Category: History

A Brief History of ‘Camera, clicks and capture’ Sayan Dey Life, a weekly, immediately hit the stands and many others like Look, See, Photo, Picture, and Click joined the queue. Look went out of business in 1972; Life suspended publication the same year, returned in 1978 as a monthly, and finally, folded as a serial […]

Mughal miniature : The Visual Language of Contemporary Art Now, two important changes occurred in the history of Persia. On the political level the Safavid dynasty replaced the Turkomans, and took over Herat from Uzbeks. As a result under the guidance of Shah Ismail Safavid, a great patron of art, the two strands that is […]

Tracing the Origin of Censorship in Visual Art History HISTORY Dinesh Khemani The discipline of Art History attributes Raja Ravi Varma as the first Indian modernist painter. With the colonial rule gradually extending its wings to the sub-continent the notion of an individual artist was born. Meanwhile the West had already acknowledged the role of […]

Sculpture and its significance in Society Seema Bhalla In India, sculpture has played a role of importance with a different purpose. The Stambha (pillar) outside the temples have been having, on its top, the sculpture of a deity. The purpose of this was visibility of the temple and its affiliated deity, far and beyond. It […]

Seema Bhalla: Folk Art, for long having been rejected as Primitive Art, is an expression of complex multilevel understanding, not necessarily with any reasoning. It is an inheritance that predates the nomadic society. Though rendered in simplistic manner, the concerns of the practitioners of this form of art were more complicated than what meets the […]

Samit Roy:SARA PAINTINGS Of Barak Valley The circular disc made with clay painted with figures or motifs are popularly known as Saras. These are used in rural Barak Valley in connection with Pujas and sometimes connected with Vratas. The representation of Goddess Lakshmi, Durga and Radhakrishna are found popular. These are extensively made as seasonal […]

Mrinal Sen – A director par excellence… Mrinal Sen is one of India’s most politically active filmmakers. Sen, who celebrated his 90th birthday this year, has also completed six decades as a director. After having studied physics at University of Calcutta, Sen worked as a freelance journalist, a salesman of patent medicines and a sound […]

THE FIRST LIGHTTh e region from which work is analysed, where bliss rises in the mind from the earth,whose borne Shakti (Supreme Energy) and prosperity is all dispersed here itself, that sacred place is triadic essence in duality, and free-will is whole and paramount. In the mind stays Shiva’s (Supreme Consciousness) rule coming in secret […]

CONTEMPORARY DISCURSIVE DILEMMAS AND READING THE PAST ART AND LIFE OF K. VENKATAPPAWriting about K.Venkatappa (KV, born: 1886- 1965) aft er almost half a century aft er his demise, literally means reading, looking and perceiving him from an altogether diff erent era of visual cultural engagement. Arguably, most artists who are already historicized are available […]

THE STYLISTIC CHANGES IN THE ICONOGRAPHIES OF BUDDHA Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in the royal family of the Shakyas at Lumbini at 562/566 B.C. One day, as he was wandering around the royal park, he saw an old decrepit man, a sick man, and a corpse- leaving a strong impression on him […]

RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM IN MANIPUR: A STUDY OF FEW INDIGENOUS SCULPTURES OF THE MEITEI SOCIETY Manipur is one of the seven sister states in the North Eastern part of India, but due to its geographical location, it appears to be isolated. It is surrounded by the hills of Nagaland in the north, Cachar district of Assam […]

A Tribute to Birendra Lal Bhowmik There is a popular saying of the Maya people of Central America: The saying goes …for in the baby lies the future of the world Mothers must hold the baby so close that the baby knows that it is his world and Fathers must take the child to the […]