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Unnoticed by the most remarkable art critics of that time, E.B. Havell (principal of Calcutta School of Art for more than a decade) and Ananda Coomaraswamy who championed the functional integrity of art with life, flourished an art form which was stunningly original. This was the art of Kalighat paintings, called ‘pats’ painted by anonymous ‘patuas ‘ as souvenirs, for pilgrims visiting the famous ‘Kali Temple’. This authentic art form was completely ignored by the ‘bhadra lok’ (affluent class) of that time, possibly because of their cheapness and easy availability. While all the previous modern art experiments were carried out by the elite class which stuck to Indian history and mythology, the Kalighat paintings were a creation of humble painters and made bold and witty social statements on the everyday life of that time along with depicting mythology .
These patua – artists had perfected or technique learned from foreigners using cheap water colours to develop a unique and highly distinctive style. All but ignored by the art circle of the time, the Kalighat paintings did however, strongly influence and inspire two famous artists, Jamini Roy and K.G. Subramanyam.
PROGRESSIVE ARTISTS GROUP
At the turning
point of Indian History, in 1947, when India went through the tremendous
upheaval of gaining freedom from the British empire and a torturous partition,
unaffected, a twenty three year old former Communist Party member of modest
origin, along with five other members founded the Progressive Artists’ group.
The five other members were M.F. Hussian, K.H.Ara, H.A.Gade, S.K. Bakre and
S.H.Raza. Their manifesto drawn up by Souza, the most articulate and
controversial of the group, declared that the world progressive meant ‘to go
forward’ and that was what they intended to do. They summarily denounced the
influences of all modern Indian artists, Rabindranath Tagore as too
self-obsessed and introverted, Amrita Sher-Gil as a hybrid, Jamini Roy as too
unsophisticated and crude, and all eminent artists and influential teachers as
too sentimental.
The group’s twentieth century modernism was unapologetically linked to the
European contemporaries. Their talent, professionalism and the blazing
dedication to their art was first spotted by Mulk Raj Anand, India’s foremost
art critic and novelist of international acclaim. The Progressive Artists Group
exhibited for the first time in 1948, and the exhibition was opened by Mulk Raj
Anand who dwelt on the significance of providing a platform for a new, not yet
fully formed voice, rather than the content of the show. He indicated that they
had much ground to cover and three of them went on to achieve that within a
decade of the show.
A QUIET REVOLUTION
After the bold and compelling success of the Progressive Artists Group, the stage was set for tremendous transformations in the art scene of India. Liberated from the many debilitating complexes and uncertainties, Indian artists began a quest for their individual styles, bringing forward new talent and new ideas. On the scene emerged several artists of substance like Satish Gujaral (b.1925), Tyeb Mehta (b.1925), Krishen Khanna (b.1925), Ram Kumar (b.1927), V.S..Gaitonde (b.1927), Akbar Padamsee (b.1928), Laxman Pai(b.1926), Jehangir Sabavala (b.1922) and a host of others.
Delhi and Mumbai which did not even a single gallery in 1947, were home to several commercial art galleries by the Sixties. Pioneer galleries like Gallery Chemould and Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai and Dhoomimal, Kunika and Kumar Art Galleries in Delhi began to display and sell the works of an increasing number of talented artists, Husian, Raza, Souza, Padamsee, Kumar, Ambadas, A. Ramanchandran, Tyeb Mehta, Gaitonde, Krishen Khanna, Biren De, Krishna Reddy and many others.
A quiet revolution took place, forging individual styles, bringing to the fore new talent and new ideas. The atmosphere came alive with art events, news and discussions, and exchanging of ideas, with more and more private art galleries and museums opening up everywhere. Visionary teachers like Subramanyan and Chaudhry at the art school of Baroda contributed to a flow of fresh talent entering the scene and artists began to travel abroad for further studies like Vivan Sundaram, Ghulam Muhammad Sheikh, Anjolie Ela Menon, Anupam Sud etc. They travelled between the leading artistic centers of Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta and also began to display their works in the Western Capitals successfully.
In 1950, the Indian government established the Indian Council for Cultural
Relations for cultural exchanges with the rest of the world. The National
Gallery of Modern Art was created in 1954 at the Maharajah of Jaipur’s palatial
Lutyens-style mansion in Delhi. The same year, under the watchful eye of a
committee of nine artists including Bose, Chaudhry and N.S. Bendre (1910–92), a
national academy of art, the Lalit Kala Akademi, was set up. Exhibitions were
regularly held in its spacious galleries together with a prestigious annual
national exhibition and the Delhi Triennale.