A miniature landscape artist par excellence, Bireswar Sen is known for evolving a unique style wherein he painted vistas of the gigantic Himalayas and the deep valleys on a minuscule scale. Learn More
Among artists, Velu Viswanadhan is often referred to as ‘Paris’ Viswanadhan because he made the French capital his home. Born in 1940 in Kollam, Kerala, Viswanadhan joined Government College of Fine Arts, Madras, in 1960, where he studied under K. C. S. Paniker, and along with him became a founder-member of the Cholamandal Artists’ Village. Learn More
One of India’s most revered ‘non-objective’ painters—he preferred that term over ‘abstraction’—Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde was born in Nagpur in 1924. He received his diploma in painting from Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, in 1948. Impressed by his work, the members of the Progressive Artists’ Group—formed in 1947—pulled him into their meetings. The strength of his talent was soon recognised elsewhere—he won the first prize of the Young Asian Artists Association in Tokyo in 1957, and a John D. Rockefeller III Fund fellowship in 1964. Learn More
Born into a family of painters in Kolhapur, Vasant Anant Mali studied art professionally at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay, in the 1920s. It was here that he grasped the nuances of painting through academic realism. Working mostly in the medium of watercolour and oil, Mali keenly observed how some of his teachers, including Walter Langhammer, worked with various tools and applied bold brushstrokes with knife. Mali’s work had a forcefulness, a depth that was unique and could be seen, particularly, in portraits done by him. Learn More
Born in New Delhi on 4 June 1961, Subba Ghosh has carved a niche for himself with art that overturns reality to show a mirror to society’s lived hyperreality, through paintings, prints, animation, installations, puppets, and video art. Ghosh’s mirror throws not just a passive light on reality but also makes a critical, political comment on issues such as the relationship between the state and its subjects. Learn More
Sohan Qadri was born in a wealthy farming family in Punjab’s Chachoki village on 2 November 1932. When he was seven, he came across two spiritualists living on the family farm—Bikham Giri, a Bengali Tantric-Vajrayan Yogi, and Ahmed Ali Shah Qadri, a Sufi. Both gurus had a tremendous impact on young Qadri and taught him spiritual ideals through meditation, dance, and music. His association with them heralded a lifelong commitment to spirituality and art. Learn More
The most definitive painter of the portraits of the Sikh gurus, Sobha Singh was born on 29 November 1901 at Gurdaspur in the Punjab. Interested in the arts since childhood, he learnt to draw and sculpt on his own, the early death of his parents depriving him of formal training in art. He joined the British Indian army as a draughtsman and continued to learn from studying the works of English and European artists. Learn More
Renowned for his versatility as painter, sculptor, muralist, and architect, Satish Gujral was born in Jhelum in pre-Partition Punjab on 25 December 1925. His parents nurtured his inclination towards the creative arts while he was recovering from an accident as a child that cost him his hearing and speech. He trained at Mayo School of Art, Lahore, and briefly at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay. He also came in contact with the Progressive Artists’ Group but parted ways to chart his own course in search of an Indian modernism. Learn More
One of the most important South Asian artists of the twentieth century, Syed Ahmed Sadequain Naqvi was born in Amroha in Uttar Pradesh in pre-Partition India and grew up in a family that highly valued calligraphy. He moved to Delhi in 1944 to work as a calligrapher-copyist with All India Radio where his elder brother was also working, but shifted to Pakistan following Partition. Moving between jobs for a few years in his new homeland, Sadequain devoted himself fully to the arts in 1955 after his fame as an artist rose with the patronage of the country’s prime minister, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. Learn More
Born in 1899 in the village of Verka near Amritsar, S. G. Thakar Singh showed early aptitude for the arts by drawing on the walls of his home with coal. With no formal training, he went on to excel in the academic style of painting, rendering stunning landscapes, portraits and still-lifes. He apprenticed under local artist Mohd. Alam and moved with him to Bombay when the latter found a job as a stage artist with a theatre company. Learn More
Born in Amritsar on 17 November 1926, R. N. Pasricha grew up in Delhi. Graduating in science, he worked as a typist to earn his livelihood. But, it was painting that drew him—a passion since childhood— and he enrolled for night classes in art. He honed his skills in painting under the guidance of artist Abani Sen. Learn More
One of the nine National Treasure artists of India, Russia-born Nicholas Roerich was not just a painter but a stage designer for ballets, an explorer, writer, and philosopher. As a painter, he is best remembered for his ethereal paintings of the mist-laden and wispy Himalayas, done mostly in tempera or oil. These paintings remain some of the best works celebrating the mighty mountain range. Learn More