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
Born on 3 March 1919 in Madras, S. Dhanapal trained under sculptor-teacher D. P. Roy Chowdhury at the city’s Government College of Art and Craft. He joined the faculty of his college after completing his studies, and, in 1957, when K. C. S. Paniker was principal, Dhanapal was appointed the head of the sculpture department. He eventually became principal of his alma mater in 1972. Learn More
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
Born in Patiala, Punjab, in 1953, Ranbir Kaleka earned a diploma in painting from Punjab University’s College of Art in Chandigarh. He spent the next few years teaching at Punjab University and College of Art, New Delhi, before leaving for London on a Charles Wallace scholarship to study at Royal College of Art from 1985-87. He stayed on in London for several years and returned to India in the late 1990s. 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
Pakala Thirumal Reddy was born to a farmer’s family in Andhra Pradesh’s Karimnagar district. Defying his family’s opposition to art as a professional practice and fascinated with colour and form in his childhood, Reddy joined Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, on a scholarship, to study painting. Learn More
Born in Calcutta, Nikhil Biswas was an indefatigable art activist and a firm believer in collective action. A founder member of Calcutta Painters Group, Chitrangshu Group, and Society of Contemporary Artists, Calcutta, Biswas was committed to bringing about technical innovations as well as transformations in contemporary artistic thought. Learn More
One of the nine National Treasure artists of India, Russia-born Nicholas Roerich was not just a painter but a stage designer for ballets, an explorer, writer, and philosopher. As a painter, he is best remembered for his ethereal paintings of the mist-laden and wispy Himalayas, done mostly in tempera or oil. These paintings remain some of the best works celebrating the mighty mountain range. 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
Moti Zharotia was born in Delhi and remembers taking impressions of patterns carved on potatoes in childhood as his earliest artistic activity. He loved creating works of art but dreamt of becoming a lawyer, and therefore graduated in political science from Delhi University. Learn More
A student of K. C. S. Paniker—the influential artist-teacher and founding father of the Madras Art Movement—M. Senathipathi is known for his richly textured works drawn from mythology and contextualised in contemporary social issues. Learn More
Laxman Narain Taskar’s paintings mirror the ideals of academic realism introduced by the British within their art education system. Indian artists were trained in naturalism, with lessons in soft effects of chiaroscuro and the three-dimensionality of the external world. History painting, perspective, and the copying of Victorian portraits became a vital ingredient within these art schools. Learn More