Deep Breathings : Sohan Qadri Keshav Malik It so happened, that even as I looked at Sohan’s present work, this very week, against a panorama of a large body of works by different hands, the coincidence only helped me, in sundry ways, to grasp a facet of his art better—or so I imagined. Many of […]
Category: The Best Of-75
The Best Of – 75
Manjit Bawa Dr. Seema Bawa Manjit Bawa was a painter of great repute with a well-founded conviction in his own creative self and that is the reason that he excelled at other creative pursuits that brought him accolades and fame. He was indeed an excellent cook, who had great patience in the kitchen, layering his […]
The Best Of – 75
Nasreen Mohamedi Mortimer Chatterjee Nasreen Mohamedi remains an enigma to much of the Indian and international art world: this despite being regarded by some as one of the most important artists of her generation and acknowledged as such in Documenta 2008 where she was accorded a full retrospective. There are a number of issues that […]
The Best Of – 75
Bhupen Khakhar: The “Gay ” Politics And Artistry Shivaji K. Panikkar “Queer” Exposures: The artist Bhupen Khakhar (1934-2003), eventually “came out of the closet” by gathering his strength for a gradual disclosure from the inter-national gay liberation movement, especially its manifestations in the field of art in the 1980s. Simultaneously his mother’s death also freed […]
The Best Of – 75
Explorations in Art and Style : N. S. Bendre Rajesh Singh A comprehensive account of the artistic explorations of a painter forms an important part of the art critical enterprise, which must necessarily employ an objective and analytical approach to be able to be factual and informative for posterity. The famous art critic, Kenneth Clark, […]
The Best Of – 75
Space , Colour and the Cabalistic Ciphers : Jagdish Swaminathan Pranamita Borgohain Authentic spirituality is revolutionary. It does not legitimate the world, it breaks the world; it does not console the world, it shatters it. And it does not render the self content, it renders it undone. – Ken Wilber If we take the history […]
The Best Of – 75
Experiences of Grace , States of Illumination : The Paintings of Jehangir Sabavala Ranjit Hoskote A portfolio is, literally, a collection of leaves that you can carry with you. The word is veined with the pleasures of selecting a favourite image, dwelling on an intriguing detail, juxtaposing images from different periods in an artist’s career […]
The Best Of – 75
The Thinking Eye Dr. Ashrafi S. Bhagat ‘A painter of the quiet reaches of the imagination.’ Richard Bartholomew INTRODUCTION From the early 1920s, the impact of European Modernism had been felt on Indian art, evident in the cubist works of Gaganendranath Tagore and the surrealist dream like imagery of Rabindranath Tagore. The growth of abstraction […]
The Best Of – 75
Tyeb Mehta : Legacy Extraordinaire Shabari Choudhury His was a quiet revolution. At a time when the ‘progressives’ of India’s art world were clamouring to claim a language of their own, the contained, silent voice of Tyeb Mehta splintered the canvas of modern Indian art, much like the diagonals in his paintings. Born in Kapadvanj, […]
The Best Of – 75
Francis Newton Souza : An Artist With A Tormented Soul Dr. Ashrafi S. Bhagat “The man who exposes himself is always alone” Geeta Kapur. Francis Newton Souza a prolific painter is a household name within the artistic milieu of the country. His name evokes paintings which have remained a dominant trope of this genius’s creative […]
The Best Of – 75
Color s conforming to a spiritual vibration Pranamita Borgohain Syed Haider Raza is one of the senior most live artists of today. He started his journey as the Moderns leading the Progressive Artist Group in 1945 being one of the founder members, he still endures as one of the most significant and sheer artists of […]
The Best Of – 75
Relevance Of Husain K.Bikram Singh When time accelerates not only future events hurtle towards us faster, even the events of recent past disappear into oblivion more rapidly. It was only on June 9 last year that Maqbool Fida Husain died in a London hospital far away from India, his motherland that had forced him into […]
The Best Of – 75
The Awaiting Shabhari*: Cholamandal Artists’ Village (or , expectations for theoretical specifications ) H.A. Anil Kumar It is (beyond) a high time that the centenary celebration of artist/tutor K.C.S. Panikkar (1911-1976), the founder spirit behind Cholamanadal art village, is overdue. The reason as to why such a contemplative attitude is absent from such an agency […]
The Best Of – 75
The “Calcutta Group” (1943-1953) Dr. Sanjay Mallik ….. In the West, kings have long been dethroned and the reins of the State have passed into the hands of the common man. Today the artists no longer decorate the baroque palaces of kings or the interior of the chapels but work independently in their studios or […]
The Best Of – 75
A Many Splendoured Personality : Prodosh Dasgupta Ajit Kumar Dutta An artist essentially, yet by other counts Pradosh Dasgupta (1912- 1991) was many things rolled into one. A sculptor reputed for skill and pioneering zeal, he proved himself an inspiring teacher and able art commentator, yet no less known for his administrative acumen. For the […]
