This is a historical premise. The National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi covers its collection from about this period. In the west, the modern period starts conveniently with the Impressionists. However, when we talk of modern Indian Art, we generally start with the Bengal I Socio of Painting. Both in the matter of precedence and importance, we have to follow the course of art in the order of painting, I ‘sculpture, and the graphics, the last being comparatively a very recent development.
Broadly speaking the essential characteristics of the modern or contemporary art are a certain freedom from invention, the acceptance f an I eclectic approach which has placed artistic expression in the international perspective as against the regional, a positive elevation of Technique which has become both proliferate and supreme, and the emergence of the artist as a distinct individual.
Painting : ‘Lady in The Moon Light’ ably I Raja Rave Farm Many people consider modern art as I I forbidding, if not forbidden, I territory. It is not, and no field of I I human achievement is. The best waybill I Dealing with the unfamiliar is to face it squarely. All that is necessary is perseverance and reasonable I I instant exposure or confrontation.
Towards the close of the nineteenth I century, Indian painting, as an extension of the Indian miniature I I painting, snapped and fell on the and unfelt imitation largely due to historical reasons, both political and I Sociological, resulting in the I creation off lacuna which was not I I filled until the early years Of the b,eventide century, and even then not truly. There was only some minor artistic expression in the intervening I period by way Of the ‘Bazaar’ and ‘Company’ styles of painting, apart from the more substantial folk forms
I which were alive in many parts of the I I country. Then followed the newly I ushered Western concept of naturalism, the foremost exponent of which was I Raja Rave Versa, This was without I parallel in the entire annals tot Indian Art notwithstanding some occasional references in Indian literature of the idea of ‘likeness’, IAn attempt to stem this cultural morass was made by Behindhand Étagère under whose inspired leadership came into being a new school of I I Painting which was distinctly nostalgic and romantic to start with.
It held its way for well over three decades as the Bengal School Of Painting. Also called the Renaissance School or the Revivalist School – it was both. Despite its country- Wide influence in the early I layers, the importance Of the School declined by the ‘forties’ and now it is as good as dead. While the contribution of the Renaissance I School served Painting as an inspired and well intentioned if not wholly successful link with the past it has had little consequence I eleven as a ‘take off ground for the subsequent modern movement in art. The origins of modern Indian art lie elsewhere.
I The period at the end of the Second World War released unprecedented ND altogether new forces and situations, political as well as electoral, which confronted the artist, as much as all of us, with an experience and exposure of great consequence. The period I I I significantly coincided with the independence of the country. With freedom also came unprecedented opportunity. The artist was set upon I la general course tot modernization and confrontation with the big, wide world, especially with the Western World, with far-reaching Consequences.
Too tar removed as he was from Indian tradition and heritage and emotionally estranged from its true spirit, he absorbed I Lethe new experience eagerly too fast and too much. The situation is as valid even to this day and has a ring of historical inevitability I I This is just as true of Modern Indian literature and the theatre. In dance the process of modernization is marginal and in music even I I I less. While the artist learnt much from this experience, he had unconsciously entered the race towards a new international concept in I art.
One might regard this as a typical characteristic of a new-born old nation and part of its initial predicament. Our attitude to I life in general, the various approaches to solve an infinite rarity of problems are similarly oriented. I IA major characteristic of contemporary Indian Painting is that the technique and method have acquired a new significance. Form came to Bib regarded as separate entity and with its increasing emphasis it subordinated the content in a work of art. This was wholly true until I recently and is true somewhat even now.
Form was not regarded as a vehicle for content. In fact the position was reverse. And the means, I I linseed and developed on extraneous elements, rendered technique very complex and brought in its train a new aesthetic. The painter I I I has gained a great deal on the visual and sensory level: particularly in regard to the use of color, in the concept of design and I Structure, texture, and in the employment, tot unconventional materials. A painting stood or fell in terms of color, compositional I contrivance or sheer texture.
Art on the whole acquired an autonomy of its own and the artist an individual status as never before. I I On the other hand, we have lost the time-honored unified concept of art, the modern artistic manifestation having clearly taken a turn I I lowered any one of he elements that once made art a wholesome entity now claimed extraordinary attention to the partial or total I I exclusion of the rest. With the rise of individualism and the consequent isolation Of the artist ideologically, there is the new problem I I loft the lack of a real rapport of the artist with the people.
The predicament is aggravated by the absence Of any appreciable and I specific inter-relation ebb,even the artist and society. While it may be argued up to a degree that this characteristic predicament Of I I contemporary art is the result of a sociological compulsion, and that present day art is reflective of he chaotic conditions of Contemporary society, one cannot but notice the unfortunate hiatus between the artist and society. The impact of horizons beyond one’s loon has its salutary aspects and singular validity in the light of increasing international spirit of the present times.
The easy I I alternators with other peoples and ideas is salutary particularly in respect of technique and material, in the sharing of new ideologies land in investing art and artists with a new status. Once more, at the end of quarter century of eclecticism and experimentation, there is some evidence tot a pent up feeling and tot an I littermate retrace and take stock of things. The experience and knowledge, invaluable as it is, is being shifted and assessed.
