Skip to main content

History of Indian Modern Art

The Modern Art Movement in India began in the early 1900s. Unlike the west, Indian artists were encouraged to reconsider their own traditional antecedents. The arrival of western-style and modern techniques played a significant role in the development of the Native Art Movement famously known as the Bengal School of Art.

The genesis of Bengal art can also be equated with the birth of Indian nationalism. Abanindranath Tagore was the first significant artist to emerge out of the Bengal School of Art. He was a major exponent of indigenous values in Indian art and is said to have redefined the meaning of modernity. The great influence of the Swadeshi movement made artists like Rabindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose reject the Western concept of naturalism as seen in Raja Ravi Varma’s artworks. Instead, they took inspiration from Indian mythology and religion. The simple Indian folk art of Jamini Roy and the bold post-impressionistic canvases of Amrita Shergill are significant forms of Indian Modern Art.

By the mid and late nineteenth century, Many Art schools were established like the Baroda School of Art, Progressive Art Group. These art schools tended to promote traditional Indian crafts, and academic and naturalist art.

The evolution of Modern Indian Art is about the vernacular and regional roots portrayed in different styles and forms.  


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

S H Raza

Born in 1922 in Mandala district of Madhya Pradesh, Syed Haider Raza was greatly inspired by the lush green landscapes and forests of his early childhood. He depicted those memories his canvases later. His concepts are spiritually driven with an admiration for nature and the surroundings. His works are rooted yet global. An influence of his travels and life abroad can be clearly seen in his artworks. A cohesive, cerebral colorist who has moved from dense vibrancy to soft ethereality Raza’s paintings resonate the passionate hot colours of India with all their symbolic emotive value while drawing from memories of childhood spent in the forest, he has also been inspired by Indian metaphysical thought. Raza’s works position a slash of red, a blotch of blue and a grinding orchestration of yellows and sunset oranges. His paintings revolve mainly around nature and its various facets. Over the years, his paintings evolved from being purely expressionist landscapes to abstract ones. He beli...
Post a Comment
Read more

National Treasure- Amrita Sher-Gil

  Amrita Sher-Gil was a renowned Indian painter, often considered one of the most important Indian artists of the 20th century. Born in 1913 to a Sikh father and a Hungarian mother, Sher-Gil's artistic talent was evident from a young age. She studied art in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Grande Chaumière, where she was influenced by European art movements like Post-Impressionism. Sher-Gil's work is known for its unique blend of Western techniques with traditional Indian art styles. She painted mostly portraits and landscapes, capturing the essence of India and its people. Her art often depicted the lives of Indian villagers and reflected the socio-economic realities of the time. Tragically, Sher-Gil passed away at a young age of 28 in 1941, leaving behind a relatively small but impactful body of work that continues to influence and inspire artists to this day. Her legacy remains significant in the history of Indian art, celebrated for its richness, depth, and portray...
Post a Comment
Read more

Symbolism

Symbolism was an artistic movement that originated with a group of French poets in the late 19 th Century. The movement came into existence with an expression of an idea over the realistic description of the natural world. The term ‘symbolism’ was coined in 1886 by French critic Jean Moreas to describe the poetry of Stephane Mallarmi and Paul Verlaine. The concept of symbolism was incorporated in visual arts, to depict the natural world using symbols as metaphors. Symbolist artists aim to depict various forms of expressions and emotions using varied symbols. The work of symbolist artists and writers was also fueled by new psychological content particularly erotic and mystical. Common themes included: love, fear, anguish, death, sexual awakening and unrequited desire. Though the movement began in France, symbolism was an international avant garde movement that spread across Europe and America during the last two decades of the 19 th Century.       The use of symbolism ...
Post a Comment
Read more