Freedom to Form

In 1970, K. G. Subramanyan highlighted Gujarat's significant impact on India's art scene, particularly noting its early interventions in modern architecture and the establishment of progressive art institutions post-independence. Baroda historically enjoyed royal patronage and an indigenous modernity under rulers such as Maharaja Sayajirao III Gaekwad, yet lacked a formal institution before independence. Unlike Calcutta and Bombay, it had no pre-existing art institutions established during British rule, making the creation of Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda especially significant. Breaking from colonial pedagogy, MSU fostered a new idiom of indigenousness. The founding of its Faculty of Fine Arts in 1950 marked a turning point, enabling artists to explore varied styles and generate a visually diverse output.

Freedom to Form: Baroda Modern highlights this crucial phase in India's modern art history, tracing the origins and evolution of the Baroda School. Beyond showcasing modern and contemporary artists nurtured at the Faculty of Fine Arts, the exhibition tries to foreground the pedagogical shifts led by K. G. Subramanyan, Gulammohammed Sheikh and Jyoti Bhatt. As seminal figures, they mentored a generation while reshaping academic discourse, resulting in the school's distinctive diversity of ideas, styles and movements.

The accompanying volume carries essays by Priya Maholay-Jaradi, who revisits Maharaja Sayajirao III's modernisation of Baroda's arts and crafts (1875–1920) and the princely foundations on which the FFA would later rest; Dr Kathleen Wyma, who examines the progressive pedagogies that shaped the Gujarat Modern between 1960 and 1990; Sandhya Bordewekar, who offers an intimate portrait of K. G. Subramanyan as artist, teacher and presence in Baroda's cultural life; Kanupriya Sharma, whose essay traces Jyoti Bhatt's artistic and pedagogical formation at MSU and his lasting contribution to its printmaking infrastructure; and Gayatri Sinha, who writes on Gulammohammed Sheikh and the rise of narrative figuration.