Search results for: 'Program for city as a muse'

At the turn of the twentieth century, Abanindranath Tagore asked himself if the emerging artists of modern India should continue to paint in the manner of their European colonizers; or was there a new path waiting to be forged? His answers led him to envision a pan-Asian cultural identity, spanning traditions from Persia to Japan, and culminating in a ‘new “Indian” art.’ Regarded as the founder of the Bengal School, Abanindranath left an unparalleled legacy both in terms of his own diverse body of work, and through his pupils, like Nandalal Bose, who shaped the contours of art across the subcontinent in the twentieth century.

Photographer Nemai Ghosh has been the quintessential Satyajit Ray biographer through his decades-long close association with the master filmmaker. Over a lifetime of work, he has built up a vast and valuable photographic archive, now housed at DAG.

Landscape art arrived in India through travelling European artists who brought the aesthetic of painting mountains, rivers and trees against the sky and a distant horizon—nature as a subject in itself —to Indian art, where it had traditionally only formed a backdrop in narrative-driven, figural paintings. The genre remained popular throughout the nineteenth century with a great demand for landscapes of India both in Europe and among the newly anglicised elite in India. Its popularity began to wane with the advent of modernism and a growing emphasis on the human figure, but several Indian artists, a significant name among them Gopal Ghose, continued to practice the form, now absorbing a wide range of new artistic trends and influences. A.A. Almelkar Abanindranath Tagore Ambika Dhurandhar Amitava Anonymous (Company School) Anonymous (Early Bengal) Atul Bose Avinash Chandra B. C. Gue B. N. Arya Bhupen Khakhar Bijan Choudhary Bikash Bhattcharjee Bimal Dasgupta Bireswar Sen Bishnupada Roychowdhury Chittaprosad D. C. Joglekar D. J. Joshi Devraj Dakoji Devyani Krishna Dharamnarayan Dasgupta Dulal Gue E. A. Dadi Edward Cheney F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh G. S. Haldankar Ganesh Haloi Gobardhan Ash Gopal Ghose H. A. Gade Haren Das Hirachand Dugar Indra Dugar J. P. Gangooly Jamini Roy John Deschamps Jyoti Bhatt K H. Ara K. C. S. Panicker K. K. Hebba K. Laxma Gou K. S. Kulkarni Kanwal Krishna Kisory Roy Kripal Singh Shekhawat L. N. Taskar L. P. Shaw Lalit Mohan Sen Laxman Pai M. F. Husain M. V. Dhurandhar Manishi Dey Mukul Dey N. R. Sardesai N. S. Bendre Nandalal Bose Nikhil Biswas Olinto Ghilardi P. Khemraj Paramjit Singh Pestonji E. Bomanji Prokash Karmakar Prosanto Roy Radha Charan Bagchi Raja Ravi Varma Ram Kumar Ramendranath Chakravorty Ramkinkar Baij Ranen Ayan Dutta Richard Barron Robert Grindlay S. G. Thakur Singh S. K. Bakre S. L. Haldankar Satish Sinha Sudhir Khastgir Sunil Das Thomas Daniell William Carpenter William Hodges

One of the most distinguished families in Bengal, the Tagores exercised unparalleled influence over the cultural landscape of the region. The Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), and two of his nephews, Gaganendranath Tagore (1867-1938) and Abanindranath Tagore (1871 - 1951) were recognised as India’s National Art Treasure artists. Sunayani Devi (1875 -1962), their sister, is regarded as one of modern India’s first women painters known by name. Her lyrical paintings and embroideries often looked inward to an imagined world of fables and myths. At the turn of the twentieth century, we see Abanindranath emerging as the founder of the Bengal School as he envisioned a new Indian art that was free of colonial influence, rooted in pan-Asianism. Gaganendranath, on the other hand, was a prolific satirist and cartoonist, who imagined new forms and perspectives inspired by Cubism. Together they formed the influential Indian Society of Oriental Art in 1907, while Rabindranath’s school and university at Santiniketan would continue to shape modern art in Bengal for generations to come.

A close look at bus art with artist Sumantra Mukherjee as we join him on a walk through a bus depot, and a bus ride through the city where we try our hand at this popular visual language through paint and text. 

Manifestations VI features an assortment of seventy-five significant artists curated from its collection. Not organised around theme or style, Manifestations features a single work or a related series of works by each chosen artist, which reflect an important facet of their unique artistic journeys. Usually dominated by 20th century modern Indian art, Manifestations VI features works spanning three centuries, from a ‘Company Painting’ set in Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, done by Thomas Daniell for the East India Company in the 1790s, to an Early Bengal work of a ferocious Kali astride a supine Shiva, to several 20th century modern works. A A. Raiba Ambadas Amitava Anonymous (Early Bengal) Asit Kumar Haldar Avinash Chandra Amitava N. Arya Benode Bihari Mukherjee Bikash Bhattacharjee Bimal Dasgupta Biren De Bireswar Sen Charan Bagchi Chintamani Kar Chittaprosad P. Roy Chowdhury Dharamnarayan Dasgupta F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Ganesh Haloi George Keyt Gopal Deuskar Gopal Ghose Gulammohammed Sheikh Himmat Shah Indra Dugar J. P. Gangooly J. Sultan Ali Jamini Roy Jeram Patel Jyoti Bhatt Jogen Chowdhury K. C. S. Panicker K. K. Hebbar K. Laxma Goud K. S. Kulkarni Khagen Roy Kshitindranath Majumdar Laxman Pai M. A. R. Chughtai M. F. Husain M. F. Pithawalla M. V. Dhurandhar N. S. Bendre Nandalal Bose Nikhil Biswas P. Khemraj P. V. Janakiram Paritosh Sen Pestonji E. Bomanji Prodosh Das Gupta Prokash Karmakar R. Vijaiwargiya Rabin Mondal Raja Ravi Varma Ram Kumar Rameshwar Broota Ramkinkar Baij Ranbir Singh Kaleka Rasik Durgashankar Raval Radha Charan Bagchi S. H. Raza Satish Gujral Shanti Dave Shobha Broota Shyamal Dutta Ray Sohan Qadri Somnath Hore Suhas Roy Sunil Das Thomas Daniell Tyeb Mehta V. Nageshkar V. S. Gaitonde V. Viswanadhan

