Encounters with Modern Indian Art: Essays and Discussions

This book explores modern art in India, tracing its evolution from the setting-up of the Progressive Artists Group in the 1940s to the contemporary movements today. It discusses some of the fundamental issues around Indian art, such as the extent of its rootedness in the country, the amalgamation of Western art methods and Indian aesthetics in the art and its increasing infusion with popular modes.In a series of essays, the book looks at works from the late Mughal period, when artists began to move towards modernism, to the visionary approaches of artists like Rabindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Ramkinkar Baij and Benodebehari Mukherjee in Santiniketan. It also explores innovative works of the Indo-Hungarian artist Amrita Sher-Gil and contributions of progressive artists such as Francis Newton Souza, Sayed Haider Raza and M.F. Husain to the new and experimental forms being practised in the present, highlighting the transformative role of modern Indian art through the twentieth century as the works of each successive generation reflect the socio-cultural contexts.With rich illustrations, the book will be of interest to students and educators of art, art history, intellectual and cultural history, as well as to connoisseurs of art.

About the Author

Yashodhara Dalmia is an art historian and an independent curator based in New Delhi. Her book Amrita Sher-Gil – A Life (2006), which is a comprehensive account of the life of one of India’s acclaimed woman artists, received widespread international acclaim. Her book The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives (2001) is regarded as the definitive account of a seminal phase of Indian art history. Her publication Buddha to Krishna: Life and Times of George Keyt (2017) is a biography of the famed Sri Lankan artist George Keyt. Her latest book Sayed Haider Raza: The Journey of an Iconic Artist (2021) is a biography of the well-known modernist artist Sayed Haider Raza. She has curated several large shows of modern Indian art including The Moderns (1996) which inaugurated the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, and Amrita Sher-Gil: A Passionate Quest (2014) at the NGMA, Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai.