The Rise of Modernism in Indian Art

Art is most relevant when it is created as a mirror held up to reflect a society’s culture, history, and/or politics. This is never more true that in the contemporary art movement of India, which over the course of the past century or so has used themes indigenous to that subcontinent to produce images that combines emotions with expression.

The modern art era in India has its genesis in the Revivalists movement during the last decades of the 19th century. At a time when European painters like Cézanne, Renoir, and Van Gogh were experimenting with Impressionism, the Revivalists were regressing into India’s past by incorporating Hindu and Buddhist themes into their work. Representative of this group were Ravi Verma (1848 – 1906) known for his Indian mythological subject matter, Abanindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941) who revisited India’s spiritual past, and Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877 – 1947) who interpreted Indian culture to the West. Revivalist art was deeply influenced by the glorious past and heritage of India, by its great epics and transcendental philosophy.

The next important movement occurred at the nexus of Indian history in the late 1940’s when the country was experiencing tremendous national upheaval after gaining its independence from the British Empire. F. N. Souza formed the Progressive Artist Group, who with other founding members included M. F. Husain, K. H. Ara, H. A. Gade, S. K. Bakre, and S. H. Raza. The group declared that they intended to go forward, and being “progressive”, summarily denouncing the influence of past Indian artists as too sentimental and old-fashioned. With an intentional, unabashed homage to European contemporaries, the artists created pieces that drew parallels of the tension between the local and the global by creating art within the framework of international modernism.

By the late 1970’s, the movement had faded out, with Raza, Souza, and Husain emerging as distinguished, respected artists, each developing their own unique methodology. Raza found his fame in Paris, Souza in London, where he continued to produce shocking, compelling, and challenging artwork. Husain remained in India where he continues to paint the essence of India, its countryside and mythology.

After the bold and undeniable success of the Progressive Artists Group, new talent with new ideas again transformed the Indian art scene. Liberated from archetypal themes by those who preceded them, painters like Tyeb Mehta, Ram Kumar, Akbar Padamesee, and a host of others began a quest for their own styles. The atmosphere came alive with national art events, news and discussions, and galleries and museums opening up everywhere, especially in the cultural centers of Dehli, Mumbai, and Calcutta.

In the last decade, geography and history have shed their boundaries and Indian artists have come in contact with styles and techniques from all the corners of the world. But amid the tangled scene of contemporary culture and global economies, there is again a struggle for self-expression. Looking at the work of a number of modern Indian artists, there seems little to differentiate their imagery from art made in other parts of the world; yet their cultural heritage does affect their work, even if it is not apparent. The current Indian painting scene is very dynamic and eclectic, with young talented Indian artists (see New Generation of Artists Making their Mark blog below) making innovative contributions to world art on their own terms while garnering international attention.

NY Auction to Benefit National Art Museum

If you are interested in helping support a national art museum—the first of its kind in India—then circle your calendar for Tuesday, July 17th. That’s the day Sotheby’s New York will be holding an auction of approximately 95 lots to raise money for the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art (KMOMA). The sale will be the first time that over 70 artists, various galleries, private individuals and an international auction house have come together to support such a project.

The objectives of KMOMA are to collect, preserve and exhibit national and international works from the 18th century to contemporary art, and is a joint venture between the government of West Bengal and the private sector. Spread over 10 acres in Rajarhat, Kolkata, the national museum will have four major sections: National Galleries, Western Galleries, Far Eastern Galleries and a large academic wing to promote research, conservation and curatorial practices. It will primarily house works of visual art, along with photography, cinema, design and architecture.

Important works up for bid at the July sale include paintings, sculptures and photographs by Indian art notables as Tyeb Mehta, Jehangir Sabavala, Somnath Hore, Sakti Burman, Ram Kumar, F.N Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Jogen Chowdhury, Ganesh Pyne, Arpita Singh, Rameshwar Broota, Paresh Maity, Subodh Gupta, Chintan Upadhyay, Baiju Parthan and Dayanita Singh, among others.

Go to Sotheby’s website to browse the auction catalogue and become a part of this historical event.

New Generation of Artists Making their Mark

Indian contemporary art—as with all art, culture, and life itself—is a perpetual continuation from one generation to the next. Inspired by those who went before, yet imbuing their canvases with subject matter and style within the context of their own generation, Indian artists born in the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s are getting their due. Although techniques, mediums, and interpretations may change, the indispensable truths of human emotions coping in a world of upheaval and change do not. Brief biographies of artists who are currently making their mark in this time and place are listed below.

Jayshree Chakravarty was educated at Santiniketan, graduated in Fine Arts from the Viswa Bharati University, Santiniketan, in 1978, and obtained a post-graduate diploma from M.S.University, Baroda, in 1980. Her works, most of which have a dreamlike quality to them, are comprised of fluid, superimposed forms that mirror the present mood of the world, which is flexible in itself. At a conventional and figurative level, her works also reflect the unity of man with nature.

Anju Dodiya was born in Mumbai in 1964, and received her diploma from the Sir J.J. School of Art in 1986. The wife of artist Atul Dodiya, her focus of attention is placed in infinite, sometimes theatrical situations, that explore both internal and external realities. The technical competence of her paintings is matched by calm, almost detached, observations.

Atul Dodiya was born in 1959 in Mumbai and received his diploma from the Sir J.J. School of Art in 1982. Dodiya's strongly realistic works subtlety represent middle class homes, family life, as well as his own background. Thin layers of deftly painted strokes mirror suggestive situations. In his latest works he freely quotes his artistic peers like Hockney and Bhupen Khakhar to reflect on the act of painting itself.

