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My Sculpture Garden Grows

To be precise my garden is currently two flower pots but as any other Oval Maidan (Mumbai) or Central Park (NY) facing resident would say – the entire oval (park) is my garden!

Chronological Glimpse into the Life and Art of Jamini Roy

From the humble lanes of Beliatore to the grand pages of Indian art history, Jamini Roy's life was a journey of artistic awakening. His artistic journey, deeply rooted in Bengal's folk traditions, reflects a bold departure from the Western academic styles. The following timeline translated from the Bengali text Jamini Roy: Jibonpanji, written by Debasish Mukhopadhyay, presents a chronological account of his life, education, and major achievements.

Chronological Glimpse into the Life and Art of Jamini Roy

Timepieces & Treasures from the Estate of Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai

If the porcelain of the previous chapter revealed Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai’s eye for refinement, the timepieces and sculptural treasures in the family capture the rhythm and sentiment of his world. Within the family homes at Girgaum, Malabar Hill, and later Commonwealth, these pieces measured the passing of hours and reflected the family’s cosmopolitan curiosity. Passed down and faithfully wound through four generations, they speak of precision, devotion, and inherited grace.

Timepieces & Treasures from the Estate of Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai

Bhanu Athaiya's Feminist Vision

Bhanu Athaiya often described herself simply as “a painter who came to cinema.” She carried the discipline of her art training into every film she worked on, treating costume as an extension of character. Actresses who worked with her — from Waheeda Rehman to Zeenat Aman — remembered how she would sit with them, discuss each scene, and ensure that they felt completely at ease. Rekha called her “a mentor, creative guide, and friend,” while Meena Kumari’s first words to her on the set of Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam were, “Bhanu, take care of me.” That instinct — to listen, to understand, and to protect — defined her feminist practice.

For Jamini Roy was the First

When a retrospective of Jamini Roy opened in Bombay in 1980, art historian Yashodhara Dalmia wrote in The Times of India about his lifelong search for an authentic Indian form, deeming him the ‘first contemporary painter’. Moving away from academic realism, Roy drew on Bengal’s folk and tribal traditions to create a new visual language that was both modern and rooted in shared cultural sensibility.

Cricket Legends of Colonial India: The Mangaldas Family Autograph Book

Among the many treasures preserved in the Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai family collection is a slim, timeworn album belonging to his great-granddaughter Meenal. Its pages, still intact after a century, neatly inscribed with signatures and photographs, carry the imprints of cricketing legends from the early decades of the twentieth century.

Cricket Legends of Colonial India: The Mangaldas Family Autograph Book

Elephants in Stone: Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai and Bombay’s Cultural Legacy

Walk through Bombay’s old neighbourhoods and you will still find elephants in stone. At Lamington Road and in Kalbadevi, they guard the façades of two of the city’s most storied theatres — Imperial and Bhangwadi. To most passersby, they are striking ornaments. In truth, they are the emblem of Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai and his family, whose motto “Wisdom over Riches” guided a life of philanthropy and civic reform in nineteenth-century Bombay.

Elephants in Stone: Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai and Bombay’s Cultural Legacy

Porcelain from the Estate of Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai

The porcelains that once gleamed in Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai’s family homes reveal his lesser-known side as a deliberate collector. Now offered to the public for the first time, the Estate takes us back to 19th-century Bombay, when his Malabar Hill mansion stood as a social landmark. Within its halls, his studied collections—porcelain foremost among them, alongside books, clocks, and silverware—were displayed and admired by the city’s elite.

Porcelain from the Estate of Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai

Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai: The Renaissance Man of Bombay

Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai was one of the most dedicated reformers and philanthropists of nineteenth-century Bombay. Among the earliest Indians knighted by the British Crown for his service to education, healthcare, and civic reform, his legacy stands apart. More than a prosperous merchant, he belonged to the circle of Bombay’s emerging intelligentsia and played a significant role in the city’s wider social and political awakening.

Sir Mangaldas Nathubhai: The Renaissance Man of Bombay

Ignoring the Elephant in the Room

Jamini Roy and Gao Jianfu's Overlooked Collaboration This research note is about Gao Jianfu, the founding member of the Lingnan School of art, his travel to India, and a hitherto undocumented collaboration / influence with Jamini Roy.

Tale of Two Fathers

Xu Beihong, Jamini Roy, and a Possible Crossroad of Indian & Chinese Modernism The title of this note requires some explanation. Xu Beihong (Ju Peon) is widely regarded as the father of Chinese Modernism, while Jamini Roy is known as the father of Indian Modernism. (12) The works under discussion come from the estate of Jamini Roy, yet are believed to be by Xu Beihong, hence the framing as a “Tale of Two Fathers.”

