Search results for: 'Manifestations IV: Bombay Progressive Artists'

The nude. Just the term sends a frisson of excitement down the spine in most people. For the few of us who are part of the art fraternity, however, more than just the anticipation of being able to view the human body as an artistic work in its many forms and avatars, its beauty and its degradation both, is the true mark of an artist’s genius. And yet, the history of the nude in Indian art has remained curiously unmapped. A. A. Almelkar A. A. Raiba A. P. Bagchi A. Ramachandran Abalall Rahiman Akbar Padamsee Anita Roychowdhury Anupam Sud Avinash Chandra B. Prabha B.Vithal Bengal School (Anonymous) Bikash Bhattacharjee Chintamoni Kar Chittaprosad F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh George Keyt Gogi Saroj Pal Gopal Ghose Hemendranath Majumdar J. Sultan Ali Jamini Roy Jaya Ganguly Jehangir Sabavala Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury Jyoti Bhatt K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni L. Munuswamy Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. R. Acharaker Madhav Bhattacharjee Maniklal Banerjee Nalini Malani Navjot Nikhil Biswas P. Khemraj P. T. Reddy Prodosh Das Gupta Prokash Karmakar R.Vijaivargiya Rabin Mondal Radha Charan Bagchi Rameshwar Broota Ramkinkar Baij Ranbir Kaleka Ravi Varma Press Rekha Rodwittiya S. Dhanapal Sakti Burman Satish Sinha Sudhir Khastgir Suhas Roy Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Surendran Nair V. Nageshkar Ved Nayar

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Any new exhibition brings with it a frisson of excitement, but by any measure India Modern: Narratives From 20th Century Indian Art has been extra special. Most art lovers take Indian modernism for granted—but how many can truly claim to know what it really means. For too many years, the term has been loosely used, with very little awareness of what it includes, or omits. What the West understands and takes as a given is something that in India still remains a mystery, perhaps because art in India cannot strictly be viewed from the same trope as Western art. Perhaps this is true of most countries, but it is especially true of colonised nations where new engagements with art in the West were imposed without the benefit of growing their own local practices organically. This hybrid custom developed at various levels, which makes it exciting when viewed from some distance, but also imposes a challenge. Therefore the question: What does modernism in Indian art imply? Akbar Padamsee Ambadas Anjolie Ela Menon Avinash Chandra B. Prabha Bikash Bhattacharjee Bimal Dasgupta Biren De Dhanraj Bhagat Dharamnarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Ganesh Haloi Ganesh Pyne George Keyt Gieve Patel H.A. Gade Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali J. Swaminathan Jehangir Sabavala Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury K. G. Subramanyan K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. S. Kulkarni Krishen Khanna Laxman Goud Laxman Pai M. F. Husain Manjit Bawa P. Khemraj P.T. Reddy Rabin Mondal Ram Kumar S. K. Bakre S.H. Raza Sakti Burman Sohan Qadri Somnath Hore Sunil Das

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The 1970s was a decade like no other for a young India gaining in confidence nationally as well as on the global firmament. In 1971, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi led the country to a decisive victory against Pakistan, leading to the creation of Bangladesh. The Green Revolution had borne fruit, and Operation Flood now launched a milk revolution in the country, and the culmination of the privy purse turned it into a socialist republic with a strong handle on its economic button. Internationally, much was made of India’s resilience, and the country’s soft power began to win it recognition for its films, fashion, food and culture. India had arrived. ALTAF AMBADAS AMITAVA AVINASH CHANDRA BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE BIREN DE BIRESWAR SEN ERIC BOWEN F. N. SOUZA G. R. SANTOSH GANESH HALOI GOGI SAROJ PAL INDRA DUGAR J. SULTAN ALI J. SWAMINATHAN K C S PANIKER K. K. HEBBAR K. LAXMA GOUD KRISHNA REDDY LAXMAN PAI M. F. HUSAIN MADHVI PAREKH NAVJOT ALTAF P. T. REDDY PARITOSH SEN PRABHAKAR BARWE PRODOSH DASGUPTA PROKASH KARMAKAR RABIN MONDAL RAJENDRA DHAWAN RAM KUMAR S G VASUDEV SATISH GUJRAL SHANTI DAVE SHYAMAL DUTTA RAY SOHAN QADRI TYEB MEHTA V. VISWANADHAN ZARINA HASHMI

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Artists often proceed through a trial and error method—an incessant experimentation—leaving behind a singular trail of oeuvre composed of an irreconcilable, yet inseparable, set of works. Born in the small town of Sojitra in the Kheda district of Gujarat, Jeram Patel studied drawing and painting at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay. In 1959, excellence in his work led him to pursue commercial design at Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, on a scholarship, and also travel to France and Japan. Thereafter, he successfully held solo exhibition at various places in India and abroad, and participated in international events such as the Tokyo Biennale and Sao Paulo Art Biennale (both in 1963).

