Indian Contemporary Art

Contemporary art (c.1900 CE-present)

In 1947, India became independent of British rule. A group of six artists - K. H. Ara, S. K. Bakre, H. A. Gade, M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza and Francis Newton Souza - founded the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group in the year 1952, to establish new ways of expressing India in the post-colonial era. Though the group was dissolved in 1956, it was profoundly influential in changing the idiom of Indian art. Almost all India's major artists in the 1950s were associated with the group. Some of those who are well-known today are Bal Chabda, Manishi Dey, V. S. Gaitonde, Krishen Khanna, Ram Kumar, Tyeb Mehta, K. G. Subramanyan, A. Ramachandran, Devender Singh, Akbar Padamsee, John Wilkins, Himmat Shah and Manjit Bawa. Present-day Indian art is varied as it had been never before. Among the best-known artists of the newer generation include Bose Krishnamachari and Bikash Bhattacharjee. Another prominent Pakistani modernist was Ismail Gulgee, who after about 1960 adopted an abstract idiom that combines aspects of Islamic calligraphy with an abstract expressionist (or gestural abstractionist) sensibility.

Painting and sculpture remained important in the later half of the twentieth century, though in the work of leading artists such as Nalini Malani, Subodh Gupta, Narayanan Ramachandran, Vivan Sundaram, Jitish Kallat, they often found radical new directions. Bharti Dayal has chosen to handle the traditional Mithila painting in most contemporary way and created her own style through the exercises of her own imagination, they appear fresh and unusual.

The increase in discourse about Indian art, in English as well as vernacular Indian languages, changed the way art was perceived in the art schools. Critical approach became rigorous; critics like Geeta Kapur, R. Siva Kumar, Shivaji K. Panikkar, Ranjit Hoskote, amongst others, contributed to re-thinking contemporary art practice in India.

Art museums of India

Major cities

• National Museum, New Delhi
• Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai (formerly Prince of Wales Museum of Western India)
• Indian Museum, Kolkata
• Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad
• Government Museum (Bangalore)
• Government Museum, Chennai
• Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh

Archaeological museums

• AP State Archaeology Museum, Hyderabad
• Archaeological Museum, Thrissur
• City Museum, Hyderabad
• Government Museum, Mathura
• Government Museum, Tiruchirappalli
• Hill Palace, Tripunithura, Ernakulam
• Odisha State Museum, Bhubaneswar
• Patna Museum
• Pazhassi Raja Archaeological Museum, Kozhikode
• Sanghol Museum
• Sarnath Museum
• State Archaeological Gallery, Kolkata
• Victoria Jubilee Museum, Vijayawada

Modern art museums

• National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi - established 1954.
• National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai - established 1996.
• National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore - inaugurated 2009.
• Kolkata Museum of Modern Art - foundation laid in 2013.

Other museums

• Albert Hall Museum, Jaipur
• Allahabad Museum
• Asutosh Museum of Indian Art, Kolkata
• Baroda Museum & Picture Gallery
• Goa State Museum, Panaji
• Napier Museum, Thiruvananthapuram
• National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum, New Delhi
• Sanskriti Museums, Delhi
• Watson Museum, Rajkot
• Srimanthi Bai Memorial Government Museum, Mangalore

See also

Notes

References

• Harle, J.C., The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent, 2nd edn. 1994, Yale University Press Pelican History of Art, ISBN0300062176
• Harsha V. Dehejia, The Advaita of Art (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000, ISBN81-208-1389-8), p.97
• Kapila Vatsyayan, Classical Indian Dance in Literature and the Arts (New Delhi: Sangeet Natak Akademi, 1977), p.8
• Mitter, Partha. Indian Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, ISBN0-19-284221-8)

Further reading

• Gupta, S. P., & Asthana, S. P. (2007). Elements of Indian art: Including temple architecture, iconography & iconometry. New Delhi: Indraprastha Museum of Art and Archaeology.
• Gupta, S. P., & Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. (2011). The roots of Indian art: A detailed study of the formative period of Indian art and architecture, third and second centuries B.C., Mauryan and late Mauryan. Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation.
• Abanindranath Tagore (1914). Some Notes on Indian Artistic Anatomy. Indian Society of Oriental Art, Calcutta. OL6213535M.
• Kossak, Steven (1997). Indian court painting, 16th-19th century.. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN978-0870997839. (see index: pages148-152)
• Lerner, Martin (1984). The flame and the lotus: Indian and Southeast Asian art from the Kronos collections. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN978-0870993749. fully online
• Smith, Vincent A. (1930). A History Of Fine Art In India And Ceylon. The Clarendon Press, Oxford.
• Welch, Stuart Cary (1985). India: art and culture, 1300-1900. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN9780944142134. fully online