Search results for: 'colonials be'

This exhibition looks at the diverse range, moods and styles that primitivism has taken in India, some artists practicing entirely in that style, while others experimenting with it in part, or sporadically. One can count simplicity and a move away from sophistication as key components, as also an inclination or at least a nod towards the folk. The exhibition does not attempt to be a comprehensive survey of India’s primitivists—there are others who would bear inclusion—but is an attempt to understand a body of work and how, given its Western countenance, it can be understood in the Indian context. More than anything else, it offers a clearer view than in the past of what primitivism might mean in the context of modern Indian art. Amrita Sher-Gil F. N. Souza George Keyt Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali Jamini Roy Jogen Chowdhury K. G. Subramanyan K. S. Kulkarni M. F. Husain Madhvi Parekh Mohan Samant Rabin Mondal Rabindranath Tagore Ramkinkar Baij Sunayani Devi

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An unassuming trailblazer, Gulam Rasool Santosh is the most important artist from the movement known as neo-tantra in Indian art, synonymous with masters such as Biren De and Sohan Qadri. Self-taught, Santosh began his career painting landscapes in his native Kashmir before being spotted by S. H. Raza, which enabled him to study at the Maharaja Sayajirao University at Baroda under the famous artist N. S. Bendre. After a few years of painting figurative and abstract works in the mould of the other Indian Progressives, Santosh’s art changed dramatically towards tantra when he had a mystical experience in the Amarnath cave in 1964. From then on, until his death in 1997, G. R. Santosh dedicated his life to the study and practice of tantra, a yogi as much as an artist.

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In the articulation of twentieth century art, where does one place Altaf Mohamedi? That question has probably troubled more curators than we realise. Altaf, who studied art in London before returning to Bombay (now Mumbai) was following in the footsteps of his elder sister and artist Nasreen Mohamedi, but that is where all similarities ended. Where Nasreen was an abstract, sparse artist who created a distinctive language using, for most part, rigid, inflexible lines that nevertheless sang on the paper over which they were made, Altaf’s work was intensely political and social.

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The Art of Santiniketan showcases the work of its four chief artists—Santiniketan’s founder, Rabindranath Tagore, its first principal and the architect of the Santiniketan pedagogy, Nandalal Bose, and his two illustrious students who went on to make a name for themselves as highly original and significant artists—Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij. Santiniketan was a path-breaking educational institution Rabindranath Tagore set up in rural Bengal in the early twentieth century, and the exhibition begins by examining its genesis in Tagore’s radical ideas of basing education in freedom and in the midst of nature. Benode Behari Mukherjee Nandalal Bose Rabindranath Tagore Ramkinkar Baij

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March to Freedom re-interprets the well-known story of the Indian freedom struggle and anticolonial movement through works of art and some historic artefacts. Drawn from the collections of DAG, they range from eighteenth and nineteenth century European paintings and prints, to lesser known works by Indian artists that merit greater recognition, alongside some iconic pieces. Rather than following the usual chronological path, the story is structured around eight themes. Each represents one arena, or stage, on which the anti-colonial struggle took place, to expand the story beyond politics, politicians, and battles (which also feature). Conceived to commemorate and celebrate the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, this visual journey seeks to do more. A. A. Raiba Asit Kumar Haldar Alfred Crowdy Lovett Atul Bose Baburao Sadwelkar Bijan Chowdhury Biren De C. Stanfield Charles D’Oyly Charles Shepherd Charles Walter D’Oyly Chintamoni Kar Chittaprosad Dattatraya Apte David Gould Green Devayani Krishna D. Newsome Edward Orme Gobardhan Ash Gopal Ghose G. Tait Haren Das Hemanta Misra Henri Cartier-Bresson Henry Martens Henry Salt Henry Singleton Jacob Epstein James Hunter James Fraser John Gantz John Jabez Edwin Mayall K. K. Hebbar Kanwal Krishna K. C. S. Paniker K. G. Subramanyan K. Sreenivasulu K. S. Kulkarni Laxman Pai M. Eyre Proudman M. K. Parandekar M. S. Morgan Nemai Ghosh N. R. Sardesai Prahlad Anant Dhond Paritosh Sen Prokash Karmakar P. T. Reddy Radha Charan Bagchi Robert Dodd R. Vijay Satish Gujral Satish Sinha S. Dhanapal Stella Brown Sudhir Khastgir Sushil Chandra Sen Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Thomas Anbury Thomas Daniell Thomas Jones Barker V. A. Mali V. B. Pathare V. Veevers William Daniell William Hodges Anonymous Artists Learn More