As I against the over-bearing, non-descriptor anomaly of internationalism, there is an attempt to look for an alternative source of inspirations I owlish, while it has to be contemporary may well spring from one’s own soil and be in tune with one’s environment. I I Contemporary Indian art has traveled a long way since the days of Rave Versa, Behindhand Étagère and his followers and even Marital Asher- Gill Broadly, the pattern followed is this. Almost every artist of note began with en kind of representational or figurative art I lord the other tinged with impressionism, expressionism or post-expressionism.
The irksome relationship of form and content was generally Kept at a complementary level. Then through various stages Of elimination and simplifications, through cubism, abstraction and a variety loft expressionistic trends, the artists reached near non-figurative and totally non-figurative levels. The ‘pop’ and the ‘pop’, the I Minimal and anti-art have really not caught the fancy of our artists, except for very minor aberrations. And, having reached the dead I land cold abstraction, the only way open is to sit back and reflect.
This copy-book pattern has been followed by a great number of I I artists, including senior and established ones, As a reaction to this journey into nothing, there are three new major trends: projection I I loft the disturbed social unrest and instability with the predicament of man as the main theme; an interest in Indian thought and I metaphysics, manifested in the so called ‘titanic’ paintings and in paintings with symbolical import: and more than these TN,vow trends is I I the new interest in vague surrealist approaches and in fantasy.
More important than all this, is the fact that nobody now talks of the I conflict between form and content or technique and expression. In fact, and in contradiction to the earlier avowal, almost everybody is Certain that technique and form are only important prerequisites to that mysterious something of an idea, message or spirit, that spark I I loft the unfathomable entity that makes such man a little different from the other. From the sass onwards, Indian artists began to increase the forms they used in their work.
Painting and sculpture remained important, though in the work Of leading artists such as Subbed Guppy,Maryanne Ranchmen’s, Vivian Summary,Skittish Koalas,Jonathan Panda, Adult and Ninja Today, Devotion Ray, T. V. Santos, Shares Chatterers, Vagrant Chuddar, Birth Cheer and Textural and Taiga, Bhutan UDDI, Iranian Kale. They often found radical new directions. Birth Delay has chosen to handle the traditional Mythical painting in most contemporary way and created her own style through the exercises of her own imagination , they appear fresh and unusual .
Crucially, however, in a complex time when the number of currents affecting Indian society seemed to ultimately, many artists sought out new, more polygonal and immerse forms of expression. Iranian Kale, Rags Media Collective have produced compelling contemporary works using such assortments tot media torts including video and internet, Maryanne Ranchmen’s created a new style of painting called Third Eye Series.
This development coincided with the emergence of new galleries interested in promoting a wider range of art forms, such as Nature Mortem in Delhi and its partner gallery Bose Pica Gallery (New York and Kola) and Shish Gallery, Chatterer and Ala, and Project 88 and koala:bravura in Iambi. In addition, Taller Gallery in New Delhi, India and New York, NY, represents a roster of diverse, internationally recognized artists from India and the Diaspora maintaining that the artist is geographically located and not the art (www. Large-hearted)_ In the KICK, in April 2006, The Noble Sage Art Gallery opened to specialist exclusively in Indian, Sir Lankan and Pakistani contemporary art. The Noble Sage, rather than looking to the renewal, Iambi, Delhi and Broad schools, saw their gallery as an opportunity to platform the South Indian contemporary art scene, particularly the work arising from the Madras School.
At the same, ironically, the absence of gallery or white cube support for newer ventures, produced a lot Of artists Who were connected to the Bangor art scene(like Shaker’s “Communing With urban Heroine” (2008) and “Un-Claimed and Other Urban , 2010) and those who produced a sense of art. Community or art-activism in a certain sense. Contemporary Indian art takes influence from all over the world. With many Indian artists immigrating to the west, art for some artists has been a form of expression merging their past with their current in western culture.
As Shaman Data Ray[citation needed] was concerned about Bengal and village life , new artists like Shares Chatterers feels art should speak for itself. She believes modern art must communicate with the general public, connecting to them and motivating them through some great idea or message behind it. [citation needed] Also, the increase in the discourse about Indian art, in English as well as vernacular Indian languages, appropriated the way art was perceived in the art schools.
Critical approach became rigorous, critics like Acetate Kaput, Shiva K, Panicky, apart Dave Meijer, R. Siva Kumar, Gather Sinai, Nail Kumar HA and Usurers Jakarta, amongst others, contributed to re-thinking contemporary art practice in India. The last decade or 50 has also witnessed an increase in Art magazines like Art India (from Bombay), Art & Deal (New Delhi, edited and published by Sideboard Étagère), ‘Art Etc. (from Miami Chisel, edited by Amid Mahogany’s) complementing the catalogues produced by the respective galleries. Indian painting has a very long history, although the seasonally humid Indian climate was difficult for the long-term preservation of paintings and there are far ewer survivals than of other forms of Indian art Modern Indian art is consider to have begun in Calcutta in the late nineteenth century, The old traditions of painting had more or less died out in Bengal and new schools of art were started by the British. L] Initially, protagonists of Indian art such as Raja Rave Farm drew on Western traditions and techniques including oil paint and easel painting. A reaction to the Western influence led to a revival in primitivism, called as the Bengal School, which drew from the rich cultural heritage tot India. It was succeeded by the Assassinated school, led by Arbitrating Etageres harking back to idyllic rural folk and rural life. Governance How an organization controls its actions.
