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Maqbool Fida Husain Horses, Nude

Maqbool Fida Husain was born in 1913 in Pandharpur, Maharashtra. In 1948, he was invited by F N Souza to join the Progressive Artists' Group in Mumbai. When he took up painting as an art form, he blended folk, tribal, and mythological art to create vibrantly contemporary, living art forms.

Zarina Hashmi Silkscreen Print

Born in 1937 in Aligarh, India, Zarina Hashmi studied Mathematics before she tried her hand at printmaking when she visited Rajasthan in the 1960s. Hashmi went on to study intaglio in Paris and woodblock printing Tokyo. Her works are known for her use of lines on handmade paper and are often used to depict political borders and memories of violence from the partition.

Monochrome Ram Kumar Landscape

Ram Kumar was an essential part of the first generation of post-colonial Indian artists. He was born in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh in 1924 and was a member of the Bombay Progressive Artists Group along with other popular artists like Husain, Raza, and Sadanand Bakre.

Sudhir Patwardhan's Early Drawings

Sudhir Patwardhan is born in 1949 in Pune, Maharashtra, and is a self-taught artist and a practicing radiologist. He began painting in the 1970s when he moved to Bombay. Patwardhan’s artwork revolves around the panorama of an urban and natural environment The everyday human figure is often a common subject matter of Patwardhan's works.

Sanjay Bhattacharya - Lotuses

Born in 1958 in Calcutta, Sanjay Bhattacharya was the youngest of four children. After finishing school, he decided to join the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Calcutta in 1977. When he graduated, he freelanced for work while experimenting with watercolors and put up his first art exhibition.

Paresh Maity Cloudy Landscape

Paresh Maity was born in Tamluk, West Bengal in 1965. He studied at the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata and graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts from the Delhi College of Arts. Maity’s preferred medium is watercolor and has made numerous watercolor works.

Nasreem Mohamedi -Double Sided

Born in 1937 in Lahore in undivided India, Nasreem Mohamedi is well known for her line drawings. While she mainly worked with pencil and ink on paper, she also experimented with line and form and how it could intercept the path of light.

B. Vithal: Master of The Nude

B. Vithal was born in Maharashtra in 1935. He studied at the Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, and secured a diploma in sculpture. There he excelled in the live model studio classes and the emphasis on the study of the human form. Although he is well known for his sculptures, he excelled in painting the human form as well.

V. S. Gaitonde: Abstract Drawing

V.S. Gaitonde grew up in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and studied at the J. J. School of Art. In 1947, he was invited to join the Progressive Artists’ Group and went on to become one of its original members. He worked with various mediums and used a roller and palette knives to create his own layered texture that became his signature style.

Manu Parekh - An Important Portrait

Manu Parekh was born in 1939 in Gujarat. Parekh completed a Diploma in Drawing and Painting from the Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, in 1962. Parekh’s early work explored the relationships between man and nature, as he thought that it was an energetic link that had to be celebrated.

Shyamal Dutta Ray's Early Work

Shyamal Dutta Ray, born in 1935 in Bihar is known for his melancholic and dark watercolor works. Ray studied at the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Calcutta. He also founded the Society of Contemporary Artists, an artists' collective, that sought to introduce a new style into the Indian art world in the 1960s.

Maqbool Fida Husain - Taj Mahal

Maqbool Fida Husain was born in 1913 in Pandharpur, Maharashtra. In 1948, he was invited by F N Souza to join the Progressive Artists' Group in Mumbai. Husain began his career by painting billboards for feature films and making furniture designs and toys to earn a living.

Prabhakar Barwe: Cloud and Clock

Prabhakar Barwe studied art at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay. His fascination with the abstract form, drawn from the style and the concepts of Bauhaus, is reflected in his early watercolors and later works with floating motifs on a transparent surface.

Somnath Hore Erotic Etchings

Somnath Hore’s art practice was western and academic in style. He was interested in humanist themes, and his works often involved the world of painting and printmaking with sculptural, textural prints that resonated with his feelings of anger and pain. His subject matter drew attention to the life of people in Bengal; the impoverished and suffering social class represented the pain caused by the Famine of 1943.

K.H. Ara: Still life with Flowers

Born in 1914, K. H. Ara, a founder member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, evolved his trademark style, through nudes and still-life paintings. He was a modernist for whom the form and language of art preceded all other social and political motivations. This evolved a certain eclecticism which led him in an exploration of his own style.

Francis N Souza Head- Ink on Paper

Francis Newton Souza was born in 1924 in Saligao, Goa. Souza was expelled for his behavior while studying at the Sir J J School of Art in Mumbai. In 1947, he founded the Progressive Artists' Group along with S H Raza, M F Husain, and K H Ara, among others. Souza's style created thought-provoking and powerful images.

Jamini Roy's 1930's Alpana on Cloth

Jamini Roy, who was inspired by folk traditions created an Alpana or a floral motif that was considered to be sacred painting in Bengal because it was done on special occasions. The alpana which is usually done with hands and rice paint on the floor was done with tempera on cloth instead.

Bimal Dasgupta Abstract Landscape

Bimal Dasgupta spent his childhood in Behrampur in Bengal. After completing his art education from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta, and he embarked on a career as a landscape artist. Bimal Dasgupta’s paintings present variations on the theme of petals.

K S Kulkarni's Abstract Landscape

After a diploma in Fine Arts specializing in Murals in 1940 and a postgraduate course from Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai, KS Kulkarni went to Delhi in 1943 to study textile design. In 1945, he quit his job and joined the art department of the Delhi Polytechnic and became a member of Delhi’s All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society.

Ganesh Haloi's Transitive Abstraction

Ganesh Haloi, born in 1936 in Jamalpur (now in Bangladesh) moved to Calcutta after the partition. As a result, he had seen the country struggle for its freedom and its own identity. Haloi’s works are known for their composition of space, color, form, and narration.