India Modern: Narratives from 20th Century Indian Art

Rabin Mondal grew up in the politically turbulent 1940s. The Bengal famine in '43 and the Calcutta communal riots of '46 deeply impacted his psyche. He returns to various forms of violence in his artworks. His figures are executed with a simplicity of style and raw energy.

In this Untitled work from the early 1970s, a woman stands, her hands clasped across her chest and her eyes shut in a gesture of grief, no longer able to bear the horror and pain of what she encounters. Red paint is splashed all over her, from her face down to her feet, making her seem bloodied from real and emotional injury. 

Rabin Mondal grew up in the politically turbulent 1940s. The Bengal famine in '43 and the Calcutta communal riots of '46 deeply impacted his psyche. He returns to various forms of violence in his artworks. His figures are executed with a simplicity of style and raw energy.

In this Untitled work from the early 1970s, a woman stands, her hands clasped across her chest and her eyes shut in a gesture of grief, no longer able to bear the horror and pain of what she encounters. Red paint is splashed all over her, from her face down to her feet, making her seem bloodied from real and emotional injury. 

G. R. Santosh was a self-taught artist who was born in a lower middle class Shia Muslim family in Srinagar, Kashmir and found inspiration in the Hindu and Buddhist tantric cults that had coexisted with the region’s Sufi mysticism for centuries. 

As Santosh began to explore these fundamental tenets of tantric and Kashmiri Shaivite philosophy through what came to be known as the neo-Tantric school of art, he painted the Shiva Shakti series of which this painting is a masterly example. The painting reflects the mystical union between Shiva and Shakti, between purush and prakriti. A transcendental experience in Tantra, this is the supremely joyful trance from which all life begins. 

G. R. Santosh was a self-taught artist who was born in a lower middle class Shia Muslim family in Srinagar, Kashmir and found inspiration in the Hindu and Buddhist tantric cults that had coexisted with the region’s Sufi mysticism for centuries. 

As Santosh began to explore these fundamental tenets of tantric and Kashmiri Shaivite philosophy through what came to be known as the neo-Tantric school of art, he painted the Shiva Shakti series of which this painting is a masterly example. The painting reflects the mystical union between Shiva and Shakti, between purush and prakriti. A transcendental experience in Tantra, this is the supremely joyful trance from which all life begins. 

One of the significant artists associated with the influential Progressive Artists’ Group in Bombay, Ram Kumar ranks among India’s most significant abstractionists. He began painting abstract landscapes in the 1970s—compositions where the forms of the earth, sky, hill, river or trees are not easily discernible, expressed as they are, through planes of pure colour. 

All of B. Prabha’s works are marked by a formal elegance of both compositional arrangement as well as palette and brushwork. Her works are filled with recurrent images of drought and homelessness. In this landscape, we see one such scene where the dried trees, standing amidst the desert, communicate the misery, pain of tenacity of people who are looking for a refuge.

One of the significant artists associated with the influential Progressive Artists’ Group in Bombay, Ram Kumar ranks among India’s most significant abstractionists. He began painting abstract landscapes in the 1970s—compositions where the forms of the earth, sky, hill, river or trees are not easily discernible, expressed as they are, through planes of pure colour. 

All of B. Prabha’s works are marked by a formal elegance of both compositional arrangement as well as palette and brushwork. Her works are filled with recurrent images of drought and homelessness. In this landscape, we see one such scene where the dried trees, standing amidst the desert, communicate the misery, pain of tenacity of people who are looking for a refuge.

Born in Lyallpur in pre-Partition Punjab, Krishen Khanna grew up in Lahore and later took evening classes at the Mayo School of Art while doing a day job at a bank. Krishen Khanna has been drawn towards Biblical themes since his childhood but when he explored them in his art, he adapted them to his cultural context. In this Untitled portrait of Christ, Khanna imagines him as a young man with splayed arms but with no cross in sight. His suffering is centred deeply in his face, in his close withdrawn eyes, the flared open nostrils and in the thick, expressionist outline of his eyebrows and beard down to his narrow torso. 

One of India’s foremost contemporary painters, Ganesh Pyne’s works stem from his constant engagement with the nature of existence, time and its passing. Drawing from the wealth of images supplied by our folklore and mythology, he explores their far reaching influence on human psychology and creates uncanny images of creatures that draw the viewer’s attention to a world beyond the familiar. In this Untitled work from 2004, we see a human mask taking up space against a flat umber ground and emerging into light that falls on its forehead.

Born in Lyallpur in pre-Partition Punjab, Krishen Khanna grew up in Lahore and later took evening classes at the Mayo School of Art while doing a day job at a bank. Krishen Khanna has been drawn towards Biblical themes since his childhood but when he explored them in his art, he adapted them to his cultural context. In this Untitled portrait of Christ, Khanna imagines him as a young man with splayed arms but with no cross in sight. His suffering is centred deeply in his face, in his close withdrawn eyes, the flared open nostrils and in the thick, expressionist outline of his eyebrows and beard down to his narrow torso. 

One of India’s foremost contemporary painters, Ganesh Pyne’s works stem from his constant engagement with the nature of existence, time and its passing. Drawing from the wealth of images supplied by our folklore and mythology, he explores their far reaching influence on human psychology and creates uncanny images of creatures that draw the viewer’s attention to a world beyond the familiar. In this Untitled work from 2004, we see a human mask taking up space against a flat umber ground and emerging into light that falls on its forehead.

Born into a middle-class Bengali family, Bikash Bhattacharjee painted prolifically in a style that was simultaneously academic as well as provocative. The end of the '60s, up to the mid-'70s, was marked by a series of surreal paintings with a subtext of the demonic or subhuman in a setting of either dark fantasy or farce. Ceremony depicts a devotee, naked and seated, perhaps in a gesture of obedience. One wonders whether her face indicates acceptance of her fate or simply a disenchanted resignation. 

