A brief on the Indian Modern and Contemporary Art(decades)

The emergence of Modernism in India in response to the vital political necessitate for independence and a concrete definition of a nation. In the early 20^th century there was a transformed rise of nationalist zeal. In arts this consequence leads to a search and revitalization of Indian cultural history and spirituality, even though one that was not articulated through the pictorial vocabulary of the foreign rulers but by reviving indigenous techniques and material. Till the 1950s, Indian art scene had experienced a number of artists’ collaborative and groups. Groups like Calcutta group, Delhi Shilpi Chakra and Bombay Progressives being the pioneers. A number of art journals like Marg, Artrends etc. were also started from different centers of the country. “Formal and stylistic means are interpreted by this generation on the holy grail of unique, individual expression.” Chaitanya Sambrani, INDIAN ART: an overview, Rupa, 2003.

Southern part of country, artists were also getting charged with the call of the formal rejection of western values in art, Group 1890 lead by K.C.S Paniker, followed by J. Swaminathan in 1960s. Bhupen Khakhar, K G Subramanyan, Jyoti Bhatt and many others were projected out of another initiative from Baroda, also with a similar intention to reject western orientation and had adopted the practice of varied traditional sources. The highly simplified three dimensional images of the tantra motives and images became the soul of Neo-tantric movement with the masters like Biren De, G R Santosh etc.

“The decades of the 1970s and the early 1980s marks the gestation of diverse art practices that come into manifest form in the 1990s. Even as the structure of artist’s groups or art institutions loosened, a few individual artists chartered a fresh course that redefines notions of Indian and the modern.” Gayatri Sinha, IA: an overview, Rupa, 2003. A pursuit for alternate iconographies was like a thread between the diverse practices around the country.

Indian art began to graph a new route, by the mid 1980s. The dialogues that subjugated the art scene were gradually fading away. New generation of artists engaged themselves with new apprehensions. Artists looked forward for fresh concepts which acquired supremacy, so that the artist’s idea became relevant to the work leaving him free to use helps and technicians to complete his work. They experimented with new media, material and techniques, they rethought the scale of the work attempting site-specific three-dimensional installations and they were prepared to negotiate with both global and local stimuli. Themes involving gender, environment and urban crisis began to surface in images. The vibrancy of popular culture worked as a major trigger in image-making. Some of the younger artists, even when they were working with representational forms eschewed narrative elements even as they gave vent to whimsy.

Contemporary art slashed through the silken veils of the exclusive private gallery ambience and got into an aggressive energy with a colourful vigour. As the spotlight of the world economy reallocates towards Asia, most notably China and India, it is fascinating to experience Indian artists’ responses for position in the global scene.