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In February, Paris' Centre Pompidou--a premier centre for modern art since its construction in 1977--mounted an extensive solo show looking back at S. H. Raza’s career in painting. It represents a historic moment for Indian modern art’s international story as it unfolded over the twentieth century, and also marked Raza's own symbolic return to the place where he stayed for most of his working life. The fertile post-independent period saw cross-cultural connections being forged by Indian artists in Europe and America on their own terms and this show is a testament to Raza’s evolving encounters with land and mythology. The curators, Catherine David and Diane Toubert, spoke to DAG highlighting some of the takeaways from this major retrospective.

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.

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.

The exhibition features several works of academic realist portraiture from early 20th century—vivid oil portraits by masters of the form such as Pestonji Bomanji, M. F. Pithawalla, Baburao Painter and L. N. Taskar as well as charcoal sketches by M. V. Dhurandhar, an academic artist of renown of the same period. The selection features Western academic oil-influenced works on mythological themes by the school referred to as Early Bengal and two works painted in a Raja Ravi Varma-derived style—an anonymous work by the Ravi Varma ‘School’ and Aroomoogam Pillay. A. A. Almelkar Abalall Rahiman Abani Sen Akbar Padamsee Ambadas Anonymous (EarlyBengal) Anonymous (Portraiture ) Anupam Sud Aroomoogam Pillay Avinash Chandra Baburao Painter Badri Narayan Bijan Choudhary Bikash Bhattacharjee Biren De Chintamoni Kar Chittaprosad D. P. Roy Chowdhury Devyani Krishna Dharamnarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh G. Ravinder Reddy Ganesh Haloi Gogi Saroj Pal Gopal Ghose H. A. Gade Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali J. Swaminathan Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jogen Chowdhury Jyoti Bhatt K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni K. V. Haridasan Kshitindranath Majumdar L. Munuswamy L. N. Taskar Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. F. Pithawalla M. V. Dhurandhar Madhvi Parekh Mukul Dey N. S. Bendre Nandalal Bose Nasreen Mohammedi Nicholas Roerich Nikhil Biswas P. Khemraj P. T. Reddy Paritosh Sen Pestonji E. Bomanji Prosanto Roy Rabin Mondal Ram Kumar Ramkinkar Baij Ravi Varma ‘School’ S. H. Raza S. K. Bakre Sadequain Sailoz Mukherjea Shanti Dave Shyamal Dutta Ray Sohan Qadri Sudhir Patwardhan Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Tarak Garai Ved Nayar Walter Langhammer

By the end of the century, however, the scene was changing, and infrastructure—following the economic reforms in 1991—began to improve, creating an interest in collecting art. Twentieth century Indian modern art has since been at the forefront of collecting and investing in Indian art, and DAG, which has the largest private collection of Indian art has a marked focus on this period of Indian art. Ambadas F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh George Keyt Jamini Roy K. K. Hebbar Kanwal Krishna Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. F. Pithawalla M. V. Dhurandhar Madhvi Parekh Nandalal Bose Nemai Ghosh Prokash Karmakar Rabin Mondal

The exhibition Tantra on the Edge: Inspirations and Experiments in Twentieth Century Indian Art is a pioneering attempt to gather together works of sixteen prominent Indian artists under the single thematic rubric of the transient but least definable phases of contemporary art in the last century. The exhibition features the artworks, inspirations, and experiments, of artists that had a sustained relationship with tantra philosophy, its vivid, abstract, sacred symbols, or their personal spiritual illuminations. Biren De G. R. Santosh Gogi Saroj Pal J. Swaminathan Jyoti Bhatt K. C. S. Paniker Manu Parekh P. T. Reddy Prabhakar Barwe R. B. Bhaskaran S. H. Raza Satish Gujral Shobha Broota Sohan Qadri Sunil Das V. Viswanadhan