Indian modernism is rich in diversity with a dizzying succession of artists who have each carved a niche for themselves in the rich firmament of art practice in the country. Open to influences from the West, reaching deep into the roots of their own culture, exploring and experimenting across mediums, absorbing ideas, reinterpreting established norms, Indian art defies any easily tailored silos to carve for itself a confident assertion of its own identity within a global context, while being a part of its larger assimilative journey.

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Manifestations, DAG’s signature exhibition showcasing the very best of modern Indian art, appears this winter in its landmark tenth edition, bringing together seventy-five of India’s best-known and most established modernists. The artworks are grouped by genre into the categories of mythology, landscape, still-life, figurative, narrative and abstract art, and present the mature styles of the participating artists. Raiba A. M. Davierwalla Abanindranath Tagore Ambadas Arpana Caur Avinash Chandra Benode Behari Mukherjee Bikash Bhattacharjee Biren De Chittaprosad D. P. Roy Chowdhury Dhanraj Bhagat Early Bengal (Anonymous) F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Gaganendranath Tagore Ganesh Haloi Ganesh Pyne George Keyt Gieve Patel Gogi Saroj Pal Gopal Ghose Haku Shah Hemanta Misra Hemendranath Majumdar Himmat Shah Indra Dugar J. Sultan Ali J. Swaminathan Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury Jyoti Bhatt K. C. S. Panicker K. G. Subramanyan K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni K. S. Radhakrishnan Kalighat Pat (Anonymous) Laxman Pai M. A. R. Chughtai M. F. Husain M. V. Dhurandhar Manu Parekh Meera Mukherjee N. S. Bendre Nandalal Bose Dharamnarayan Dasgupta Nikhil Biswas P. Khemraj P. T. Reddy P. V. Janakiram Paritosh Sen Piloo Pochkhanawalla Prosanto Roy R. Vijaivargiya Rabin Mondal Rabindranath Tagore Raghav Kaneria Raja Ravi Varma Ramkinkar Baij S. Dhanapal S. H. Raza S. K. Bakre Satish Gujral Shanti Dave Shyamal Dutta Ray Sohan Qadri Somnath Hore Sunayani Devi Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Thota Vaikuntam V. Nageshkar

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The idea of primitivism centres on the wish to identify with, or respond to, elements of a society that are deemed ‘primitive’. In artistic terms, it is about rejecting realism, simplifying technique and reducing the formal means of expression to a ‘primitive’ state. The term itself is borrowed from discussions of Western art, where high-profile examples include the images of Tahiti and its people made in the 1890s by Paul Gauguin, and responses to African sculpture by Pablo Picasso in 1906-09. The second thread of primitivism—the reduction of formal means—is best exemplified by the ‘cut-outs’ made by Henri Matisse in the 1940s.

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In a career spanning four decades, Amitava’s location as an artist has determined the authority that he brings to his practice. As an artist studying and working in the 1960s, Amitava Das experienced a decade of fragmented locii. The ’60s, the period of his education at the College of Art, was the decade of wars, fiscal difficulty and an uncertain polity in the wake of the death of Jawaharlal Nehru. Further, as a second generation pravasi (non-residing Indian) Bengali, the roiling political violence of West Bengal’s Naxal movement came to him through the filter of poetry, film and art—much as he would have received the existential writing of Camus, Genet and Rilke. Through the 1960s and ’70s, small groups of artists and filmmakers in different pockets in India had a heightened response: the state of the nation found an uncanny echo in the language of modernism, of the artist’s isolation and purity even within a state of uncertainty.

