Man is under a constant compulsion to get identified and heard. This habit was developed due to evolutionary constraints. We are hard-wired like that! We always tend to go form the majority. This habit led contemporary artists of India to form groups and associations for the promotion and development of art. There were many formally and informally organized groups and associations formed in the early 20th century.
Young Turks of Contemporary Art in India
The wave of contemporary art was gradually generated in Bombay. It brandished other centers too in a short span of time. Consequently, all the works produced during the 20th century were influenced by the academic style of painting. These are some towering figures of those golden times for the world of Indian painting:-
- Pestonji Bomanji
- V.Dhurandhar
- F. Pithwala
- X. Trinidade
- A. Mali
Among others, there was Gladstone Solomon who was an eminent art aficionado and was made principal of the prestigious Sir J.J. School of Art in the year 1919. He used to admire the traditional Indian art and he made sincere efforts to promote and propagate the Indian contemporary art of painting and aesthetics involved in it in India at local and national level.
Sir J.J. School of Art, under the patronage of Gladstone Solomon, was responsible for an exotic art exhibition conducted for the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in the year 1923 by the name of ‘The Indian Room’. The purpose and objectives of the modern Indian artist at that time were to breathe life into the traditional method of expression through painting and to restore their glory which was lost due to years of prejudice and neglect.
Sir J.J School of Art got a new principal in the year 1936. Charles Gerard introduced the style of pictorial design and manner of representation which was to be applied to different kinds of canvases. In the following year, some painters mixed the modern European School of thought into Indian designs and formed a group known as ‘Young Turks’. These were:-
- T.Ready
- T Bhople
- A. Majeed
- Y. Kulkarni
- B. Bapista
The group organized their first painting exhibition in 1941 and named it ‘‘The Bombay Group of Contemporary Artists’’. Charles Gerard wrote a foreword for the catalog made for elucidating the Exhibition in which he claimed, ““The exhibition represents the works of five young artists who have banded themselves together in a group, to place before the public their individual expression in painting, each approaching the subject from his own particular angle of vision. The group, for all its brave beginnings, was not able to form a cohesive front that could leave an indelible mark on the art world. Their work, however, showed the first tentative signs of modernism where the flourish of the brushstrokes and the emotional use of colors, rather than the subject itself, dominated the canvas.”
The Inception of the Bengal Group and the Calcutta Group
The art world was in state of utter confusion and ruckus in Bengal by the time it reached the middle of 1930s. There was constant face-off between the two styles of modernism. One of them belonged to the European academic style which surfaced after the 1850s in the works of the artists who were properly trained in eminent art schools. The other one was Neo-Bengal School founded by Abindranath Tagore and taken forward by his Disciples like Nandalal Bose and others. It was actually a form of identifying themselves with their nation. Art students in 1931, began questioning the academic curriculum. Some art students formed a group known as the Young Artist Association in the year 1931 whose names are as follows:-
- Abani Sen
- Govardhan Ash
- Annada Dey
- Digin Bhattacharya
This group was eventually disbanded and some of its members formed a new group with others known as the Rebel Art Center in 1933. Although, this group was also short-lived.
Calcutta Group was formed in the year 1943 by six painters and two sculptors namely,
- Subho Tagore
- Gopal Ghose
- Raithin Maitra
- Prankrishna Pal
- Paritosh Sen
- Nirode Mazumdar
- Prodosh Das Gupta
- Kamala Das
They were of the view that art should receive international acclaim. It should not bound itself within particular geography and culture. It should be both independent and interdependent. Bengal school was losing popularity among artists in 1940s. Social factors existing in those times were a major influence on Indian contemporary art made by these artists.
These young artists did not use any mythological motifs or heroes of ancient literature as their subject matter for paintings. They brought a new perspective to the Indian art which needed it desperately to survive. Traditional art owes its revival to these painters who revived the Indian Art and helped it in getting recognition at national and international level.