The Best Of – 75
A Romantic Visionary : Gopal Ghose Sandip Sarkar Gopal Ghose died two days before Ramkinkar Baij, on 20 July 1980. Ghose was Baij’s younger contemporary and shared Baij’s attitude to life. Their patterns of living were different. The older artist had lived most of his life in the cloistered atmosphere of a monastic university in […]
The Best Of -75
Sunil Janah : Chronicling Life Shabari Choudhury The transformation of a photograph into an iconic image often takes place in retrospect. A photograph derives meaning as much from what is absent or left out as from what is present or captured within the frame. Choosing the ‘right’ moment in the continuum of time is perhaps […]
The Best Of – 75
Verve and Intensity of Experience in the works of Zainul Abedin, Chittaprosad Bhattacharya and Somnath Hore Preeti Kathuria A few young artists felt the exigency to react to the appalling reality of human suffering in Bengal in the 1940s. Zainul Abedin (1914-76), Chittaprosad Bhattacharya (1915–78) and Somnath Hore (1921-2006) worked tirelessly amidst the perils of […]
The Best Of- 75
An Outline of Faith: Benode behari Mukherjee’s Life of the Medieval Saints Parvez Kabir Life of the Medieval Saints was completed in the year 1947. Since then, the work has firmly stood for all those who have faith in the plurality of our religious tradition. Away from the mythic and militant narrations of his time, […]
The Best Of- 75
An Ode To Khepa Baul K. Bikram Singh When an artist writes about another artist, he provides an insight into his subject that usually escapes the art scholar, busy as the latter is looking for art historical references in the subject and thus showing off his ‘knowledge’. In this process, the first instinctive response that […]
The Best Of -75
Jamini Roy : A New Assessment of His Art, Life and Times Sandip Sarkar Jamini Roy is perhaps India’s greatest contribution to International art during the first half of the 20th century. However, during the first quarter of the second half, in fact, till his death in 1972, he produced very important work. He influenced […]
The Best Of -75
Nandalal Bose: A Humanist & Modernist With special reference to Haripura Posters Debabrata Das Nandalal Bose (1882-1966) was born to Purnachandra Bose and Kshetramani Devi in the obscure town of Haveli Kharagpur in Monghyr district of the Bihar Province. Nandalal was fortunate to inherit some of the virtues of painting from his parents. While he […]
The Best Of -75
Breaking Bastions : Amrita Sher Gil Dr. Seema Bawa Amrita Sher-Gil has today become associated with hype rather than with the substance of her art and its contribution to modern Indian art. Though every few years there are exhibitions showcasing her works; in the popular perception she is more a persona exemplifying glamour and excitement […]
The Best Of -75
Profile of a Pioneer : Sarada Ukil Satyasri Ukil “New Delhi as I knew in the prepartition days was virtually a desert culturally, though the old walled city of Delhi enjoyed an age old cultural tradition. New Delhi was brand new but culture and its manifestations take breeding time and suitable stimulus. In this uninspiring […]
The Best Of -75
The Paintings of Rabindranath Tagore Sandip Sarkar In this article, a very interesting analysis is attempted by the eminent art historian and critic, Sandip Sarkar, to de-mystify a lot of vague impressions as regards the art of Rabindranath Tagore. Through research and careful sifting of welldocumented chronology of events, Mr. Sarkar leads us quite evocatively […]
The Best Of -75
An Impetuous Spirit:Hemen Mazumdar P. Shome Hemen Mazumdar is now hailed as one of the prominent figures among the principal exponents of modern art in India. To know the grammar of the art of painting is one thing and do make good use of the knowledge afterwards is quite a different thing altogether. Many a […]
The Best Of -75
Ukranian Crisis: Threat To Cultural Treasures Vladimir Zaitsev The dark silhouettes of the city are engulfed in flames of fire, the clouds of black smoke carried away by the gusts of wind reaching blazing sky. Over this frightening and gloomy landscape is flying the spirit of war – ominous Jinn with a long grey beard […]
The Best Of -75
Ravi Varma in Kerala- A Limited and Limiting Legacy R. Nandakumar Ravi Varma had spent the active years of his artistic career outside Kerala under the patronage of Chamarajendra Wodeyar of Mysore and his successor, Krishnaraja Wodeyar, Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda and many other kings of the princely states. Therefore in his native land […]
The Best Of -75
Miniatures: Appearances invisible to Sight H.A.Anil Kumar Looking at miniatures, today, is an act similar to the process of looking at old photographs. In both the cases, we do no more doubt their artistic validity, for, we grasp them from an altogether different premise, from an understanding that they belong to antiquity. Time, past and […]