Dr. Alka Pande, curator, and art historian talks about the history of Modern art in India in three broad phases, by emphasizing the work of notable artists in each phase. She also speaks at length about the evolution and changes in art and culture across different mediums, over different periods of time.
I would not want to use modernity as a single word for India, because I think it is highly nuanced and very difficult to use the generic term “modern” for India, because there are various modernities within the Indian context, particularly with our country with twenty-nine states and seven union territories. We are really almost not even a continent, but a world in itself. As we travel through the Indian sub-continent, morphologies change, languages change, dress changes, food changes, and in the same way, the whole impact of modernity in twenty-nine states, seven union territories – now, maybe another in the picture – so it is really a very complex subject for me. Also, what is modern in India is very much part of the language – with the introduction of English, we become modern.
Presentation CoverThe encounter with European culture in the 19th century, Indian artists, particularly visual artists, and intellectuals have been confronted with the classical problem of colonial societies – in the sense that, to what extent should we renounce the rich cultural styles of our culture and adapt, adopt, or imitate Western modernity. And indeed, in this postcolonial discourse scholars also have argued of Non-Western modernism in India. Pictorial representations, in particular, play a major role, and one major part is by the role of our culture, which is vested in to a large extent in Hinduism as is evident from the importance of divine representation shown to a great extent, in some ways it is also a way out of the dilemma.
In painting, the debate is between the old and the new, and it was actually resolved with the emergence of a new iconography that concerned itself with just the depiction of the divine order and epic stories, but also through new techniques, forms, politics, and enthusiasm.
I kind of have made this map, which is very subjective (referring to slide 01). I kind of put in images that I felt talked of also the visual and cultural diversity of all the twenty-nine states and seven union territories. And each of the states, if you see, has so much within it, which is still living, which has almost unbroken tradition and that is why I wanted also to take a very potent trajectory or a potent emotion, because Mr. Chandavarkar has already spoken about emotions, about wonder, and the main thing of art is the rasa of Adbhutam. So, what I see here, in all these images, where I have actually made a collage of a lot of visual cultures – whether it is textiles, cinema, music, or dance – there is an underlying thread that binds and connects it. It is not just language or what you call ‘modern’, but the emotion of rasa, which connects all aspects and is also present, in the interpretation of the present as Peter Scriver was ending the thing – the interpretation of the present – we see it through color and through rasa.
Now there are certain questions that I will come to, but before that, I just want to give two or three important observations that I have while I have been reading about the art historical processes of visual culture. For us as Indians, the taste for pictorial representations and stories like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata counted among the masterpieces of the epic genre, helping in the adoption of modern cinematographic techniques as well. These epics gave birth to a film industry deeply embedded in popular Indian culture that more than any other medium of art resisted Western influence in its content and theme.
Music too, wedded tradition and modernity with minimal influence of the modern to its structure and style. In fact, India is one of the rare countries in the post-colonial world that does not have a philharmonic orchestra. After the singers and musicians lost Royal patronage, they adopted new performance mediums like public concerts or the radio, even the use of electronic acoustics, but the music remained essentially the same, played the same instruments or sung, as the case may be and are still marked by the principles of improvisation. Just as in cinema, India exports more music than it imports unadulterated Western styles. Writers have also had to balance their loyalty to their culture and their acceptance of Western influence. In a sense, theirs was a more acute problem. Since the Indian intelligentsia from whence they emerged already spoke another language. English, which was evocative of British culture. And after the war, the experiments with the English favored the blossoming of a rich Indo – English or Indian writing in English literature, especially across the diaspora. Simultaneously an immense volume of literature in vernacular languages also developed. With the establishment of the Sahithya Akademies at the turn of the twentieth century, we see that Hindi too becomes very important in the establishment of academies in India, particularly the literary academies.
I want to raise a few key questions around modernity in India. One is to what extent have colonies renounced their rich traditional styles of their culture and adopted or imitated Western modernity? Given the unique structure of Indian plurality, could there be a clear distinction between classical and folk art or those between popular or commercial and fine or modern art?
