Courtesy: Paritosh Sen 'Bengal Village' 1938

Contemporary Art in India - A Historical Overview

The history of contemporary Indian art over the last century has been one of dynamic evolution.

The first `contemporary' Indian artists lived and worked within the highly politicized cultural environment of
pre- and post independence India . They introduced themselves as modern and secular. While some Indian
artists of the time were politically oriented, many others were involved with formal issues. Some revived
indigenous traditions, others turned for inspiration to European influences.

Certain tensions inform the works of all contemporary Indian artists, particularly those who were pioneers in
the field. There are three basic issues they have had to resolve:
a) how to express their Indian ethos
b) how to relate to international art idioms, and
c) how to evolve an original `voice'.

As KG Subramanyan points out, this has resulted in the last hundred years, in constantly fluctuating
approaches by artists to their media. The Western Academic style introduced in colonial times into the
curriculum of Indian art colleges - where it is still taught - was first challenged by artists of the Bengal School
who made it their objective to promote an understanding of the language of traditional art forms.

Subsequently, rejection of traditional stereotypes and a turning towards Western models was followed in turn
by attempts to present indigenous themes through not-so-indigenous methods. Then, a return to old themes
and styles, and their mingling with foreign elements in order to create a large 'oriental idiom', activated a
reaction towards 'global Olympia ' with attempts to hybridize native and foreign features. So it continued as if
'it were a game in which two antipodal cultures were wrestling with each other'.

Today Indian art is confidently coming of age. Every form of stylistic expression in the visual arts, from
naturalism to abstract expressionism derives its power from the artist's emotional connection to his perceptual
reality.

National identity has become a many-faceted phenomenon today. And since art is a vehicle for personal
expression, modern art in India - as elsewhere - must reflect the complexities of life in our modern nation in its
own unique context, and in ways different from the West.

It is in this context that the contemporary Indian artist has to identify with his land, his people, his past and his
present - without losing either his individual voice or his universal values, in art as in life.

Over the last hundred years Indian artists have evolved a wide variety of expressive styles .
 'Interpretative Realism' or personalized illumination of objective
reality - sometimes accented with oblique, humorous or satirical
social pointers, is presented with distinctive creative variations in
the works of artists like Bhupen Khakkar, Paritosh Sen, Krishen
Khanna, Bikash Bhattacharya, Dharmanarayan Dasgupta, Sunil
Das, Sudhir Patwardhan, Shyamal Dutta Roy, Ghulam Mohammed
Sheikh, A.G Ramachandran, Shuvaprasanna, Sajal Roy, Jai
Zharotia, Atul Dodiya and Jaideep Mehrotra among others.

Realism becomes fantasy in the powerful linearity and surreal

forms of Jogen Chowdhury, underlined with acerbic social
comment; and in the romantic tenderness of Sanat Kar, the child's
vision of Madhvi Parekh and Amitava Das, and the heightened
sensory experience of Manjit Bawa.

Sunil Das
�Untitled' A recurring theme in Indian art is its engagement at many levels
oil on canvas
with the natural world - whether presented directly as in Paramjit
Singh's light sculpted landscapes, illuminated with folk motifs as in
the works of Madvi Parekh, or abstracted into almost spiritualized
form in the works of Ganesh Haloi and Ram Kumar.

Predictably, spiritualism, symbolism, and surrealism too, assume

many forms in Indian art. Here, perceived reality is transfigured
through the prism of an introspective imagination and figured in
images of many faceted possibility. Some of modem India 's most
innovative art is rooted in this ethos.

So we have Ganesh Pyne's luminous introspective reveries drawn

from mundane experience; and the iridescent poetry of J.
Swaminathan's abstracted, imaginative reworkings of Indian design
elements.

Cosmic and 'Tantric'

Jogen Chowdhury symbols - often
(from the book on the artist, Enigmatic Visions', combined with
published by Glenbarra Art Museum , Japan )
calligraphy or figurative
imagery - are charged
with resonant energy in the art of G.R. Santosh, Biren De, K.C.S.
Panikar, K.V Haridasan, Prafulla Mohanty or Om Prakash.

And even the familiar acquires mystic overtones in works of artists

like Rameshwar Broota and Wasim Kapoor, when their subject
appears in magnified format, with details stripped down to
fundamental significance.

In subsequent sections we shall trace briefly the evolution of

innovative art trends and movements as they developed and
transformed in the work of representative contemporary Indian
artists. While Bengal will remain our focus, we shall give brief
sketches of eminent artists and art trends in other areas of the
country.

Contemporary Indian Art: Historical Overview

Contemporary Art Movements in India
Contemporary Indian Art Prints Biren De (1970)
Contemporary Art in Calcutta & Bengal �Untitled'
oil
We shall hold regular art exhibitions on our website to acquaint our
viewers with the various impulses of ‘modernism’ projected in contemporary Indian artworks – in all their
eclectic diversity of artistic ‘styles’ and themes. Look out for new displays every six weeks.

Our first show, ‘Horses’, presents established ‘masters’ past and present, as well as interpretations by newer
artists.