India Modern: Narratives from 20th Century Indian Art, an exhibition, will showcase works of 41 artists of repute, from Rabindranath Tagore to M. F. Husain to Jamini Roy
The Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi, in collaboration with DAG Modern, presents India Modern: Narratives from 20th Century Indian Art, an exhibition that presents the multifarious, diverse journey of artists that have defined Indian modern art. Showcasing, through some of the best artworks from its rich collection, DAG Modern, together with the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi, represents in the exhibition, the expanse of Indian art practice over the 20th century, covering periods, styles, themes and artistic concerns.The understanding of modernism in art predicates on the definition of the term modern itself. In the West, the term was heralded with the French Revolution that ushered, in its radical breaking from a feudal past and placing the individual as the vital centre of a new social order, the new, guiding, humanist values of liberty, equality and fraternity – qualities seen as modern, and arrived on the cusp of industrialisation, and the art produced from here on echoed this spirit of modernity. In India, such assertions of modernism in art came far later, yoked as it was in colonial imperialism for two centuries. Covering 41 artists of repute, the exhibition will allow viewers to experience the trajectory, or trajectories, of modern art practices in India through the showcasing of works from artist collectives like Bombay Progressives (F. N. Souza, Ram Kumar, M. F. Husain, K. H. Ara, Krishen Khanna, S. H. Raza) and Group 1890 (Jyoti Bhatt, Jeram Patel, Eric Bowen, Ambadas, J. Swaminathan, Himmat Shah), and other artists, including Rabindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Sunil Das, Gopal Ghose, among several others. There are also sculptures by Dhanraj Bhagat, Prodosh Das Gupta and Sankho Chaudhuri. There’s a strong emphasis in the exhibition on the women artists who have pioneered Indian modern art in their own unique manner. Sunayani Devi, the first woman artist from the Tagore household, is shown in the exhibition besides other women artists, Gogi Saroj Pal and Devyani Krishna. Then there’s the iconic Jamini Roy, regarded as the first folk modernist of India whose work is showcased in the exhibition. Sohan Qadri and G. R. Santosh’s tantra imagery, Rajendra Dhwan’s marvelous abstract work, Avinash Chandra’s work that shows his landscapes transitioning to abstraction, are some of the other works featured in the exhibition. India Modern: Narratives from 20th Century Indian Art is a seminal exhibition that features not just rare and important works of art by Indian modern masters but also covers genres, including still-life, figurative, narrative, abstract, tantra, and landscape art. The exhibition opens on September 14 at 5:30 pm at Galleries of Punjab Kala Bhawan. Eminent art critic and poet Ashok Vajpeyi will give a talk on Indian modernism at 5:30 pm on the day of the opening. It will conclude on October 7.
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