India is a land of diverse cultures. The variations in physical, climatic conditions and the extent of exposure to other cultures have greatly influenced the traditions and culture of the different regions. There is an underlying basic factor common to the whole of India, with variations in the practices based on their local needs and influences. Further, the greatness of India has been in accepting the best from all the invaders and intermingling the new customs and styles with the existing - this is visible in all aspects - music, dance, painting, sculptures, architecture.
Fresco from Ajanta, c. 450-500
Indian Art is the art produced on the Indian subcontinent from about the 3rd millennium BC to modern times. To viewers schooled in the Western tradition, Indian art may seem overly ornate and sensuous; appreciation of its refinement comes only gradually, as a rule. Voluptuous feeling is given unusually free expression in Indian culture. A strong sense of design is also characteristic of Indian art and can be observed in its modern as well as in its traditional forms.The vast scope of the art of India intertwines with the cultural history, religions and philosophies which place art production and patronage in social and cultural contexts.
Indian art can be classified into specific periods each reflecting particular religious, political and cultural developments.
Jewelry
Pair of gold earings 1st Century B.C Andhra Pradesh.
The Indian subcontinent has the longest continuous legacy of jewellery-making, with a history of over 5,000 years.[1] One of the first to start jewellery-making were the peoples of the Indus Valley Civilization. Early jewellery making in China started around the same period, but it became widespread with the spread of Buddhism around 2,000 years ago.Temple and Sculpture-art
Main article: Indian rock-cut architecture
Apsara, Dancing Celestial 10th Century.
The earliest Indian religion to inspire major artistic monuments was Buddhism. Though there may have been earlier structures in wood that have been transformed into stone structures, there are no physical evidences for these except textual references. Obscurity shrouds the period between the decline of the Harappans and the definite historic period starting with the Mauryas. Soon after the Buddhists initiated the rock-cut caves, Hindus and Jains started to imitate them at Badami, Aihole, Ellora, Salsette, Elephanta, Aurangabad and Mamallapuram.Indian rock art has continuously evolved, since the first rock cut caves, to suit different purposes, social and religious contexts, and regional differences.
Bronze Sculpture
Bronze Statue of Nataraja at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
The Chola period is also remarkable for its sculptures and bronzes.[2] Among the existing specimens in the various museums of the world and in the temples of South India may be seen many fine figures of Siva in various forms, Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi, Siva saints and many more.[3]
Chola bronzes were created using the lost wax technique.[4] It is known in artistic terms as "Cire Perdue". The Sanskrit Shilpa texts call it the Madhu Uchchishtta Vidhana.
Indian fresco The tradition and methods of Indian cliff painting gradually evolved throughout many thousands of years - there are multiple locations found with prehistoric art. The oldest frescoes of historical period have been preserved in Ajanta Caves from 2nd century BC. In total there are known more than 20 locations in India with paintings and traces of former paintings of ancient and early medieval times (up to 8th - 10th century AD).[5] The most significant frescoes of ancient and early medieval period are located in Ajanta Caves, Bagh Caves, Ellora Caves, Sittanavasal.
The Chola fresco paintings were discovered in 1931 within the circumambulatory passage of the Brihadisvara Temple in India and are the first Chola specimens discovered.
Researchers have discovered the technique used in these frescoes. A smooth batter of limestone mixture is applied over the stones, which took two to three days to set. Within that short span, such large paintings were painted with natural organic pigments.
During the Nayak period the chola paintings were painted over. The Chola frescoes lying underneath have an ardent spirit of saivism is expressed in them. They probably synchronised with the completion of the temple by Rajaraja Cholan the Great.
Kerala has well preserved fresco or mural or wall painting in temple walls in Pundarikapuram, Ettumanoor and Aymanam.
Folk and tribal art
Folk and tribal art in India takes on different manifestations through varied medium such as pottery, painting, metalwork,dhokra art, paper-art, weaving and designing of objects such as jewelry and toys.
Often puranic gods and legends are transformed into contemporary forms and familiar images. Fairs, festivals, and local deities play a vital role in these arts.
It is in art where life and creativity are inseparable. The tribal arts have a unique sensitivity, as the tribal people possess an intense awareness very different from the settled and urbanized people. Their minds are supple and intense with myth, legends, snippets from epic, multitudinous gods born out of dream and fantasy. Their art is an expression of their life and holds their passion and mystery.
Folk art also includes the visual expressions of the wandering nomads. This is the art of people who are exposed to changing landscapes as they travel over the valleys and highlands of India. They carry with them the experiences and memories of different spaces and their art consists of the transient and dynamic pattern of life. The rural, tribal and arts of the nomads constitute the matrix of folk expression.
