ASKiIMAN™ REALM 43 / MODERN INDIAN PAINTING
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The Modern Canvas

Company School, Bengal Revival & The Progressive Vanguard (19th–20th C)

REALM 43 — MODERN INDIAN PAINTING

MICRO-REALM 01

Company School (Kampani Kalam)

  • Patronized by British East India Company.
  • Watercolors on paper; botanical & zoological studies.
  • Hybrid of Indian miniature techniques and Western linear perspective.
MICRO-REALM 02

Raja Ravi Varma

  • Pioneered the use of oil paints and academic realism.
  • Visualized Hindu deities in human, classical forms.
  • Mass-produced his art via oleograph printing presses.
MICRO-REALM 03

Bengal School

  • Founded by Abanindranath Tagore (Nationalist revival).
  • Rejected Western academic oil painting.
  • Adopted Japanese wash techniques; misty, ethereal aesthetics.
MICRO-REALM 04

Nandalal Bose

  • Principal of Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan.
  • Created the iconic Haripura posters for the Indian National Congress.
  • Famous Bapuji linocut; utilized indigenous earth colors.
MICRO-REALM 05

Amrita Sher-Gil

  • Trained in Paris; influenced by Post-Impressionism (Gauguin).
  • Returned to India and synthesized Ajanta murals with modern oils.
  • Depicted the melancholy and silent resolve of rural Indian women.
MICRO-REALM 06

Jamini Roy

  • Rejected the Bengal School's misty romanticism.
  • Embraced Kalighat Pat and Bankura terracotta folk styles.
  • Bold, sweeping black lines and flat, primary earth colors.
MICRO-REALM 07

Santiniketan (Kala Bhavana)

  • Rabindranath Tagore's utopian university.
  • "Contextual Modernism": deeply rooted in nature and local crafts.
  • Ramkinkar Baij: Pioneered monumental outdoor concrete sculpture (Santhal Family).
MICRO-REALM 08

Rabindranath Tagore

  • Began painting late in life from manuscript doodles/erasures.
  • Highly expressionistic, brooding, psychological portraits.
  • Rhythmic, undulating lines and dark, mysterious palettes.
MICRO-REALM 09

Progressive Artists' Group

  • Formed in Bombay (1947) by F.N. Souza, Raza, Ara, Husain.
  • Broke away from the Bengal School's nationalist nostalgia.
  • Embraced global avant-garde (Cubism, Expressionism) for a newly independent India.
MICRO-REALM 10

M.F. Husain

  • Often termed the "Picasso of India".
  • Famous for his dynamic, cubist-inspired galloping horses.
  • Blended folk motifs, Indian mythology, and modern abstraction.
MICRO-REALM 11

S.H. Raza (The Bindu)

  • Transitioned from French expressionist landscapes to Indian cosmology.
  • The 'Bindu' (dot/seed) became the focal point of his art.
  • Tantric and geometric abstraction using vibrant primary colors.
MICRO-REALM 12

Cholamandal Artists' Village

  • Madras Art Movement led by K.C.S. Paniker (1960s).
  • "Words and Symbols" series: incorporating Malayalam script and astrology.
  • Sought an indigenous modernism rooted in South Indian line and craft.