The exhibition brings together important works of art spanning a wide range of genres, forms, periods and styles. They are grouped by genre and each thematic arrangement features a select collection of artworks that are milestones in Indian modernism, as well as in the development of the artistic language of several of the participating artists. A. A. Raiba Abalall Rahiman Akbar Padamsee Ambadas Amitava Avinash Chandra B. C. Sanyal B. N. Arya Baburao Painter Benode Behari Mukherjee Bikash Bhattacharjee Bipin Behari Goswami Biren De Chittaprosad Devyani Krishna Dharamnarayan Dasgupta Early Bengal (Anonymous) F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Ganesh Haloi Ganesh Pyne George Keyt Gieve Patel Gogi Saroj Pal Gopal Ghose H. A. Gade Hemanta Misra Himmat Shah Indra Dugar Indu Rakshit J. P. Gangooly J. Sultan Ali Jamini Roy Jeram Patel K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud Kshitindranath Majumdar Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. F. Pithawalla M. V. Dhurandhar Manu Parekh Mohan Samant N. R. Sardesai Nandalal Bose Nikhil Biswas P. Khemraj P. S. Chander Sheker P. T. Reddy P. V. Janakiram Paritosh Sen Pestonji E. Bomanji Prabhakar Barwe Prodosh Das Gupta Prokash Karmakar Rabin Mondal Rabindranath Tagore Radha Charan Bagchi Ram Kumar Ravi Varma School (Anonymous) S. Dhanapal S. G. Thakur Singh S. H. Raza S. K. Bakre Satish Gujral Shanti Dave Shiavax Chavda Shyamal Dutta Ray Sohan Qadri Sunil Das Surendran Nair Tyeb Mehta V. Nageshkar Vivan Sundaram