Cheena Bhavan, Visva Bharati - Exchange of Indian & Chinese Culture

Tucked away from the bustle of colonial Kolkata, Bolpur’s red-earth landscape became home to Santiniketan in 1863, when Maharshi Devendranath Tagore purchased the land and established a spiritual retreat he named the “Abode of Peace.”

Cheena Bhavan, Visva Bharati - Exchange of Indian & Chinese Culture

Xu Beihong - The Chinese Modernist’s Artistic Pilgrimage to India

Hailed as the father of modern Chinese painting, Xu Beihong’s vast oeuvre reflects a rich confluence of cultural influences absorbed during his travels. Among these sojourns, Xu’s spirit of cultural fusion found new ground in 1939, when he was appointed the first Chinese visiting professor at Rabindranath Tagore’s Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal.

Xu Beihong - The Chinese Modernist’s Artistic Pilgrimage to India

Tradition in Abstraction: The Folk-Cubist Synthesis of Sunil Madhav Sen

In the ever-evolving landscape of modern Indian art, few names evoke the quiet strength and earthy lyricism of rural Bengal like Sunil Madhav Sen (1910-1979). A pioneer who chose brush over gravel, Sunil Madhav Sen’s journey from Law to the heart of India’s modernist movement is a testament to the power of personal calling.

Tradition in Abstraction: The Folk-Cubist Synthesis of Sunil Madhav Sen

From Rarh to Modernism: Sunil Madhav Sen and the Calcutta Group

Sunil Madhav Sen (1910-1979) was a modern artist whose art echoed the soil, people and spirit of Rarh Bengal. Though he studied law, his heart belonged to colors. Leaving behind a legal career, he turned to canvas, shaping a visual language that drew from the red soil of his childhood, the rhythms of tribal life and the quiet dignity of everyday moments.

From Rarh to Modernism: Sunil Madhav Sen and the Calcutta Group

Leaving Gavel for the Brush: Sunil Madhav Sen's Journey to Himself

Sunil Madhav Sen (1910-1979) was an artist whose work reflected an abiding intimacy with the land and ethos of Rural Bengal. Quietly perceptive and inwardly alert, he drew inspiration from the textured rhythms of village life and the unadorned poetry of everyday moments. Rather than seeking recognition, he remained committed to authenticity - shaping a visual language that was contemplative, grounded and steeped in lived memory.

Leaving Gavel for the Brush: Sunil Madhav Sen's Journey to Himself

Tales in Red Dust - The Artistic Genesis of Sunil Madhav Sen

Rarh Bengal, with its rugged red soil and undulating laterite terrain, was more than just a backdrop to Sunil Madhav Sen’s (1910-1979) early life - it was his first teacher, which left a long-lasting impression on Sunil Madhav Sen’s inner world. For Sunil Madhav Sen it was not merely something to look at, it was something he lived. From this soil, his earliest impressions of life and art took root and what he absorbed here would return again and again, in his works - not always as direct representations, but as feelings and texture.

Tales in Red Dust - The Artistic Genesis of Sunil Madhav Sen

Rarh Bengal in Modern Hue: The Artistic Imprint of Sunil Madhav Sen

Sunil Madhav Sen (1910-1979) was a pioneering modernist painter from Bengal, known for blending together rural sensibilities with avant-garde techniques. He was born in Purulia, a region that lies within the Rarh Bengal, which is mainly known for its red soil, rich cultural heritage, folk tradition and art. Sunil Madhav Sen’s roots in this culturally vibrant and geographically unique land played a significant role in shaping his artistic sensibilities.

Rarh Bengal in Modern Hue: The Artistic Imprint of Sunil Madhav Sen

Bhanu Athaiya - pre-1953 Catalogue Raisonne

A rare catalogue raisonné of Bhanu Athaiya’s fine art and formative years at the J.J. School of Art—spotlighting the only woman in the Progressive Artists’ Group, who redefined her artistic journey through costume design and became India’s first Oscar winner.

Bhanu Athaiya - pre-1953 Catalogue Raisonne

F.N. Souza: A Continuum -

Evolution of the Indian Modernist Painter Prinseps, in collaboration with Dhoomimal Gallery, presented F.N. Souza: A Continuum. A landmark exhibition A landmark exhibition celebrating F.N. Souza's Centenary Year. Opening on March 25, 2025, in New Delhi, the exhibition invited viewers to look beyond the myth and into the inner world of one of India’s most influential modernists.