Given Singapore’s sizeable Indian population and its position as a leading financial centre, DAG’s debut at Art Stage Singapore was an obvious corollary. Indian artists are avidly collected in this city-state but DAG’s attempt, as always, was to introduce the masters to visitors at the fair. While keeping in mind the best modernists, it also curated a selection most likely to appeal to Eastern sensibilities—thereby displaying its range and the diversity of Indian art. Akbar Padamsee Ambadas Avinash Chandra B. Prabha Bikash Bhattacharjee Dhanraj Bhagat F. N. Souza G. R. Santosh Gogi Saroj Pal Himmat Shah J. Sultan Ali Jeram Patel K. H. Ara K. K. Hebbar Laxman Pai M. F. Husain N. S. Bendre P. T. Reddy Paramjit Singh Prokash Karmakar Rabin Mondal Ram Kumar S. Dhanapal S. H. Raza Sakti Burman Sohan Qadri Sunil Das

As in previous editions, ‘Iconic Masterpieces’ allows viewers to experience the pinnacles of Indian art through its lens of quality, historicity, and rarity—to which the element of surprise adds an unexpected piquancy. An ‘Iconic’ exhibition from DAG is like a museum tour where the best Indian art can be enjoyed through a lively and perceptive curatorial eye that acknowledges and helps extend our knowledge of it.

An exploration of the relationship between art and ecology through a visit to the house-museum of artists Chintamoni and Amina Kar with Prasanta Dan, along with a foliage study session in the idyllic bird sanctuary that surrounds it.

What is the role of collectors and collections or archives in the world of art today? Does it simply allude to practices of producing a consumable past today or does it also aspire to question the ways in which history has been shaped by powerful interventions in the form of artworks, performances and installations?  In this series of conversations, we wanted to explore the idea of collecting recent or contemporary art—and how it inevitably takes us back to the moderns who influenced such practices heavily. 

The Devi or the female power in Hindu mythology appears in various avatars in our everyday lives—as idols during the puja, on covers of magazines, product labels, calendars and posters. The modern history of visualising the Devi goes back to naturalistic depictions in oil paintings by the Early Bengal artists, which were surpassed in popularity and fame by Raja Ravi Varma and his studio. His representation, however, was regarded as too human-like by artists of the Bengal School in the early twentieth century, who created idealised forms based on a synthesis of classical visual traditions. In the twentieth century, we find artists responding to distinctive traits of the goddess to portray specific aspects of her power, or to convey the artist's own relationship with divinity. Few artists who have turned to Hindu myths have been able to escape the temptation to interpret the female power in their own way, and the diversity in style, medium, and mood is a testament to that.

A print is an original work of art created and printed by hand by an artist or a professional printing assistant from a ‘matrix’—a plate, block of stone, wood or stencil. The image is created on the matrix and the artist takes a limited number of impressions or prints off it. These impressions are numbered and signed by the artist and belong to a limited edition, and this makes the print an original work of art and not a reproduction. Printmaking consists of a wide range of processes: relief printmaking which consists of techniques like engraving, woodcut and linocut; planographic processes such as lithography and oleography, intaglio processes such as drypoint, etching, aquatint, mezzotint, photo processes and collography; and serigraphy, where the image is printed through a silk screen on to the paper. A P Bagchi A Ramachandran Abanindranath Tagore Ajit Dubey Akhilesh verma Akkitham Naryanan Amitabh Banerjee Amitava Anonymous Print Anupam Sud Arun Bose B P Banerjee Basudev Roy Bengal Lithograph Bengal Oleographs Bengal Woodcut Benod Behari Mukherjee Bhupen Khakhar Bijan Choudhury Chittaprosad Daniell William Devraj Dakoji Devyani Krishna Francis N Souza F. B Solvyns Ganesh Haloi Gulam Sheikh Haren Das Himmat Shah Indu Rakshit Indumati Roop Krishna Jagdish Dey Jagmohan Chopra Jai Zahrotia Jamini Roy Jyoti Bhatt K Laxma Goud K V Haridasan Krishna Ahuja Krishna Reddy Lalu Prasad Shaw M F Husain M. V Dhurandhar Madhvi Parekh Maniklal Banerjee Manu Parekh Moti Zahrotia Mrinalini Mukherjee Mukul Dey Nagji Patel Nalini Malani Nandalal Bose Navjot Paneer Selvam Partha Pratim Deb Portrait Punjab Litho Qamrool Hassan R B Bhaskaran Rabin Mondal Radha Charan Bagchi Ram Kumar Ramendranath Chakravorthy Ramkinkar Baij Rani Dey Ravi Varma Press Ravi Varma Print Rini Dhumal Sakti Burman Sanat Kar Satish Gujral Shobha Broota Shyamal Dutta Ray Somnath Hore Sudhir Khastgir Sunil Das Sunil Madhav Sen Suren Gangooly Sushanta Guha Sushil Sen Suvaprasanna Tapan Bhowmik Tarak Basu Thoman Daniell V Vishwanadhan Various Litho and Olio Vijay Bagodi Vinayak Masoji Vivan Sundaram Walter D’Souza Yogesh Rawal Zainul Abedin