The third question is, is modern Indian art still haunted by the dynamism of comparisons and contradictions with Western aesthetics? How far the patronage of the government institutions and Indian intelligentsia has played a defining role in shaping the discipline of modern art? And my fifth question is, raised of course also by Rabindranath Tagore in “The Religion of Man”; what is art? What is Indian art? Is it a response of man’s creative soul to call to the real?
Slide 03Now, in my talk, I will show you a lot of slides. I have really divided it into three different sections. One is early modernism, which I call the first phase of modernism, second and third phases. So, I will just begin with the first phase. (referring to slide 03).
I begin with Raja Ravi Varma, Woman Holding a Fruit (referring to slide 04), M.V. Dhurandhar, Hindu Marriage Ceremony, 1908 (referring to slide 05), Amrita Shergil, 1937, Bride’s Toilet (referring to slide 06). So, before I go into the second phase, I just will talk about certain things that, in Indian art, it was a lot about the transferring of rasa and power. A very energetic kind of relationship between the producer and the consumer of art. And much of it was based around various things which were happening in the transition from the old to the new. Because even unlike in China, we have never had a cultural revolution and there are – cultural diversity, the vernacular, the contemporary, the modern, and the traditional, they all exist side by side even today.
Slide 06So, I would like you to hear a quote, a very interesting quote, which I like, of Partha Mitter, when we have looked at these three images (referring to slides 04, 05, and 06), “What is most exciting about modernisms across the globe is their plurality, heterogeneity, and difference. What one may describe as a messy quality lacking symmetry, which makes them all the more exciting, and rich with possibilities. This is about the triumph of modernism in India.”
Slide 07Now in the second phase of modernism (referring to slide 07), I want to show you what was really happening to a large extent in Bengal. Bengal, which was a creation by the British Calcutta, which was created by the British, and the Bengal modernity, which had a very interesting language of its own.
We see Rabindranath Tagore creating an alternate institution (referring to slide 08). And he felt that till an alternate institution was not created, another language could not have been created in India itself. This is Devi Prasad Roy Choudhury (referring to slide 09), who went to Calcutta and also became a mentor to a lot of sculptors there. This is the Gyaarah Murti (referring to slide 09), depicting The Salt March of 1931, in New Delhi.
Chittaprosad, who wanted to show the Bengal famines, and also show the attitude of our colonial masters through his very telling drawings of the Bengali famines (referring to slide 11). This is Prodosh Das Gupta who started creating modern sculptures (referring to slide 12) very different from the sculptures created by Ramkinkar Baij, which I shall show you later (referring to slide 10).
So, now I come to my third phase of modernism (referring to slide 14) after leaving the second strand of modernism, which was at the beginning of the twentieth century, much more closely aligned with the Indian identity in the context of the Swadeshi movement. And, it was born out of nostalgia, a sense of loss, mourning, and melancholic longing for the glorious past of Indian antiquity.
Slide 14Now in the third phase, which we will discuss.
Slide 15We begin with F.N. Souza (referring to slide 15). And I wanted to have Souza here deliberately because Souza also belongs to Goa. And we also see that what he wanted to say was, “I want to assassinate painting”, he said and said that what the progressives wanted to do, was to kind of lynch the kind of art inculcated by the JJ School of Art and exhibited at the Bombay Society. So what you see here of Sousa is, Head in a Landscape, 1958, very much done when he was still looking at the Western ways of depiction. And you will see that the churches in the background, the head in front, the colors he uses, he was kind of dealing with his own anxiety, with his Hindu past and Christian identity.
This is H.A. Gade (referring to slide 17), one of the people from the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group; this was again a kind of surging ahead towards individuation, which was not part of the traditional work of Indian artists.
