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The strong kinship between rubies and emeralds

The ravishing Burmese Ruby or the glorious Colombian Emerald, which one will it be? Read on to make your choice.

The strong kinship between rubies and emeralds

Bhanu Athaiya: The Oscar Winning Designer

Bhanu Athaiya achieved a lot over a period of six decades - the only woman member of the Progressive Artists Group and the first Indian to win an Oscar.

Bhanu Athaiya: The Oscar Winning Designer

Capturing the Zeitgeist : Progressive Artists’ Group

Traversing the world of art can be a game of clue hunt. Sometimes, even if there is a lot documented about a group of artists and their works, one tends to find a thread that can become an enticing exploration in itself. A lot has been written about the Progressive Artists' Group, which was formed in India in the year 1947.

Capturing the Zeitgeist : Progressive Artists’ Group

Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute

Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute (BDMI) was a center for innumerable artists of diverse fields and practices. An institute with the same structure and bohemian style has never been established again, giving rise to various experiments, collaborations, and discussions. The impact of the atmosphere created at the BDMI has touched the practice of artists visiting the space for various reasons.

The Progressive Artists Group

Post-Independence India was a new revolution in India’s history. As the struggle for freedom was finally achieved, new mindsets were formed. The new free India respected and worshiped humanity at its best along with promoting freedom of expression. At this point, a group of supreme artists came together who shared a common art type: modern art for the new free India and called themselves the Bombay Progressives Art Group!

Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute

In reading about the Bhulabhai Desai Institute, one can acquaint themselves with a few historically important personalities who supported contemporary Indian art in the 1950s and 1960s by nurturing talent and providing an international stage and platform for many of them.

Gaitonde & Mohamedi at Bhulabhai Desai

Artists don’t exist in a vacuum. The feature looks at the works of two Indian artists who occupy a special niche in the art world. This feature looks at VS Gaitonde and Nasreen Mohamedi through different prisms.

Somnath Hore - Important Prints & Other Works

Somnath Hore's pictorial language in his sketches, sculptures, and prints is more often a reaction to one of the major crises that hit Bengal in the 20th century. Here we focus on his printmaking.

Somnath Hore - Important Prints & Other Works

Food & Wine Pairings

This is an attempt to answer the question – “Which wine pairs well with which food?”. The article is partly structured as an ode to my good friend Bedig Margossian – originally an Armenian from Lebanon. A Ph.D. in Abstract Math (ABD) from the University of California, Berkeley; however, happier being a gourmand. Wine, Food, and Cigars are what define him.

VS Gaitonde's Paintings - Technique And Processes

Abstraction refers to non-representational art, Figurative art refers to something with reality - both definitions are broad and have to be in fact, as otherwise, it would be seemingly impossible to categorize many artworks. What's the connection between these definitions with Vasudeo Santo Gaitonde's art? The connection becomes clear thanks to a recent exhibit at the Prince of Wales Museum (now called Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay).

VS Gaitonde's Paintings - Technique And Processes

Nandalal Bose - Haripura Posters

These posters by Nandalal Bose - made using tempera on handmade paper, were created around 1938 and were commissioned by Mahatma Gandhi. These belong to the permanent collection of the NGMA and were displayed at the India Pavilion in Venice Biennale. We do believe that this is the first time these have seen these for display outside the NGMA.

The Peggy Guggenheim Museum - Venice

Peggy Guggenheim was born in 1898 in New York. Her father, Benjamin Guggenheim, and uncle, Solomon R. Guggenheim were power brokers. The family’s fortune came from mining and smelting industries.

Spotlight - Michelle Poonawalla

Michelle Poonawalla’s art can be characterized as a departure from the usual studies of form and landscape to something vastly different, something very new, something very personal.

Photographs From Santiniketan

A portfolio of original photographs from Santiniketan and the life and social norms present in the campus from the '40s and '50s. The photographs Mahatma Gandhi's visit to Santiniketan.

Rathindranath Tagore (1888 - 1961)

Rathindranath was not only one of the first five boys of the Santiniketan Brahmacharyasrama, but he was also one of the reasons for its existence. Rathindranath was the most representative product of Rabindranath’s educational ideal.

Memories of Mitali and my Jethu - Rathindranath Tagore

My earliest memories are swathed in the scent of mountain pines and a constant leitmotif of a rattling train that would carry me back to our home in Dehradun named Mitali on Rajpur Road – my magical El Dorado – where I spent my childhood with my mother, Meera ma, my maternal grandmother, Lal dida, and my Jethu and foster father, Rathindranath (Tagore).

Memories of Mitali and my Jethu - Rathindranath Tagore

Penti menti : Embracing mistakes

A pentimento (plural pentimenti) is an alteration in a painting which is evidenced by traces of previous work. The alteration shows that the artist changed their mind during the process of making the work.

Shyam Sunder Lal's- Cawnpore

The freedom struggle in India saw a lot of posters made by Indians to unite the masses to oppose the British Raj. These posters or prints were often considered to be seditious material and were confiscated by the British.

Subhas Chandra Bose - Azad Hind Fauj

The end of World War II resulted in a turning point in history for India. It brought about a revolutionary change with multiple mutinies and a sense of political independence. The Indian National Army was formed in 1942 which was formed by Indian nationalist Rash Behari Bose. It was meant to help secure independence from the British Raj.

The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi

The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi took roughly 40 years to be compiled and spans from 1884 to 1948 when Gandhi was assassinated. The collection includes Gandhi’s writings, letters, essays, notes, and interviews. The collection goes into great detail over 100 volumes about the time when Indian was under British rule and was fighting for independence.