Contemporary and Modern Indian Art
The foundations for the contemporary art movement in India were laid in the late 40’s in Bombay, when artists Francis Newton Souza and Syed Haider Raza formed the Bombay Progressive Artists Group. Souza’s dominance in the international art scene was established when he moved to London in 1949; where his paintings of scenes of Indian life executed in an Expressionist style reminiscent of Art Brut garnered early support. Raza was similarly popular internationally, and his
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Contemporary and Modern Indian Art
The foundations for the contemporary art movement in India were laid in the late 40’s in Bombay, when artists Francis Newton Souza and Syed Haider Raza formed the Bombay Progressive Artists Group. Souza’s dominance in the international art scene was established when he moved to London in 1949; where his paintings of scenes of Indian life executed in an Expressionist style reminiscent of Art Brut garnered early support. Raza was similarly popular internationally, and his series of works surrounding the concept of ‘bindu’ remains one of the most important series of Indian works to date. The Bombay Progressive Artists Group would grow to include such artists as Maqbool Fida Husain, Tyeb Mehta, and Akbar Padamsee, each of who would become imminent figures in the Indian Contemporary scene and continue in Souza and Raza’s footsteps by using western artistic techniques to portray Indian subjects and values. While Padamsee would follow Souza and Raza abroad, both Mehta and Husain would choose to remain in India.
These early contemporaries would be followed by a younger generation of artists; among them Atul Dodiya, Sabodh Gupta, Justin Ponmany and TV Santhosh. An early figurehead for the newest generation of contemporary artists, Atul Dodiya would be one of the first Indian artists to use western technique in a more self-aware, Post-Modern manner; using the juxtaposition of Indian art traditions and western traditions to comment on the complex relationship that exists between the two cultures. Another artist working in Mumbai, Justin Ponmany uses a variety of disparate materials including plastic, holograms, printers ink and salt to express concerns for India’s increasingly crowded urban centers while at the same time glorifying the influx of increased electronic media and communication that has become a central part of urban life. The subject of urban life and crowding is also tackled by artist Sabodh Gupta, whose work in sculpture and painting has recently come to focus on the idea of the migrant Indian worker; who is forced to travel away to a foreign country to work for long hours in crowded conditions to support his family back in India. These new works focus on the baggage these men carry; which symbolize the hopes and dreams they have for a positive future for their family in these difficult mega-cities. TV Santhosh’s paintings tackle a different area of Indian culture, using brightly colored images that resemble film negatives to address world politics, terrorism and war. This younger generation of artists has established a uniquely Indian aesthetic which incorporates traditions of western art and previous generations of Indian artists. (hide)
Examples of Contemporary and Modern Indian Art at Auction
Artists Associated with Contemporary and Modern Indian Art — 39 artists:
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