This is S.H Raza (referring to slide 19), who brought in a kind of abstraction, which was rooted in Indian spirituality. An abstraction, which was very different from the abstraction which you see in the modernism of the West. Whether it was the Dessau School or the Bauhaus, or the kind of later modernism and the abstract ideals which we see in Western painting. Again, Raza’s abstraction was rooted in the Bindu, the Shunya, which went back to Yoga, which went back to Indian forms of abstraction of our Vedic texts. And this was the spiritual spirituality, that could not be delinked with the abstraction of art in a very Modern language.
Slide 20K.H Ara (referring to slide 20), this was more like a nature morte – still life, which was brought in with the establishment of the art schools which were set up as part of Wood’s dispatch of 1854. These art schools, which were set up in India had a very interesting second part – they were always the Madras School of Arts and Crafts, the Lucknow School of Arts and Crafts, etc. Basically, people who studied here were probably being taught here to become draftsmen for their colonial masters who were trying to document their territories in India.
Slide 21This is Ram Kumar (referring to slide 21). This is a much later abstract artist and you see a very distinct language and a distinct iconography of Ram Kumar whose brother Nirmal Varma was a well-known poet. So, you have in him a kind of lyricism of abstraction, which comes with the linking of text and image.
Slide 22V.S. Gaitonde (referring to slide 22), an abstract artist, again having his roots in Goa who lived in Delhi for a number of years, evolving a strong, purely abstract language, which was definitely very modern, bordering, and contemporary rather.
Tyeb Mehta (referring to slide 23) – he was a very important part of the Bombay Progressives who broke the canvas, who broke the frame, who did bring in the Mahish Mardini, who did bring in the figurative form very much part of the Indian traditional language of painting. But the whole representation and the way he used and broke the canvas, the frame, and the composition was what made it progressive and modern.
Slide 25This is Pran Nath Mago (referring to slide 25), again going more towards abstract art – a person who set up the Delhi Shilpi Chakra, in post-independent India.
Slide 26B. Prabha (referring to slide 26), from Maharashtra. A woman artist who also brought a different kind of feminine voice to the work.
This is Mrinalini Mukherjee (referring to slide 28), daughter of Benode Behari Mukherjee who brought in a very interesting language through materials. And she used a lot of hemp, used cotton, and also, painted on saris. And this was a very interesting kind of move from the materials which were used by “women artists” of her times. She is also known for her majestic forms, which are crossovers between sculpture and textiles. Here, what you see in the mysterious folds and the intricate curves and drapes, is a strong manifestation of sexuality evoking a sensuous and tactile quality. Mrinalini’s works come out as a continuation of her endeavor of past years, where earlier she was working in bronzes, which carried references to vegetable forms, which were mineralized. And then what you see in this is (referring to slide 28) that the fluidity of the fiber works gets left behind and the emotional and melancholic effect also of the textured skin starts creeping in.
Slide 29Now, this is of course the work of Habib Rahman (referring to slide 29). I think his son is here and can talk more about it, but I am just showing you some aspects of architecture, and modernity in Delhi.
Slide 30Now this is the Belgian Embassy designed by Satish Gujral (referring to slide 30), an artist, a sculptor, and here he is an architect, and you will see the exposed red bricks, the Indian forms, the arches – they are more curvilinear here than the modern ways of the grid you see. There is no grid here in the way the modern or the brutalist architecture which you see a lot in the early part of the sixties and seventies in Delhi.
Slide 31This is his Burnt Wood Sculptures and Tree of Life (on the left, referring to slide 31), the Kalpavriksha, (on the right, referring to slide 31), but how the material has changed and how he has changed the visual representation of the Kalpavriksha.
This is of course the Jawahar Kala Kendra (referring to slide 32) Charles Correa‘s building. Again, an architect from Goa. I am not going to be speaking too much about it because I am sure his work will be featured and discussed a lot over the next two days, but I am just trying to show you how this whole aspect of the Navagraha’s, which is another aspect of Indian philosophy is continued in his making of the Jawahar Kala Kendra.