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The colours we see around us are a complex network of visual signifiers. Like spoken dialects, each colour contains multiple—at times conflicting—meanings that are moulded by a universal base and many regional variances. A. A. Almelkar A. H. Müller A. P. Santhanaraj Abalall Rahiman Abanindranath Tagore Ahmed Amir Altaf Ambadas Amit Ambalal Amitava Anonymous Anupam Sud Avinash Chandra Benode Behari Mukherjee Bijan Choudhary Biren De Bireswar Sen Bishamber Khanna Bishnupada Roy Chowdhury Chittaprosad D. C. Joglekar D. P. Roy Chowdhury Dattatraya Apte Devayani Krishna Devraj Dakoji Dharamanarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G. R. Iranna G. R. Santosh G. S. Haldankar Ganesh Haloi Gobardhan Ash Gogi Saroj Pal Hemanta Misra Himmat Shah Indra Dugar Indu Rakshit J. P. Gonsalves J. Sultan Ali Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury Jyoti Bhatt K. C. S. Paniker K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni Kanwal Krishna Kavita Nayar Krishna Reddy Lalit Mohan Sen Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. K. Parandekar M. R. Acharekar M. S. Joshi Madhvi Parekh Manu Parekh Nand Katyal Nandalal Bose Natvar Bhavsar Navjot Nicholas Roerich Nikhil Biswas Om Prakash P. Khemraj Paramjit Singh Paresh Maity Paritosh Sen Partha Pratim Deb Prabhakar Barwe Prokash Karmakar Rabin Mondal Radha Charan Bagchi Ramendranath Chakravorty Ramgopal Vijaivargiya Ramkinkar Baij Ranen Ayan Dutta S. H. Raza S. K. Bakre S. L. Haldankar Sanat Chatterjee Sanat Kar Sankho Chaudhuri Satish Gujral Shanti Dave Shobha Broota Somnath Hore Sudhir Khastgir Sunayani Devi Sunil Das V. B. Pathare Vasundhara Tewari Broota Vivan Sundaram Walter Langhammer

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'Home is a Place’ explores the visual world of the home as a physical space having both an exterior and an interior—with all its magic, hope and memories—in villages and towns. Our homes are central to our existence and society, being the reason for shaping towns and countries, civilisations and histories. The exhibition covers the complexity of lives within the jurisdiction of the home—women at their toilettes, women painted alone gazing out of the window or gossiping in a group; figures working in their library, engaged in household work, or as parents bathing children; a family posing together or feuding over a game of cards, food or egos; and those fighting tyranny or painted as embracing lovers. Altaf Ambika Dhurandhar Amit Ambalal Anonymous Anonymous (Kalighat Pat) Anonymous (Waring & Gillow) Avinash Chandra Badri Narayan Bijan Choudhary Chakravorty Chittaprosad Dattatraya Apte Dhanraj Bhagat G. R. Santosh Ganesh Pyne Gogi Saroj Pal Gopal Ghose Haren Das Hemen Mazumdar Hiranmoy Indra Dugar Indu Rakshit Jagadish Dey Jagmohan Chopra Jamini Roy Jyoti Bhatt K. C. S. Paniker K. S. Kulkarni Kisory Roy M. A. R. Chughtai M. Bulkley M. F. Husain M. V. Dhurandhar Madhvi Parekh Maniklal Banerjee N. R. Sardesai Nandalal Bose Navjot Nemai Ghosh P. T. Reddy Partha Pratim Deb Piraji Sagara Prabhakar Barwe R. B. Bhaskaran Rabin Mondal Radha Charan Bagchi Ramendranath Rekha Rodwittiya Roychaudhuri S S. K. Bakre Sadequain Sakti Burman Sanat Kar Shanti Dave Shyamal Dutta Ray Somnath Hore Subba Ghosh V. A. Mali V. Nageshkar Ved Nayar Abani Sen Paritosh Sen Sunil Madhav Sen Sushil Chandra Sen Nataraj Sharma Shuvaprasanna Muni Singh Paramjeet Singh Paramjit Singh S. G. Thakar Singh Sobha Singh Satish Sinha F. N. Souza K. G. Subramanyan Anupam Sud L. N. Taskar Vasudha Thozhur

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