Krishen Khanna traces evolution of Indian modern art: innovative interview technology used

INDIAN ARTIST INTERVIEW PODCAST

Saffronart is hosting a series of invaluable art historical documentary interviews with leading Indian artists to broaden the discourse about the evolution of modern and contemporary Indian art. The imaginative use of new interactive podcast technology is an initiative to emulate by both for-profits and non-profits.

The second interview in the speaker series  is to celebrate a retrospective by Krishen Khanna at Rabindra Bhavan, the Lalit Kala Akademi, in New Delhi, which lasted from 23 January to 5 February 2010. In it Krishen Khanna talks about his inspirations for painting and experiences regarding the development of modern Indian art.

Khanna, Bandwallaas in Practice, 2002

He begins with a personal ancedote about how he became involved in India’s art scene in the 1950s: he was formerly a banker, but his wife encouraged him to quit his job and take up painting. and discusses the artists (including F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza, M.F. Husain) involved in Progressive Artist Group.

He mentions specific shows, such as Souza’s 1953 show containing a frontal nude self-portrait, which shocked the public and drew the attention of the moral police. Khanna emphasises Souza’s diverse inspirations, which ranged from Hokusai and Picasso.

Khanna, In My Studio, 2008

Khanna also places the Progressive Artist Group into a historical context: he discusses the exodus of artists from India after it won its independence and how major events, like the death of Gandhi, affected  Indian artists globally. He then answers personal questions involving both his participation in the Progressive Artist Group and his relationship with its members.

Using a technique that we have not seen before the 30 minute audio is organised into searchable snippets under the following categories: Souza’s Solo Show, News of Ghandi’s Death, Progressive Artists’ Group, Nationalism in Art, The Form in Art and Drawing and Painting.

To hear the podcast click here.

AL/KCE

Related Posts:

• Dinesh Vazirani CEO Saffronart on 2010 Indian art market outlook – March 2010
• Inaugural Sowing Seeds artist workshop Rajasthan India – interview – March 2010
• A common man uncommonly direct- Indian contemporary sculptor Subodh Gupta in conversation in Hong Kong – December 2009
• Contemporary Indian photography becoming more popular – learn at Sotheby’s Institute – June 2009
• Indian contemporary art reaches new stage of development – December 2008

Related topics:  INDIAN ARTISTS, NATIONALISM IN ART, ART AND THE INTERNET

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India Art Summit August 2008 is India’s first contemporary art fair

Sohan Qadri

 

 

INDIA ART FAIR India is hosting its first art fair of modern and contemporary art called “India Art Summit”. It will be held from the 22nd to the 24th of August 2008, at Pragati Maidan (ITPO) New Delhi.

More than 30 galleries from India and abroad will show works in an area of 1400 square metres. The three day event is expected to attract thousands of people.

Anjolie Ela Menon, one of India’s most outstanding contemporary artists and one of the patrons of the India Art Summit along with artists SH Raza and Krishen Khanna and art critic Keshav Malik, sees this fair as a gateway to the future of modern and contemporary art reports the magazine Asian Art News.

“It’s high time that India offered and art fair to the world” says Renu Modi of Gallery Espace.

Established artists on show will include MF Husain, Vaikuntham, Sohan Qadri, FN Souza, Atul Dodiya and Riyas Komu.

Younger artists such as Babu Xavier, Thukral and Tagra, Birendra Pani, Mekhala Bahl, Rooshika Patel, Sara, Tanmoy Samanta, Apurva Desai, CF John, Debraj Goswami, Pratul Dash, Murali Cheeroth, TM Azis, Raqs Media Collective will attract younger collectors.

Murali Cheeroth

Sculptors include Nagji Patel, Saroj Kumar Singh and Arzan Khambatta.

The timing is right says Asian Art News: Indian art’s bouyant annual growth rate is estimated to be 30 to 35%.

There will be networking opportunities at the concurrent Art Forum with speakers such as Rajeev Lochan, director National Gallery of Modern Art, art critics Geeta Kapur and Gayatri Sinha, Robert Storr dean Yale School of Art and Hugo Weihe Christie’s head of Asian Art.

See (in new window)

• India Art Summit 2008 site
• more on Indian art

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Indian modern art 1905 – 2005 at Philadelphia Museum of Art

USA EXHIBITION INDIAN ART UNTIL DECEMBER 7 2008 Multiple Modernities: India, 1905-2005 (on view at Philadelphia Museum of Art June 14 – Dec. 7, 2008  consists of more than 25 drawings, prints and watercolor paintings produced by South Asian artists before and after the region’s independence and subsequent partition into India and Pakistan.

