D. Rockefeller III Fund and would thus have a resonance among art connoisseurs in America for their language and context. Instead of concentrating on the Progressives, therefore, DAG decided to curate a selection that included works by Avinash Chandra and Natvar Bhavsar with extensive careers in New York, and an important body of works by artists such as S. H. Raza, Ram Kumar, Krishen Khanna, Paritosh Sen, and Satish Gujral, among others. Avinash Chandra Jyoti Bhatt K G Subrmanyan Krishen Khanna Natvar Bhavsar Paritosh Sen Ram Kumar Tyeb Mehta Rekha Rodwittiya S. H. Raza Satish Gujral

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One of the most important South Asian artists of the twentieth century, Syed Ahmed Sadequain Naqvi was born in Amroha in Uttar Pradesh in pre-Partition India and grew up in a family that highly valued calligraphy. He moved to Delhi in 1944 to work as a calligrapher-copyist with All India Radio where his elder brother was also working, but shifted to Pakistan following Partition. Moving between jobs for a few years in his new homeland, Sadequain devoted himself fully to the arts in 1955 after his fame as an artist rose with the patronage of the country’s prime minister, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. Learn More

Enamoured by watercolour as a medium, Sushil Chandra Sen studied at Government School of Art, Calcutta; in 1936, he joined the school as a lecturer. He also taught briefly at Delhi Polytechnic before returning to Calcutta to officiate as vice-principal of his alma mater. Learn More

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