Art Paintings
CONTEMPORARY
ART
With
the arrival of the British, Indian painting took a new
turn. This period saw the emergence of an Indo-European
genre of painting known as the Company style. It was
only with the rise of political consciousness that Indian
art came into its own, once again.
Two prominent names which figure in 20th century Indian
art are Amrita Shergil - a woman trained in Paris, and
Rabindranath Tagore. In this period, Indians were not
only fighting for political independence, but were also
liberating themselves from their traditional mind-sets
and trappings. Much of the art of this era depicts this
newly emerging social consciousness.
Independence saw the setting up of a new school of art
in Bombay, called the Progressive Artists Group. The
prominent artists of this group are Francis Newton Souza
the founder, and Maqbool Fida Husain. Painting took
a new form in this period - bold and furious at one
end, soft and magical at the other. Gulam Muhammed Sheikh,
Bhupen Khakkar and Sundaram are some other names featuring
in India's contemporary art scene. Most contemporary
Indian paintings contain imagery that is literal and
colour that is highly charged, creating a kaleidoscope
of humanity and the human condition in modern India.
The Indian paintings have now acquired a stature of
their own. They use materials and techniques from all
over the world but express Indian realities and Indian
experiences. The respect for tradition and the ability
to transcend it at the same time is clearly evident
in Indian art of today. This is the essence of what
has been described as the eclecticism of the Indian
contemporary expression.
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