The exhibition illustrates the range of artistic traditions and experiments in visual culture that emerged as South Asia transformed from a British colony to independent nation-states to a world economic power.

Many of South Asia’s preeminent artists of the past century are represented. Jamini Roy (1887-1972), for example, looked toward regional eastern Indian folk traditions for his simplified forms and bold, flat colors.

One of the most significant individuals in the fight for cultural regeneration was Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), who collaborated with a group of artists and intellectuals to launch what has been called the “Bengal Renaissance.” A writer, educator, and Asia’s first Nobel laureate (Literature, 1913), Tagore did not focus on visual art until he was well into his 60’s. The exhibition includes a rare and never-before-displayed group of seven of his imaginative and enigmatic drawings and paintings from the Museum’s collection.

The Progressive Artists Group in Bombay, formed in 1948 and disbanded a few years later, searched for their individual artistic voices, rather than solely a national vision. Its members and associates included some of the major artists who shaped modern India, such as F.N. Souza, M.F. Hussain, and Tyeb Mehta, all represented in this exhibition.

During the 1960s and 70s, a younger generation modeled in part on the Progressives renewed their search to infuse art with powerful individuality. Their variety of voices is evident in works including Bhupen Khakhar’s Shame (after 1983) and Gieve Patel’s Dead Politician (1972).

Representing the latter half of the 20th century a recently acquired collage-lithograph by Atul Dodiya is on show. Based on a minor episode in the great Hindu epic Ramayana, Sabari with her birds (2005) explores the power of faith through the tale of a tribal woman who spends her life alone in the forest preparing to encounter God. The work is part of a series inspired by three paintings by Indian artist Nandalal Bose (1882-1966), whose retrospective will be on display concurrently in the Museum.

“ Multiple Modernities offers an unusual opportunity to appreciate the breadth of South Asian art from the 20th century, and gives insights into the challenges that artists confronted in developing both a national identity and authentic personal voices,” Darielle Mason, the Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art, said.

http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/321.html 
Source: www.theartwolf.com
Image details: Atul Dodiya Sabari with her Birds 2005

 

India Embraces the Contemporary: Financial Times

INDIA The Indian art market is going through a major transformation, where the market’s focus has shifted from modern Indian art to contemporary Indian art.

According to a report this month by ArtTactic, an art market research service which provides analysis and advice for art collectors, art professionals, art institutions and art funds, its contemporary art market Confidence Indicator now stands 20 per cent higher than the indicator for the modern art market. However, recent auction results show that there is still strong demand for the right period works by a selected number of modern Indian artists such as FN Souza, MF Husain, VS Gaitonde, Ram Kumar and SH Raza.

Western museums and private collectors have started to take a strong interest in what is happening in India at the moment. This will continue in 2008, with exhibitions planned at the Serpentine Gallery, the Saatchi gallery, the Mori Art Museum, as well as the current exhibition “Passage to India” at Initial Access, the space recently opened by UK collector Frank Cohen.

According to the ArtTactic Indian Art Market Confidence Survey, the overall Indian art market confidence indicator fell 13 per cent from the last reading in October 2007.

The indicator has been hit by a 54 per cent drop in both the current and future confidence in the economy. With India’s inflation surging to a more than three-year high, with global financial markets in decline and with crude oil prices rising, the economic prospect looks less promising than six months ago. And as the economic component of the confidence indicator carries a 33 per cent weighting in the overall Indian Art Market Confidence Indicator, the significant loss in confidence weighs heavily on the overall results.

However, despite the fall in overall ArtTactic Indian art market confidence, both the confidence levels in the modern and contemporary market increased significantly: up 17 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.

After the slowdown that started at the beginning of 2007, where the modern Indian art market experienced a 38 per cent drop in annual auction volume compared with the record year of 2006, the modern Indian art market is now regaining some of the lost confidence.

The ArtTactic Indian Modern Art Market Confidence Indicator is up 27 per cent from the last reading in October 2007, and while the survey respondents are less positive about the near future of the Indian contemporary market, the “expectation indicator” for the modern art market stands 23 per cent higher than the “present indicator”, showing the modern art market could be about to regain some of the ground that it recently lost.

www.arttactic.com

The ArtTactic Indian Market Confidence Indicator was launched in May 2007. It is derived from polling 81 respondents, including curators, collectors, dealers, galleries and auction houses operating in the Indian art market.