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Modernists In Focus: Art Festivals, Early 2023

Shreeja Sen

February 01, 2023

With the cultural calendar being packed till spring, join us as we travel through some of the most popular ongoing or upcoming art fairs and biennales. Take a close look at artists who bring modernist ideas to the contemporary art context. With some ubiquitous names from the twentieth century art world accompanied by a few of those that have been historically overlooked, discover how ideas around the Modern have evolved through these fairs and biennales, as we focus on notable artists from each art festival and delve into their practice.

'It is the sovereign judgment of art history, with its unremitting dimension of universality and totality, that leads us to question whether it is possible to develop a singular conception of artistic modernity, and whether it is permissible to still retain the idea that the unique, wise, and discriminating judgment of curatorial taste, or what some would ambiguously called criticality, ought to remain the reality of how we evaluate contemporary art today.' 

Okwui Enwezor, The Postcolonial Constellation: Contemporary Art in a State of Permanent Transition, in Research in African Literatures, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Winter, 2003)

Nilima Sheikh, India (b. 1945)

Mountain Tales II - 2003

Watercolour and monoprint on paper

11.7 x 17.7 in. (29.7 x 45.0 cm).
Private collection

Nilima Sheikh

River: Carrying Across, Leaving Behind (Detail) - 2001

Casein on canvas

480.0 X 72.0 in./ 1219.2 X 182.9 cm.
Private Collection

Sharjah Biennial

Sharjah UAE, February 2023 – June 2023

Sharjah Biennial 15, Thinking Historically in the Present, uses curator, critic, educator and writer, Okwui Enwezor’s visionary work to critically examine the past in the current moment. Amongst other conversations sustained through Enwezor’s conceptual framework, the engagement with the multiple postcolonial manifestations of modernism is presented through the works of participating artists.

Nilima Sheikh’s practice, rooted in traditional Indian painting techniques, negotiates the facets of modernism and the postcolonial experience in India by integrating folklore and mythology with modern concerns around nation building and communal tensions.   

‘There are, it seems, two senses to the term ‘abstract’: a strong sense that excludes all figuration, and a weaker more broadly applicable sense whereby figurative elements persist, but in ways that depart from traditional illusionism and emphasise the physical and ‘expressive’ properties of the painted surface or the sculpted object.’

Brendan Prendeville, Modernism and figuration, in Art & Visual Culture: 1850-2010 ed. Steve Edwards and Paul Wood, 2012

Nasreen Mohamedi, India (1937-1990)

Untitled - 1970s

Pen and ink on paper

19.7 x 19.7 in. (50.0 x 50.0 cm).
Private collection

Arpita Singh, India (b. 1937)

What are you doing here - 1992

Oil on canvas

36.0 x 60.0 in. (91.4 x 152.4 cm).
Private collection

Arpita Singh , India (b. 1937)

Untitled

Ink on paper

11.0 x 7.5 in. (27.9 x 19.1 cm).
Collection: DAG

Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Kochi, India, December 2022 - April 2023

Situated in the colonial cosmopolis of Kochi and the mythical ancient city of Muziris, the Kochi-Muziris biennale is informed by its unique geographical, cultural, and political location. Curated by artists since its inception, the current edition, ‘In our veins flow ink and fire’, features two essential figures of Indian modernism. 

Nasreen Mohamedi’s practice has been celebrated for enabling an expansion of the understanding of modernism for a global audience. Initially having experimented with figurative works, Mohamedi moved onto developing a singular style of abstraction that reflected her encounters with the architecture, film, and music of the time.

From her early experiments in abstraction to her large works with human figures, Arpita Singh weaves together everyday narratives with personal expression. Her abstract compositions, mostly done in monochrome, were focused on the expressiveness of lines and textures, and eventually gave way to vibrant figurative canvases that are dense with folk and mythological allusions. 

‘Instead of vanguardism there is in India the double discourse of the national and the modern. It is a generative discourse and can yield multiple equations. Nationalism calls up the category of tradition, modernism catapults into internationalism.’

Geeta Kapur, When was Modernism, 2000

Chittaprosad, India (1915-1978)

Untitled (Tell Me a Story Please)

Linocut on paper

6.7 x 9.0 in. (17.0 x 22.9 cm).
Collection: DAG

Chittaprosad, India (1915-1978)

The Little Mermaid

Linocut on paper

8.5 x 11.0 in. (21.6 x 27.9 cm).
Collection: DAG

Krishna Reddy, India (1925 - 2018)

Maternity

Viscosity on handmade paper

24.7 x 19.2 in. (62.7 x 48.8 cm).
Collection: DAG

Krishna Reddy, India (1925 - 2018)

Three Graces

Viscosity on handmade paper

9.5 x 19.2 in. (24.1 x 48.8 cm).
Collection: DAG

Dhaka Art Summit

Dhaka, Bangladesh, 3 -11 February 2023

An international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia with a focus on Bangladesh, Dhaka Art Summit (DAS), explores the relationship between the regional and the international.

Chittaprosad, most well-known for his striking images of the 1943 Bengal Famine, was a prolific political artist. DAS’s exhibition with the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Very Small Feelings, will take a cue from Chittaprosad’s prompt to tell a story, and bring artists and audiences together to ruminate on the power of stories. Featuring playful prints of folklore and children’s stories from around the world rendered in his striking graphic style, the exhibition showcases Chittaprosad’s ability to meld ‘global’ narratives with ‘regional’ practice.

Another pioneering 20th century printmaker, Krishna Reddy’s innovations with printing techniques such as intaglio resulted in new relationships between medium and form, and earned him worldwide renown. Initially trained at Santiniketan, Reddy came to embody the modern ‘global’ citizen with his evolving practice, as well as his career as an educator.

