Search results for: 'Iconic Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art, 2nd ed., vol. 2'

William Hodges (1744-97) was a pioneer in more ways than one. He was the first British landscape painter to visit India, and to portray scenery across the whole breadth of the Gangetic plain. As a writer, he gave the first detailed descriptions of numerous historic Indian buildings, and he theorised about the origins and evolution of Indian architectural design. His art illustrates his exploration into terrain which—in its breadth and scope—was at the time almost as unfamiliar to Indian as to Western eyes.

Diana Campbell is the Artistic Director of the Samdani Art Foundation, now in its 10th year, and chief curator of the prestigious Dhaka Art Summit, whose sixth edition starts on February 3, 2023. She spoke with the DAG Journal’s editorial team to discuss her own curatorial process and how she makes room for experimentation, and unpacks the intriguing thematic of this new edition: ‘flood’, or bonna.

This exemplary themed exhibition at DAG’s booth at the India Art Fair 2018 was a masterclass in Indian art dedicated to the nine National Treasure artists. This declaration in the decade of the 1970s was intended to identify artists whose contribution had national significance. Even though the selection appears arbitrary and argumentative, the nine artists cannot be faulted for the quality of their work and the role they played in segueing the pre-independence freedom movement with their role and responsibility as artists. Nandalal Bose Sailoz Mookherjea Abanindranath Tagore Jamini Roy Amrita Sher-Gil Rabindranath Tagore Gagnendranath Tagore Nicholas Roerich Raja Ravi Varma

This is the first-ever retrospective of the Indian modern artist Avinash Chandra who lived most of his life in the West, in London and New York. The artist, who had trained in New Delhi, left soon after for London, and most of his practice was limited to London and New York, the two cities he called his home till his unfortunately early death in 1991. In the roughly three-and-a-half decades of his career, Avinash’s work changed amazingly, reflecting his environment and milieu as he grew and adapted to cities vastly different from their Indian counterparts, with their own sub-cultures. That this happily coincided with a discovery of India, however superfluously, as a land of spirituality and sexuality, seemed to serve him well as his muse.

Ghare Baire was a museum-exhibition showcasing over 200 years of art in Bengal. Presented by DAG in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Archaeological Survey of India, the exhibition was housed at the historic Currency Building, across twelve galleries featuring over 700 artworks. The exhibition was the largest showcase of Bengal Art, presenting a panoramic view of the evolution of art in a region that has been critical to the development of Indian modern art. The exhibition starts with the arrival of the travelling European artists at a time of exchange between Bengal and the world. This confluence of cultures stimulated new visual languages as we see in the Kalighat pat,  the Bengal School, and the subsequent emergence of artists who fearlessly and freely experimented with form and subject, reshaping the trajectory of art in India.

For its debut participation in the modern section of Art Dubai 2017, DAG focussed on the unconventional theme of Neo-Tantra as a way of bringing India’s unique school of abstraction to global attention. The booth featured works by two of the country’s leading practitioners of this school—G. R. Santosh and Biren De. The stunning, colour- and energy-filled canvases drew all eyes towards itself, making it the singularly most-visited booth in the section.

How did the idea of Indian art come to be constructed over the last century and more? The painstaking work of collectors and curators went a long way towards establishing the history of art in India. In this article we highlight some of the most significant collectors of art from South Asia over the course of the twentieth century. Usually starting as personal collections, most of them would eventually donate their works to museums in India or abroad, allowing these rare works to be seen regularly by new generations of art enthusiasts across the world. Their collections, curated exhibitions and publications fashioned the canons of Indian modern and pre-modern art

Let us take a moment to appreciate this magnificent riverside scene that can be instantly recognised as a view of Benares by the distinctive steep steps, or ghats, running down to the Ganga. American artist and Orientalist Edwin Lord Weeks had a remarkable ability to create an impression of a real-time scene unfolding before viewers, enhanced by the subtle plays of light and colour. A prolific artist who created a visual diary of his travels through his paintings—of which his India works are arguably his finest with an appeal that has transcended time.

The Story of Bengal Art presents a panoramic view of the evolution of visual arts in the region. The second episode, presented by Prof. Tapati Guha-Thakurta, picks up at the turn of the 20th century, when Bengal became an important nerve-centre of India's nationalist movement. The series was shot in the majestic galleries of DAG's Ghare Baire museum-exhibition at Kolkata's Currecy Building.

Sunayani Devi picked up a paintbrush in 1905 when she was thirty years old while supervising her kitchen duties, self-taught, but with enough talent to attract the critical attention of Stella Kramrisch who organised an exhibition of her paintings in Germany in 1927. It was in her worthy footsteps that India’s women artists followed. Devayani Krishna was born five years after Sunayani Devi began painting; Amrita Sher-Gil already had a career in Paris by the time India’s first art school-trained woman artist, Ambika Dhurandhar, earned her diploma in Bombay. B. Prabha followed next, her work reflecting the realities of the marginalised in a piquant language. By the time Nasreen Mohamedi and Zarina Hashmi, both born a decade before Independence, established their careers, women were joining art schools in greater numbers, validating their practice not on the basis of their gender but on its context. Anupam Sud Devayani Krishna Gogi Saroj Pal Latika Katt Madhvi Parekh Mrinalini Mukherjee Navjot Rekha Rodwittiya Shobha Broota Zarina Hashmi