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The
early British painters like Tilly Kettle, John Zoffany, John Smart,
George Chinnary, William Hodges and others painted in oil. The
foundation for modern painting in India was laid by the formation of
art schools in Calcutta and other cities under the British influence
at the beginning of the 20th century. This period saw the emergence
of an Indo-European genre of painting known as the Company style. 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.
Raja
Ravi Verma of Kerala was perhaps the first great modern painter in
India. He evolved a national style of painting by combining various
regional elements like costumes, jewellery and facial features. His
paintings, which mostly depicted mythological themes, became very
popular not only in India but abroad. His illustrations of Ramayana
and Mahabharata were the most appealing visual
representations of that time. He
won a gold medal at the World Art Exhibition, Vienna, for his
picture Nair Lady Adorning Her Hair (1873).
Abanindranath
Tagore and Havell, who founded the Bengal School of Painting, were
the pioneers in encouraging Indian themes and urged the artists to
take inspiration from the traditions of Ajanta and Rajasthan in
modem painting. They served to infuse confidence in younger artistes
who wanted to experiment with new modes of expression. Abanindranath
Tagore's Arabian Nights series (1930) is among his renowned
works. Other renowned painters like Nandlal Bose, Devi Prasad Roy,
Sarada Charan Ukil, Asit Kumar Haldar also belonged to this school.
Jamini
Roy, another renowned Indian painter, modelled his work on the folk
art of Bengal.
 He
adopted the angular forms and harsh lines of the village patuas
and used the village dyes in his paintings. Amrita Shergil is
another famed name in contemporary modern Indian painting. Inspired
by Mughal miniatures and Ajanta murals, she produced several great
works like Brahmacharis, Child Wife and Preparing the
Bride. Rabindranath Tagore started painting in 1930 at the age
of 67 and produced some great paintings, which are very
individualistic and modem in style. He held the first exhibition of
his paintings in Galerie Pigalle in Paris in 1930.
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, Maqbool Fida Husain, S.H.Raza,
H.A.Gade, S.K.Bakre and others. This group organised its first
painting exhibition in 1948. Painting took a
new form in this period - bold and furious at one end, soft and
magical at the other. By 1960, professional art galleries were
opened in Delhi and Mumbai, and in the next two decades several
abstract painters like V.S. Gaitonde, Balraj Khanna and
J.Swaminathan emerged on the scene. Biren De, G.R.Santosh and others
tried to present the Tantra Art on canvas in oils and
acrylics. Gulam Muhammed Sheikh, Bhupen Khakkar, K.K.Hebber,
Satish Gujral, S.H.Raza (Surya), Akbar Padamsee (Woman), Tyeb Mehta (Figure
with Bird), Krishna Khanna (St Francis and the Wolf),
Laxman Shrestha (Painting in Red), Navjote (Hope),
Jeram Patel (Organic Black), Jyoti Swaroop, Ram Kumar,
Jehangir Sabavala, Rameshwar Broota, Manjit Bawa and Sundaram are
some other prominent names of India's contemporary art scene. The
South India saw the proliferation of good painters like
K.C.S.Pannikker, K.Madhava Menon, P.L.Narasimhamurty, Mokkapti
Krishnamurti, A.Ramachandran, G.Subramanyan and Ganesh Pyne. Among
the
 contemporary modem Indian women painters, mention may be made of Anjolie Ela Menon, Arpana Caur, B.Prabha, Kamala Das, Lalitha Lajmi,
Meera Devidayal, Rekha Rodwittiya and Rekha Krishnan.
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 modem 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 the 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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