“… the modern, occurring in tandem with anticolonial struggles, is deeply politicized and carries with it the potential for resistance.”

Geeta Kapur, When was Modernism

Mohamed Melehi, Morocco (1936 - 2020)

Untitled, 1982

Oil on canvas

127 x 105.5 cm, Framed 138x116.5x4.5 cm.
Courtesy of Ramzi & Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation

Mohamed Melehi, Morocco (1936 - 2020)

Time Square, 1963

Acrylic on wood panel

149.5 x 119.5 cm, Framed 153x123.5x5.5 cm.
Courtesy of Ramzi & Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation

Hamed Abdalla, Egypt (1917 - 1985)

Revolutionaries, 1959

Gouache on paper

29 x 19 cm, Framed 54x45x2 cm.
Courtesy of Ramzi & Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation

Hamed Abdalla, Egypt (1917 - 1985)

Women at the Market

Oil and watercolour on paper

23.5 x 30.5 cm.
Courtesy of Ramzi & Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation

MENART Fair 

Brussels, Belgium, 3 - 5 February 2023 

Dedicated to bringing the modern and contemporary art scene of the Middle East and Northern African regions to Europe, MENART fair, highlights the richness and innovation in art of the region, and brings emergent voices of contemporary art into conversation with some internationally recognised modern artists.

Mohamed Melehi used traditional Moroccan art as inspiration, and Bauhaus as a model, to push the boundaries of Moroccan art. As both artist and educator, he sought to develop a modern national identity through art and culture that was intimately cognisant of its historic roots.

Hamed Abdalla was trained in Arabic calligraphy in Qur’anic school, with a practice that was anchored by the language itself. Both figurative and abstract, his work is deeply political—often touching upon anti-imperialism, (re)appropriation, and revolutionary themes; and demonstrates the nuanced and complex relationship between Egyptian modernism and European history and politics.

‘I'm a practicing artist within the context of Modernism, and I shall speak to you as an artist...About thirty years ago in Karachi I was introduced to modern art, through the information we used to get in the magazines and books imported from the West, as well as through the activities of contemporary Pakistani artists. I became so fascinated by the 'progressive' aspect of Modernism that I decided to devote my life to its pursuit...But by the early 70s I began to realise that whatever I did, my status as an artist was not determined by what I did or produced. Somehow I began to feel that the context or history of Modernism was not available to me, as I was often reminded by other people of the relationship of my work to my own Islamic tradition...’

Rasheed Araeen, “From primitivism to ethnic arts”, in Third Text, vol. 1, issue 1, 1987

Nirode Mazumdar, India (1916-1982)

Untitled (Boitorini Series)

Oil on hardboard

48.0 x 96.0 in. / 121.9 x 243.8 cm.
Collection: DAG

Nirode Mazumdar, India (1916-1982)

Untitled

Gouache on handmade paper pasted on canvas

25.0 x 34.5 in. (63.5 x 87.6 cm.)
Collection: DAG

Rasheed Araeen, United Kingdom (b. 1935)

Allah (red), 2022

Acrylic on canvas

63.25 x 63.25 in (160.66 x 160.66 cm)
Image Courtesy of Aicon and Rasheed Araeen

Rasheed Araeen, United Kingdom (b. 1935)

Untitled, 2022

Acrylic on wood

72 x 81 x 11 in (182.88 x 205.74 x 27.94 cm)
Image Courtesy of Aicon and Rasheed Araeen

India Art Fair

Delhi, India, 9 -12 February 2023 

India Art Fair has established itself as a platform for the dynamic art market in South Asia and beyond—bringing together modern masters and contemporary practices at the forefront of artistic innovation.

Nirode Mazumdar was a founding member of the Calcutta Group, which came together in the turbulent years of World War II, before Independence. His work amalgamated ideas of internationalism, regionalism and remained socially committed, while also pursuing a freedom of form and expression. Mazumdar was also a prolific writer and a part of a wider community of creative practitioners who shaped and sustained critical dialogues on modern Indian art.

Rasheed Araeen works across painting, sculpture, photography and participatory works. Initially drawn to the progressive potential of modernist experiments with figuration and abstraction, Araeen’s work moved towards minimalism—drawing from his training as an engineer to create sculptural works, and introducing philosophies of symmetry from Islamic visual traditions. As a curator and the founding editor of the critical journal Third Text, Araeen has also been crucial to challenging Eurocentric ideas of modernism.

‘Western art doesn’t have to be seen in opposition to art from elsewhere, but can be seen in a dialogue that helps protect the differences and decisions that present the material, circumstances and conditions of production in which artists fashion their view of what enlightenment could be.’

Okwui Enwezor in conversation with Companion #11, Rethinking Art with Curator Okwui Enwezor, re-published in 'Friends of Friends' magazine

YUN Suknam, South Korea (b. 1939)

Red Meal, 2003

Acrylic on wood

158x125x10 cm.
Image courtesy Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul

YUN Suknam, South Korea (b. 1939)

Mother I - 19 Years Old, 1993

Acrylic on wood

158x125x10 cm.
Image courtesy Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul

Frieze Los Angeles 

Los Angeles, USA, 16 -19 February 2023 

Our final art destination is Frieze Los Angeles 2023. The fair will feature 20 galleries with a focus on twentieth century artists which include icons of modern art from around the world along with pioneers who have been historically overlooked such as Korean feminist artist Yun Suknam.   

Yun Suknam’s works are her mode of resistance against the traditional gender roles within families and in the nation building project. Returning to Korea from New York after completing her studies, Suknam became a founding member of the feminist collective October Group, and took part in exhibitions that have been proclaimed as turnkey moments in Korean art. Now included in collections all over the world, her work continues to push the boundaries of Eurocentric ideals of feminism through a sustained engagement with modern Korean history and politics woven with her own personal and community histories.