Indian Modern Artists

In the first half of the 20th century the situation in the cultural sphere in India was very interesting.

Franzis Newton Souza painting

Some of the artists introduced themselves as secular others as political oriented. Some of them incorporated traditions in their art and some turned to the western modern art.

Bombay Progressives
During the mid-twentieth century, a group of communist artists was individuated. They were painters, writers, visual artists, theater professionals and many others. They identified with Marxism and called themselves “progressive”. In 1947 the “Progressive Artist Group” was created by some of the Indian most famous artists like Francis Newton Souza and Maqbool Fida Husain.
They had leftist ideas and were oriented to the modern art practices at the moment and rejected the nationalism art of Bengal School. Over the years mr. Souza gained international popularity because of his erotic painting inspired by variety of styles like Cubism, Surrealism and others. He also worked with many European artists like Kokoschka and Emil Noble. His works however remain traces in local Indian traditions like cinema for example. Even more,  at the beginning of his career he supported himself by painting Bollywood billboards. More recent he even painted portraits of some of the  Bollywood film stars.

Much more traditional approach to paining has K. G. Subramanyan. His paintings were very interesting mixture between traditional folk motifs and modern urban trends. The art school that he has been in emphasized the native handicrafts along with modern art styles. His influence can be seen even today because of his writings about theory of art. He also had taught at Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda which is an important art school inaugurated in 1949.

Modern Indian artists had worked also in styles like Abstraction and Figurative painting, Minimalism and Photography.