I also wanted to bring in and show some aspects of modern photography because India is one country in the world where photography came in very quickly because we were the jewel in the crown. And when photography happened in 1839 in France and England, it came here very quickly. And this was definitely a modern medium, and Homai Vyarawalla (referring to slide 35) captured the making of an independent India beautifully in her body of work.
Cartier Bresson who came to India, slice of life, the way the Westerner looked at India from the outside to the inside (referring to slide 36).
Ram Rahman‘s photograph, The Collage; very interesting (referring to slide 38), I like it very much. Anyway, so there was another image I wanted to show of Raghu Rai (referring to slides 39 and 40).
Slide 41But now I am coming to one of the great icons of modernity (referring to slide 41) – a very holistic person, very much like to go, Satyajit Ray, who did everything from making his storyboard to the films to the posters to the logos, all designed by Ray himself. And in his work, it epitomizes the Indian modernity in an absolutely cosmopolitan, international way with a great accent on the indigenous, like the way he used the Bengali script in his cinema posters, the way he used language and calligraphy; it is really beautiful.
So, cinema becomes a very important part of India’s modernity. So, these films were also very important markers or representations of India’s modernity. They dealt a lot with the social aspects of what was happening post-independent art. Of course, many of them like, Phalke’s films continued with a great epic tradition. And then you had M. S. Sathyu (referring to slide 42), you had Bimal Roy (referring to slide 43), who dealt with a lot of social issues, political issues, and partition. I am just, just going to show you some of them.
Now, after the cinema, I am going to now come back to the indigenous traditions (referring to slide 44) and I want to show you how these traditions are still standing tall and are alive. And there is an unbroken tradition, whether they are temple hangings, whether they are puppets, whether they are Pabuji Ki Phad: the vernacular language still stands as robust as ever. And this is the beauty of Indian modernity.
Slide 46Applique work from Gujarat. (referring to slide 46)
Slide 47Madhubani Folk Art (referring to slide 47), which you see as prevalent today – some of the old homes are missing, but you see Madhubani Art in museums, and some of them being done by artists who are not traditionally doing Madhubani Art. But there is an architect called Manisha Jha who has taken Madhubani Folk Art to another level and is working beautifully with the local women of Madhuban, creating a very robust and very strong feminine voice in Madhubani paintings.
Slide 48Gond Art (referring to slide 48), which, even though Shyam Singh Jangarh died in Japan, the art and Swaminathan, of course, gave a huge impetus to vernacular art. The Rashtriya Manav Sangrahlaya in Bhopal has got some of the most fabulous collections of Gond Art. And, lots of museums across Madhya Pradesh are giving a new image to this vernacular language.
Slide 49Kalamkari Paintings (referring to slide 49). Again, the ceremony of Ram’s coronation.
Slide 50And then, The Land Of The Seven Sisters (referring to slide 50). I just wanted to end with this showing you that, how working with the hands, of the making, is disappearing very quickly. In the West where they are doing the art of not making, the art of making is still as strong as ever in this age of mechanical reproduction.
So, thank you. Thank you very much.
Dr. Alka Pande is an art historian who taught Indian Arts and Aesthetics at Panjab University for more than ten years. Her major fields of interest are gender identity and sexuality, and traditional arts. Dr. Pande, under the aegis of the Charles Wallace India Trust, conducted postdoctoral research in critical art theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2006, she was awarded the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters– an honour bequeathed by the French government to recognize significant contributions in the fields of art and literature. She has been responsible for curating several significant and perceptive exhibitions in India and abroad. She has written extensively on Indian aesthetics, culture, and photography. Dr. Pande is the Artistic Director of the photography biennale, Habitat Photosphere, instituted by India Habitat Centre. Currently, Dr. Pande is a consultant art advisor and curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi (India).
FRAME is an independent, biennial professional conclave on contemporary architecture in India curated by Matter and organised in partnership with H & R Johnson (India) and Takshila Educational Society. The intent of the conclave is to provoke thoughts on issues that are pertinent to pedagogy and practice of architecture in India. The first edition was organised on the 16th, 17th and 18th August, 2019.