Death and horror recur in Sunil Das’s canvas. Art writer Manasij Majumdar identifies the recurrent images of the same woman in his oils, often identified as a prostitute, and speculates about her presence in his personal life. What makes Das’s perspective curious, however, is that there is about the woman a strength of character and vitality.  The painting perhaps expresses her stance as a woman who is prepared to straddle the world, however degraded. 

Dharamnarayan Dasgupta’s Bengali babu is archetypal, with his slick hair, a small moustache, his starched, pleated dhoti, well-shod feet, and almost invariably clad in a striped kurta. The umbrella, without which no Kolkata babu steps outside his home, is held in one hand, while Superman-like, he glides off in space—perhaps as a nightly habit or dalliance. Perhaps the artist is sardonically pointing out his state of being umoored from ground realities.

Born into a middle-class Bengali family, Bikash Bhattacharjee painted prolifically in a style that was simultaneously academic as well as provocative. The end of the '60s, up to the mid-'70s, was marked by a series of surreal paintings with a subtext of the demonic or subhuman in a setting of either dark fantasy or farce. Ceremony depicts a devotee, naked and seated, perhaps in a gesture of obedience. One wonders whether her face indicates acceptance of her fate or simply a disenchanted resignation. 

Death and horror recur in Sunil Das’s canvas. Art writer Manasij Majumdar identifies the recurrent images of the same woman in his oils, often identified as a prostitute, and speculates about her presence in his personal life. What makes Das’s perspective curious, however, is that there is about the woman a strength of character and vitality.  The painting perhaps expresses her stance as a woman who is prepared to straddle the world, however degraded. 

Dharamnarayan Dasgupta’s Bengali babu is archetypal, with his slick hair, a small moustache, his starched, pleated dhoti, well-shod feet, and almost invariably clad in a striped kurta. The umbrella, without which no Kolkata babu steps outside his home, is held in one hand, while Superman-like, he glides off in space—perhaps as a nightly habit or dalliance. Perhaps the artist is sardonically pointing out his state of being umoored from ground realities.

Born into a middle-class Bengali family, Bikash Bhattacharjee painted prolifically in a style that was simultaneously academic as well as provocative. The end of the '60s, up to the mid-'70s, was marked by a series of surreal paintings with a subtext of the demonic or subhuman in a setting of either dark fantasy or farce. Ceremony depicts a devotee, naked and seated, perhaps in a gesture of obedience. One wonders whether her face indicates acceptance of her fate or simply a disenchanted resignation. 

Death and horror recur in Sunil Das’s canvas. Art writer Manasij Majumdar identifies the recurrent images of the same woman in his oils, often identified as a prostitute, and speculates about her presence in his personal life. What makes Das’s perspective curious, however, is that there is about the woman a strength of character and vitality.  The painting perhaps expresses her stance as a woman who is prepared to straddle the world, however degraded. 

Dharamnarayan Dasgupta’s Bengali babu is archetypal, with his slick hair, a small moustache, his starched, pleated dhoti, well-shod feet, and almost invariably clad in a striped kurta. The umbrella, without which no Kolkata babu steps outside his home, is held in one hand, while Superman-like, he glides off in space—perhaps as a nightly habit or dalliance. Perhaps the artist is sardonically pointing out his state of being umoored from ground realities.

Born into a prosperous Ceylonese family of Indo-Dutch origin, George Keyt spent his childhood in an environment where Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and European cultures commingled, a premise that would later appear in his work. This painting is an excellent example of how a particular style could inspire artists around the world. A woman seated beside a vase of flowers is hardly an unusual choice as a subject but here Keyt has suffused it with a local sensibility, particularly in his use of colours.

Anjolie Ela Menon was trained in the J. J. School of Art in Bombay and later practised in ateliers in Europe. Inspired by medieval Christian art, Menon prepares a hard surface such as wood or Masonite by applying thin layers of paint, and then scrapes and repaints it over with translucent colours to finally arrive at a smooth, polished surface. Their evocative textures and jewellike colours create the haunting quality of her still, brooding figures. This painting titled Madonna of Merriweather Road was created at the height of the counterculture movement, when immigrants from around the world populated the cosmopolitan Bombay. The artist recalls encountering one such poor European woman begging on the streets. She was beautiful under the grime, Madonna-like,’ the artist recalls, ‘but with blank eyes’. The artist has placed her Madonna in the centre, the familiar figure of the goat taking the place of a cat in other works from this series. 

Born into a prosperous Ceylonese family of Indo-Dutch origin, George Keyt spent his childhood in an environment where Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and European cultures commingled, a premise that would later appear in his work. This painting is an excellent example of how a particular style could inspire artists around the world. A woman seated beside a vase of flowers is hardly an unusual choice as a subject but here Keyt has suffused it with a local sensibility, particularly in his use of colours.

Anjolie Ela Menon was trained in the J. J. School of Art in Bombay and later practised in ateliers in Europe. Inspired by medieval Christian art, Menon prepares a hard surface such as wood or Masonite by applying thin layers of paint, and then scrapes and repaints it over with translucent colours to finally arrive at a smooth, polished surface. Their evocative textures and jewellike colours create the haunting quality of her still, brooding figures. This painting titled Madonna of Merriweather Road was created at the height of the counterculture movement, when immigrants from around the world populated the cosmopolitan Bombay. The artist recalls encountering one such poor European woman begging on the streets. She was beautiful under the grime, Madonna-like,’ the artist recalls, ‘but with blank eyes’. The artist has placed her Madonna in the centre, the familiar figure of the goat taking the place of a cat in other works from this series.