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For its fourth consecutive outing at Masterpiece London, DAG continued with the tradition of showing artists who had grown in appeal at the city’s truly cross-collecting ‘masterpiece’ fair, but with enough surprises to interest even the most fair-hardened visitor. From a large and vivid G. R. Santosh to a collection of small-sized Bireswar Sen watercolours, the selection was sensitively curated keeping in mind the cosmopolitan nature of London city and the visitors to the fair. Along with the Progressives, the exhibition included one of the finest sculptures created by Adi Davierwalla, remarkable paintings by Tyeb Mehta, Bikash Bhattacharjee, J. Sultan Ali, Avinash Chandra, and Hemen Mazumdar. As always, the emphasis in the booth lay in creating a rarefied visitor experience in which a handful of works allowed visitors to enjoy them at leisure without causing visual fatigue. The response was overwhelming. G. R. SANTOSH BIRESWAR SEN MADHVI PAREKH S. H. RAZA F. N. SOUZA TYEB MEHTA J. SULTAN ALI DHANRAJ BHAGAT BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE AVINASH CHANDRA SHANTI DAVE ADI DAVIERWALLA SATISH GUJRAL HEMEN MAZUMDAR SOHAN QADRI BIREN DE

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The midwestern city of Chicago hosts one of America’s most important art fairs—Expo Chicago—in which DAG participated in an attempt to introduce Indian moderns to the diaspora there as well as to art-lovers in general. To introduce art to this midwestern population, DAG picked on well-established names from the Indian art marquee. This included the National Treasure artist Jamini Roy whose works outside India are a rarity since they cannot be exported. Others included the Progressives F. N. Souza and M. F. Husain, New York-based printmakers Krishna Reddy and Zarina Hashmi (both now deceased) and artist Natvar Bhavsar, abstractionists Sohan Qadri and G. R. Santosh, a rare sculpture by Prodosh Das Gupta, and a body of other modernists representing the diverse range of works created by Indian artists in the twentieth century. A suite of small format watercolour landscapes by Bireswar Sen was a highlight of the booth. Avinash Chandra Bireswar Sen Chittaprosad F N Souza F N Souza G R Santosh Ganesh Pyne Jamini Roy K.S Kulkarni Krishna Reddy Laxman Pai M F Husain Madhvi Parekh Natvar Bhavsar Paritosh Sen Prodosh Das Gupta Rabin Mondal Sohan Qadri Zarina Hashmi

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DAG’s debut at Art Basel Hong Kong aimed to provide an overview of the twentieth century Indian art, tracking key catalytic movements and introducing important masters and artists to an art audience unfamiliar with their work. This included the Progressives, of course, but also other modernists whose contribution to Indian art has been significant. The exhibition display at its large booth was aimed at maximising the number of paintings that could be displayed, including sculptures, and was accompanied by a catalogue. A. A. Raiba Akbar Padamsee Anjolie Ela Menon Avinash Chandra B. Prabha Bikash Bhattacharjee Biren De D. P. Roy Chowdhury F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Ganesh Pyne Gogi Saroj Pal H. A. Gade Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali Jogen Chowdhury K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud M. F. Husain P. T. Reddy Prodosh Das Gupta Prosanto Roy Ram Kumar S. Dhanapal S. H. Raza S. K. Bakre Sankho Chaudhuri Sohan Qadri Sunil Das

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A founder member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, Hari Ambadas Gade was born in Amravati, Maharashtra, in 1917. In his own words, he had a ‘compelling interest in science and mathematics’, as a result of which he graduated in science. However, he started making landscapes while on a visit to Jabalpur; subsequently, S. H. Raza guided him on the nuances of landscape painting. Gade eventually obtained a masters from the Nagpur School of Art in 1950.

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It was in the 1970s that the government of India declared nine artists as National Treasures, attesting to the significance of their contribution to the shaping of modern Indian art identity. ‘Navratna: Nine Gems of Indian Art’ was a unique opportunity to see seminal works by all the nine together, to understand the uniqueness of their collective contribution, at Drishyakala, a joint collaboration between DAG and the Archaeological Survey of India. Learn More

We might think of landscape as the most obvious and natural subject for painting. What could be simpler than an artistic response to the world of nature? And yet, civilisations have not always produced landscape paintings. Landscape as an independent genre—with the primary focus not on action but on scenery—was first championed by the Chinese in the ninth century. It was introduced into English art only in the eighteenth century. Elements of nature have appeared in Indian art since the murals of Ajanta, but in supporting roles, in images that are primarily sacred or courtly. Pure landscape painting arose in India only in the nineteenth century, in response to colonial practice. A A ALMELKAR AVINASH CHANDRA BABURAO SADWELKAR BHUNATH MUKERJEE BIJAN CHOUDHARY BIRESWAR SEN CHITTAPROSAD DEVRAJ DAKOJI DEVYANI KRISHNA DHARAMANARAYAN DASGUPTA GANESH HALOI GOBARDHAN ASH HAREN DAS K. K. HEBBAR KANWAL KRISHNA KISORY ROY M. K. PARANDEKAR M. V. DHURANDHAR MANISHI DEY MUKUL DEY New Found Lands NIKHIL BISWAS PESTONJI E BOMANJI PRAN KISHAN PAUL RABIN MONDAL RAMENDRANATH CHAKRAVORTY RAMKINKAR BAIJ SAKTI BURMAN SUNIL DAS THOMAS DANIELL WILLIAM HODGES WILLIAM PARKER

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The series of aquatint prints known as Oriental Scenery represent the single largest and most impressive project by English artists to depict Indian architecture and landscape. Thomas Daniell (1749-1840) and his nephew William Daniell (1769-1837) travelled extensively in India between 1786 and 1793. On their return to Britain they produced many paintings, drawings and prints based on the sketches they had made while travelling. The aquatints were issued in pairs between March 1795 and December 1808. Subscribers who purchased all of them could assemble them into six volumes, each with 24 prints, making up a total of 144 – of which half are shown here.

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