Search results for: 'Posters of 20th century colonial'

Henry Singleton’s The Last Effort and Fall of Tippoo Sultaun belongs to a genre known as history painting: the depiction of important historical events, usually on a large scale, as if they were playing out in front of one’s eyes. Author and parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor and art historian Giles Tillotson explain the lively imagination deployed in Singleton’s painting that depicts the British assault on Seringapatam and the killing of its ruler, Tipu Sultan—himself the source of so many stories that it was difficult to unravel the truth from the many falsities spun by the biased colonial administration and historians of the time.

One of India’s nine national treasure artists, Nandalal Bose (1882—1966) forged a long and glittering career as the foremost artist-pedagogue bridging the late-colonial period and the first few decades after Indian independence. He maintained an active drawing practice throughout his life, with many small sketches done on postcards that he carried around with him as a sort of visual notebook.

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.  

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

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

The city was consolidated over the course of the eighteenth century, and its access to global trade routes helped it grow over the following centuries as well, leading some to describe it as the 'door of the East with its Face to the West'. How did European artists view this growing city?

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.

2020 marks a special year in mankind’s history and India’s destiny. Often used in reference to development goals, 2020 has taught us to never take things for granted. While humanity has made major leaps, even conquering outer space, nature has shown us how little we know about it, and how little we appreciate what we have. 2020 has taught us to review our values. We have suffered but also been comforted, and we have learned to acknowledge that irrespective of our joys and sorrows, our triumphs and our failures, the world will not stop, it will go on. Husain Rabin Mondal Santosh Jehangir Sabavala Mohan Samant Swaminathan Paramjit Paramjeet Ramgopal Vijaivargiya Seal Singh Dasgupta Haren Das Shanti Dave Jagadish Dhanapal Dhurandhar Bipin Behari Goswami Laxma Goud George Keyt Ara Nandalal Bose Jyoti Bhatt Natvar Bhavsar Eric Bowen Shobha Broota Avinash Chandra Sanat Chatterjee Shiavax Chavda Hebbar Khemraj Krishen Khanna Walter Langhammer Jeram Patel Aroomogam Pillay Raza Reddy Jamini Roy Vasudev Viswanadhan Manu Madhvi Parekh Laxman Pai Dhirendra Narayan Dharamanarayan.

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. it is this rich legacy of Indian modernism that we hope to explore with The Centum Series which opens a window to the tantalising glimpse of the extraoridnary depth and breadth of its scope and variety. Round numbers are attractive, so we picked one hundred as our choice for this medley of artists and artworks that offers you a unique opportunity to acquire Indian modern art at attractive prices specially tailored for this sale. J. Sultan Ali Altaf Ambadas Amit Ambalal Amitava Anonymous (Early Bengal) Anonymous (Kalighat Pat) Dattatraya Apte B. N. Arya Radha Charan Bagchi Ramkinkar Baij S. K. Bakre Maniklal Banerjee Ananda Moy Banerji Prabhakar Barwe R. B. Bhaskaran Jyoti Bhatt Bikash Bhattacharjee Nikhil Biswas Nandalal Bose Eric Bowen Shobha Broota Vasundhara Tewari Broota Sakti Burman Ramendranath Chakravorty Kanchan Chander Avinash Chandra Sankho Chaudhuri Chittaprosad Jagmohan Chopra Jogen Chowdhury M. A. R. Chughtai Thomas Daniell Arup Das Prodosh Das Gupta Haren Das Sunil Das Bimal Dasgupta Shanti Dave Partha Pratim Deb Jagadish Dey Mukul Dey Rajendra Dhawan Indra Dugar Gopal Ghose Nemai Ghosh Subba Ghosh Bipin Behari Goswami K. Laxma Goud Satish Gujral Ajit Gupta S. L. Haldankar Somnath Hore M. F. Husain Prokash Karmakar Sudhir Khastgir P. Khemraj Bose Krishnamachari K. S. Kulkarni Ram Kumar Walter Langhammer Pradip Maitra Hemanta Misra Dhruva Mistry Rabin Mondal A. H. Müller L. Munuswamy V. Nageshkar Reddeppa Naidu S. Nandagopal Ved Nayar Akbar Padamsee Laxman Pai Gogi Saroj Pal Rm. Palaniappan M. K. Parandekar Madhvi Parekh Manu Parekh R. N. Pasricha Ganesh Pyne Sohan Qadri K. S. Radhakrishnan A. A. Raiba Krishna Reddy P. T. Reddy Rekha Rodwittiya Jamini Roy Prosanto Roy G. R. Santosh Paritosh Sen Nataraj Sharma Lalu Prasad Shaw Shuvaprasanna Paramjeet Singh F. N. Souza Anupam Sud Thota Vaikuntam S. G. Vasudev Jai Zharotia Moti Zharotia

A guided walk of the first free circulating public library of India—Uttarpara Public Library—with researcher Sarbajit Mitra, traversing the history of regional literary cultures, and sifting through their vast archive to delve into the vibrant world of illustrated periodicals in colonial Bengal, followed by a poetry reading by Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee. 

Join Tapati Guha-Thakurta for a museum visit and presentation as we explore the beginnings of the colonial traditions of art and design in India through the twin histories of the Indian Museum and the Government College of Art and Craft.