The folk spirit has a tremendous role to play in the development of art and in the overall consciousness of indigenous cultures. The Taj Mahal, the Ajanta and Ellora caves have become world famous. The Taj Mahal is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
Visual art
Main article: Indian painting
British colonial rule had a great impact on Indian art. The old patrons of art became less wealthy and influential, and Western art more ubiquitous. Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951), referred to as the father of Modern Indian art introduced reworked Asian styles, in alignment with a developing Indian nationalism and pan_Asianism to create a new school of art, which is today known as the Bengal school of art. Other artists of the Tagore family, such as Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) and Gaganendranath Tagore (1867–1938) as well as new artists of the early 20th c such as Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941) were responsible for introducing Avant garde western styles into Indian Art. Many other artists like Jamini Roy and later S.H. Raza took inspiration from folk traditions.
In 1947 India became independent of British rule. A group of six artists - K. H. Ara, S. K. Bakre, H. A. Gade, M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza and Francis Newton Souza - founded the Progressive Artist's Group, to establish new ways of expressing India in the post-colonial era. Though the group was dissolved in 1956, it was profoundly influential in changing the idiom of Indian art. Almost all India's major artists in the 1950s were associated with the group. Some of those who are well-known today are Bal Chabda, Manishi Dey, V. S. Gaitonde, Krishen Khanna, Ram Kumar, Tyeb Mehta, Devender Singh, Akbar Padamsee, John Wilkins, Himmat Shah and Manjit Bawa. Present-day Indian art is varied as it had been never before. Among the best-known artists of the newer generation include Sanjay Bhattacharya, Bose Krishnamachari, Narayanan Ramachandran, Geeta Vadhera, Devajyoti Ray, Satish Gupta, and Bikash Bhattacharya. Another prominent Pakistani modernist was Ismail Gulgee, who after about 1960 adopted an abstract idiom that combines aspects of Islamic calligraphy with an abstract expressionist (or gestural abstractionist) sensibility.
[edit] Contemporary art
Three Girls, by Amrita Sher-Gil, 1935, now at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi
R. Gopakumar: Cognition-Libido (Digital Print on Canvas, Limited Edition, 1/7) In the permanent collection of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction
From the 1990s onwards, Indian artists began to increase the forms they used in their work. Painting and sculpture remained important, though in the work of leading artists such as Subodh Gupta,Narayanan Ramachandran, Vivan Sundaram, Jitish Kallat, Jagannath Panda, Atul and Anju Dodiya, Devajyoti Ray, T.V.Santosh, Shreya Chaturvedi, Vagaram Choudhary, Bharti Kher and Thukral and Tagra, Bhupat Dudi, Ranbir Kaleka, they often found radical new directions.
Crucially, however, in a complex time when the number of currents affecting Indian society seemed to multiply, many artists sought out new, more polyvocal and immersive forms of expression. Ranbir Kaleka, Raqs Media Collective have produced compelling contemporary works using such assortments of media forms including video and internet. Narayanan Ramachandran created a new style of painting called Third Eye Series. This development coincided with the emergence of new galleries interested in promoting a wider range of art forms, such as Nature Morte in Delhi and its partner gallery Bose Pacia Gallery (New York and Kolkata) and Sakshi Gallery, Chatterjee and Lal, and Project 88 and kalpa:vraksha in Mumbai. In addition, Talwar Gallery in New Delhi, India and New York, NY, represents a roster of diverse, internationally recognized artists from India and the Diaspora maintaining that the artist is geographically located and not the art (www.talwargallery.com). In the UK, in April 2006, The Noble Sage Art Gallery opened to specialise exclusively in Indian, Sri Lankan and Pakistani contemporary art. The Noble Sage, rather than looking to the mewar, Mumbai, Delhi and Baroda schools, saw their gallery as an opportunity to platform the South Indian contemporary art scene, particularly the work arising from the Madras School. At the same, ironically, the absence of gallery or white cube support for newer ventures, produced a lot of artists who were connected to the Bangalore art scene(like Surekha's "Communing With Urban Heroins" (2008) and "Un-Claimed and Other Urban F(r)ictions", 2010) and those who produced a sense of art-community or art-activism in a certain sense.
Contemporary Indian art takes influence from all over the world. With many Indian artists immigrating to the west, art for some artists has been a form of expression merging their past with their current in western culture. As Shyamal Dutta Ray[citation needed] was concerned about Bengal and village life , new artists like Shreya Chaturvedi feels art should speak for itself. She believes modern art must communicate with the general public, connecting to them and motivating them through some great idea or message behind it.[citation needed]
Also, the increase in the discourse about Indian art, in English as well as vernacular Indian languages, appropriated the way art was perceived in the art schools. Critical approach became rigorous, critics like Geeta Kapur, Shivaji K. Panikkar, Parul Dave Mukherji, R. Siva Kumar, Gayathri Sinha, Anil Kumar H.A and Suresh Jayaram, amongst others, contributed to re-thinking contemporary art practice in India. The last decade or so has also witnessed an increase in Art magazines like Art India (from Bombay), Art & Deal (New Delhi, edited and published by Siddharth Tagore), 'Art Etc.' (from Emami Chisel, edited by Amit Mukhopadhyay) complementing the catalogues produced by the respective galleries.