Sheela Gowda was born in Bhadravati, Karnataka in 1957, earned a diploma in painting from the Ken School of Art, Bangalore in 1979, and studied briefly at M.S. University, Baroda. Her works are abstract and expressive, capturing life’s raw intricacies with empathy and involvement. Her female viewpoint of reality deals with the oppressive, fantastic—yet poetic—physical and emotional individuality of people in their drab surroundings. Her figures and objects often merge into a complex, flexible and permeable unity with the background, simultaneously bringing everything to the surface.

Jitish Kallat was born in Mumbai in 1974 and received his BFA in painting from the Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai in 1996. Kallat's works are often of great size—his largest is 8 x 20 feet—and the close relationship between words, images, tradition and contemporary symbols are his essential themes. His art technique often involves aqpplying numerous layers of paint and collage over photographs which are then allowed to dry. He then peels away portions of the paint layers to create the imagery of his painting, which gives them a commercial appearance that resembles popular advertisements on one hand, yet at the same time, the rough, chipped, and graffiti-scrawled surfaces are reminiscent of many of the older walls and buildings in Mumbai.

Born in Kerala, India in 1974, but now living and working in Mumbai, Justin Ponmany graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Art. His works are inspired by this city whose landscape is constantly in flux. His preferred choices of materials include epoxy, resins, hologram foil, and printer’s ink—modern materials that reflect a state of mind that is also plastic—what he describes as "Plastic Memory". His works contain an array of emotions: life, love, and loss, as well of self, place, decay, and survival in the gritty environment of modern everyday living. He is one of the most highly regarded Indian artists of his generation.

T. V. Santosh was born in 1968 and is another rising star of the contemporary Indian art scene. He received his B.F.A in Sculpture, Kalabhavan, Santiniketan, West Bengal in 1994 and his Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture, M.S.U, Baroda in 1997. Santhosh’s work tackles the relentless presence of violence and injustice in history. His canvases confront the hard-hitting subjects of war and terrorism, seeking to question the influence of politics and media on these global issues, most notably their representation and manipulation of the events. He appropriates references from such sources as magazines, newspapers and television and often infuses common, ordinary objects into his works. The influence of print media is reflected in the photographic quality of his works, both in their clarity and composition.

One day in the not too distant future, others who are just now learning their craft will supplant these gifted artists. And so the world goes.

Parallel Lives and Art

Perhaps no two artists mirrored and epitomized the tumultuous 20th century in all its brilliance and in all its brutality than Pablo Picasso, the Spaniard, and Francis Newton Souza, the Indian. Throughout their lives, both men seemed at war within themselves, with family and friends, and with social and religious mores.

Picasso and Souza were analogous from the start. Both nearly died in early childhood, Picasso at birth, Souza at age four from smallpox. Both were raised by doting, protective mothers in a strict Roman Catholic household. (Although each painter later rejected the Church and its many doctrines and dogmas, each used religious motifs and narratives often in their paintings throughout their lifetimes.) Their artistic skills and passions were realized at a very young age; both were sent off to art schools due to their dislike and boredom of public schools and because of their penchant for getting into trouble. (Picasso adorned one of his textbooks with pornographic drawings; Souza was expelled for allegedly doing the same on the school’s restroom walls.) However, neither graduated from their respective art schools because of their already developing disdain towards authority.

This contempt for tradition also began to manifest in their paintings. Picasso’s credo was a rejection of life and creation; his art was a weapon against man, against human nature, against the God who created it all. It was a denunciation of the bourgeois society, outdated sexual and political mores and conventions, of the horrors of war, and of traditional art styles. In response to baffled critics attempting to explain his work, he replied, “The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?” Souza, who started the Progressive Artist Group in Bombay, proclaimed, “Today we paint with absolute freedom for content and technique, almost anarchic”.

In their works, both placed emphasis on a definitive line to trace the twist and movement of the human body; the ritual treatment of the erotic by applying three-dimensional qualities to the canvas’ flat surface. Both painted to shock society with a pointed, brusque expressionism—reflecting their own, as well as the whole of mankind’s essentially rebellious nature. The countless nudes that each painted during their long careers reflected the beauty, uninhibited sexuality—and often the grotesqueness—of the female form; they conveyed the disillusion and despair that accompanied their violent delights and sexual pleasures. Works like Picasso’s “Christ Blessing the Devil” and Souza’s “Crucifixion” reflected their antagonism towards organized religion and homage to a God of suffering and vengeance, not of a gentle compassion. Both artists straddled the duality of sin and sensuality.

They were comparable, likewise, in the ways they lived. Both disavowed politics and became members of the Communist party. Neither seemed quite capable of loving; between the two, they were entrenched in five failed marriages—Picasso was married twice and had several mistresses, some much younger than himself. Souza was married three times, the third, a British teenager while he was 40. In either case, alienated family members, including children, did not attend the funerals of these artistic geniuses after living long, intense, bitter, and complex lives. (It is quoted that after Picasso’s death at 90 years old, Souza proclaimed with conviction “now that Picasso is dead, I am the greatest!”). Both artists were intense egoists—amicable one moment; their loathing, jealousy, and distrust of people, apparent in another. Both were bohemian rebels who lived in luxury.

Picasso and Souza were products—reflections, really—of the 20th century. Both were creators and destroyers. One cannot view their work without at once being forced to participate in certain passions and fears, which make their violent distortions of the visual world comprehensible and sympathetic. Frequently these passions were chaotic and destructive, as though each painting liberated the artists from personal and international turmoil. Their art and lives were a legacy of perversities, conflicts, anguish, rage, and contradictions, very much like the era in which they had lived.