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

The 2015 edition of the India Art fair saw DAG securing a lavish booth across two different spaces spread over 11,000 sq. ft. Likened to a museum (albeit a temporary one), the gallery presented a show of close to one thousand artworks that consisted of both paintings and sculptures. The thematically curated exhibition consisted of nine categories: pre-modern art, the Bengal school, academic realism, the Bombay Progressive artists, high modernism, the Baroda School and Group 1890, the Cholamandal artists, tantra and sculptures. This categorically-placed collection successfully attempted to showcase the dynamic range of Indian art over two hundred years. A special sculpture gallery was set up in a covered courtyard and featured the largest sculpture in India—by K. S. Radhakrishnan. Pre-Moderns Early Bengal Kalighat Pat Company School Popular Prints Birth of Modernism M. R. Achrekar Almelkar Radha Charan Bagchi Richard Barron Pestonji E. Bomanji Atul Bose Sakti Burman William Carpenter Jogen Chowdhury Devraj Dakoji Thomas Daniell John Deschamps M. V. Dhurandhar Indra Dugar J. P. Gangooly Olinto Ghilardi S. L. Haldankar K. K. Hebbar Benjamin Hudson D. C. Joglekar Prahlad C. Karmakar J. A. Lalkaka B. C. Law Hemendranath Mazumdar M. Mali H. Muller Ramaswamy Naidu M. K. Parandekar William Parker Prema Pathare V. B. Pathare M. F. Pithawalla Portraiture (Anonymous) Thomas Prinsep Abalall Rahiman ‘Ravi Varma School’ Kisory Roy Baburao Sadwelkar N. R. Sardesai Bireswar Sen Lalit Mohan Sen Sushil Chandra Sen S. G. Thakar Singh Satish Chandra Sinha L. N. Taskar Raja Ravi Varma Revivalism and Beyond Radha Charan Bagchi Bengal School (Anonymous) Nandalal Bose Ramendranath Chakravorty M. A. R. Chughtai Haren Das Sunayini Devi 438 Mukul Dey Surendranath Ganguly Asit Kumar Haldar Chintamoni Kar Kshitindranath Majumdar Indu Rakshit Prosanto Roy Bisnhupada Roychowdhury D. P. Roy Chowdhury Abanindranath Tagore Sarada Charan Ukil Ramgopal Vijaivargiya Jamini Roy Santiniketan: A New Expressionism Ramkinkar Baij Nandalal Bose Benode Behari Mukherjee The Bengal Famine in Art Gobardhan Ash Ramkinkar Baij Chittaprosad Somnath Hore Bengal Modernist Calcutta Group Gopal Ghose Hemanta Misra Prankrishna Pal Paritosh Sen Sunil Madhav Sen Calcutta Painters Nikhil Biswas Bijan Chowdhury Jogen Chowdhury Prokash Karmakar Rabin Mondal Society of Contemporary Artists Bikash Bhattacharjee Sunil Das Shyamal Dutta Ray Ganesh Haloi Ganesh Pyne Lalu Prasad Shaw Lone Stars: Other Bengal Modernists Amalnath Chakladhar Partha Pratim Deb Nemai Ghosh Somnath Hore Sudhir Ranjan Khastgir Sailoz Mookherjea Gaganendranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore Rise of Modernsim K. H. Ara S. K. Bakre Bal Chhabda H. A. Gade V. S. Gaitonde M. F. Husain Krishen Khanna Ram Kumar Tyeb Mehta Akbar Padamsee S. H. Raza Mohan Samant F. N. Souza A Modern Vernacular Baroda School N. S. Bendre Devraj Dakoji Shanti Dave Bhupen Khakhar Dhruva Mistry Haku Shah Nilima Sheikh K. G. Subramanyan Vivan Sundaram Group 1890 Ambadas Jyoti Bhatt Eric Bowen Jeram Patel Raghav Kaneria Himmat Shah Gulammohammed Sheikh J. Swaminathan Alternate Sensibilities Discourses in Feminism Arpana Caur Nalini Malani Navjot Gogi Saroj Pal Anupam Sud A Language of Minimalism Zarina Hashmi Nasreen Mohammedi The Topsy Turvy World of Magic Realism Amit Ambalal Sakti Burman Dharamnarayan Dasgupta Ranbir Singh Kaleka Sanat Kar P. Khemraj Anjolie Ela Menon New Delhi Modernists Amitava Manjit Bawa Rameshwar Broota Shobha Broota Bimal Dasgupta Biren De Manu Parekh Ved Nayar Ramachandran G. R. Santosh Arpita Singh Silpi Chakra Group Dhanraj Bhagat Avinash Chandra Satish Gujral Bishamber Khanna Devayani Krishna Kanwal Krishna K. S. Kulkarni C. Sanya Mumbai Modernists Altaf Prabhakar Barwe Chittaprosad K. K. Hebbar George Keyt Gieve Patel Prabha Raiba V. Nageshkar Jehangir Sabavala Laxman Shreshtha Region and Identity Cholamandal Artists’ Village J. Sultan Ali Reddappa Naidu Akkitham Narayanan K. C. S. Paniker K. Ramanujam M. Senathipathi S. G. Vasudev V. Viswanadhan Modernists of the South K. M. Adimoolam R. B. Bhaskaran S. Dhanapal P. V. Janakiram L. Munuswamy P. Santhanraj Laxman Pai K. Laxma Goud Badri Narayan G. Ravinder Reddy Krishna Reddy P. T. Reddy S. Krishnaswamy Srinivasulu Thota Vaikuntam Sacred and Sensual Neo-Tantra as a Modern Conceit Jyoti Bhatt Sunil Das Biren De K. V. Haridasan Jeram Patel Sohan Qadri P. T. Reddy G. R. Santosh Erotic Art Ramkinkar Baij Sunil Das K. Laxma Goud M. F. Husain Ranbir Singh Kaleka Prokash Karmakar K. S. Kulkarni Laxman Pai P. T. Reddy G. R. Santosh F. N. Souza Modernism in Indian Sculpture Ramkinkar Baij S. K. Bakre P. Roy Chowdhury Jogen Chowdhury Sankho Chaudhuri Prodosh Das Gupta M. Davierwala Jacob Epstein Tarak Garai Bipin Behari Goswami Satish Gujral Asit Kumar Haldar Dhruva Mistry Mrinalini Mukherjee S. Nandagopal Navjot Nagji Patel K. S. Radhakrishnan S. H. Raza Jamini Roy Himmat Shah Prabhas Sen B. Vithal Other Sculptors

Sohan Qadri was truly a global artist whose travels and practice spanned India, its Himalayan neighbours, Africa, Europe and Canada. His paintings can be summed up as yantras that serve as visual meditation tools. Invocation – 27 is a vibrant sea of yellow ochre with a band of blue in the middle. A captivating work, Geeti Sen explains, the painting serves to offer viewers a profound experience of transformation and self-discovery.

Prabhakar Barwe’s Eighty-Five Safety Pins is a pioneering work that merges technology and traditional art. Created in 1991 using graphic design software on an Apple Macintosh, Barwe explored the concept of pixels, a hallmark of the digital era, while incorporating his signature enamel paint. This innovative approach reflects his curiosity about embracing the unknown future and reinterpreting it artistically. By abstracting the safety pin from its conventional form, Barwe invites viewers to reconsider its essence, offering an open-ended visual experience that challenges preconceived notions and encourages alternative perspectives. Art connoisseur Shireen Gandhy, a friend of the late artist, takes us behind the making of this extraordinary painting.