A miniature landscape artist par excellence, Bireswar Sen is known for evolving a unique style wherein he painted vistas of the gigantic Himalayas and the deep valleys on a minuscule scale. Learn More
Recognised as India’s first pop artist, Bhupen Khakhar graduated as a chartered accountant in 1960. He began painting in the early 1960s after joining a course in art criticism at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University, Baroda, at the behest of the leading Baroda artist Gulammohamed Sheikh. Learn More
Raja Ravi Varma’s singular impact on Indian art is unparalleled by any artist. Largely self-taught, he is probably the first Indian artist to have articulated Indian subject matters through naturalism and the use of oil paints with brilliant mastery, considered until then a European idiom. Learn More
Abdul Aziz Raiba was born in Bombay on 20 July 1922 and studied miniature painting at Sir J. J. School of Art upon receiving a scholarship in 1942. He was an early associate of the Progressive Artists’ Group but later struck out on his own due to difference of opinion with other members. Learn More
Zarina Hashmi née Rasheed (she dropped her surname in later life) was born on 16 July 1937 in Aligarh to Sheikh Abdur Rasheed, a professor of history at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). She was ten at the time of the Partition and the consequent events impacted her life and her art forever, especially since her family chose to migrate to Pakistan some years later. Learn More
Born in Graz, Austria, Walter Langhammer came to India in the 1930s with his wife Käthe Urbäch, escaping Nazi Germany like other refugees. Some media reports suggest that British authorities had arrested the couple on their arrival in India till a friend, noted art critic Rudolf von Leyden, came to their rescue. Learn More
In Vasundhara Tewari Broota’s practice, the woman is celebrated as a strong force, a ‘subject’ to be understood at a deeper level. Broota studied English literature from Delhi University, did a year of law studies, and pursued art studies from Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi. From using palette knives, rollers, even silver leaf, Broota’s techniques have emerged from an intense creative struggle that she has experienced as an artist. Learn More
Born in Purulia in West Bengal, Sunil Madhav Sen was a self-taught artist. Though he learned drawing as a child from a local teacher, he studied law and the liberal arts at Calcutta University and worked for the government. He pursued his passion for art privately alongside his legal practise, visiting the studios of Abanindranath Tagore, Atul Bose, J. P. Gangooly, and Satish Sinha. He also apprenticed for two years under Hemendranath Mazumdar, honing his skills in portrait painting. Learn More
A multifaceted artist who spent a lifetime exploring human suffering through his sketches, prints and sculptures, Somnath Hore was born in Chittagong in present-day Bangladesh in 1921. Studying briefly at Government School of Art, Calcutta, in the mid-1940s, Hore trained under Zainul Abedin, and, later, under printmaker Saifuddin Ahmed. A participatory practice with fellow artists like Chittaprosad led to his intellectual growth. Learn More
Sohan Qadri was born in a wealthy farming family in Punjab’s Chachoki village on 2 November 1932. When he was seven, he came across two spiritualists living on the family farm—Bikham Giri, a Bengali Tantric-Vajrayan Yogi, and Ahmed Ali Shah Qadri, a Sufi. Both gurus had a tremendous impact on young Qadri and taught him spiritual ideals through meditation, dance, and music. His association with them heralded a lifelong commitment to spirituality and art. 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
Among the most accomplished watercolourists of modern India, Shyamal Dutta Ray was born in Ranchi, then in Bihar, and studied at Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta, from 1950-55. He was a founding member of Society of Contemporary Artists in 1959, and of Painters 80, founded in 1968. Learn More