The Modern Indian Art (Abstraction)

The Modern Indian Art (Abstraction) is quite an exciting chapter to cover as it gives useful insight into many aspects. Art Schools were established in prominent cities, including Bombay (now, Mumbai), Calcutta (now, Kolkata), Lahore and Madras (now, Chennai). The motto of these well-established schools was to foster traditional Indian crafts and literary and naturalist art with a glimpse of Victorian tastes.

Modern Indian Art Abstraction – Created a New Buzz all Around

S.H. Raza showed considerable interest in abstraction; landscapes were a prevalent theme for this art lover. A lot of his paintings depicted old mandalas as well as yantra designs. Moreover, they also use Bindu to symbolise the Indian philosophy of oneness. Another prominent artist, Gaitonde, was drawn towards abstraction. Other famous artists such as S. Chavda, K. K. Hebbar, Akbar Padamsee, Krishen Khanna, Tyeb Mehta etc. moved between abstraction and figurative. 

Significance of Abstraction

Several sculptors and printmakers such as Krishna Reddy and Piloo Pochkhanawala, worked on the abstraction theme. K.C.S. Paniker from South India also established an artist village named Cholamandalam adjacent to Madras. This village was a pioneer in abstraction. The Modern Indian Art (Abstraction) artistic motifs from Tamil and Sanskrit Scripts, rural crafts and floor decorations hint at a long history of abstract art in India. 

Sculptors such as Amarnath Sehgal are known for creating a balance between abstraction and figurative and creating wiry sculptures in the form of Cries Unheard. 

Modern Indian paintings and important factors

Modern Indian paintings is a vast subject to cover. Different painters did excellent work to show their respective perspectives through art.

Any discussion on Modern Indian Art (Abstraction) is incomplete without mentioning Mrinalini Mukherjee. Her works using the innovative medium of hemp fibre, as in Vanshri, are biassed towards abstraction.

In the 1960s, Biren De and G.R. Santosh in Delhi and K.C.S. Paniker in Madras furthered their interest in this direction, where they approached the past and local artistic tradition to come up with an incredible Indian abstract art. This pattern in art gained appreciation in the West and later in India. It was called Neo-Tantric Art since it goes with geometrical designs seen in traditional diagrams to figure out meditation or yantras. Biren De’s works experimented in shades and patterns. 

G.R. Santosh’s paintings created a visual sense of the cosmic union of the masculine and the feminine with hints of the Purusha and Prakriti of the Tantric philosophy.

Eclecticism is another concept in abstraction, in which artists follow ideas from different sources. It is regarded as the ideal feature of different Indian modernists, of which Ram Kumar Satish Gujral, Meera Mukherjee, A. Ramachandran are some prominent examples. 

Ideology and meaning of abstract painting

In 1963 the “Group 1890” was established under the leadership of J. Swaminathan. He also wrote a manifesto for the group, emphasising the idea of freedom from any ideology. It included many artists like Jyoti Bhatt, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Ambadas, Jeram Patel and sculptors Raghav Kaneris and Himmat Shah. Though it was a short-lived movement, it made a tremendous impact following the next generation of artists, particularly those associated with the Cholamandalam School near Madras.

Conclusion

Indian abstract art first appeared in the early nineteenth century and quickly spread around the globe. While people were being exposed to numerous art styles, Abstract Indian painting effectively gained its position. Abstract art as a movement deviates from the traditional notion of realistic paintings. This non-figurative and non-representational painting style depicts painting, sculpture, and/or graphic art using abstract elements such as shape, form, colour, and texture. This visual art genre is subject-free and graphical representational.

Surrealism and cubism, which stress on visuality – mimicry of the natural world — were major influences on abstract painting. The artists go deeper inside themselves and create a graphical portrayal of non-figurative art, sparking three main art movements: Romanticism, Expressionism, and Impressionism. Abstract expressionism emerged as an important style in Indian art after independence. Many prominent and emerging artists have chosen abstraction as a vehicle of expression. The abstract form of artworks evolved in Indian contemporary art and played an important part in the development of Indian art. The abstract form of art is oriented toward two approaches: the first is the reduction of natural appearance in paintings, and the second is the independent portrayal of art objects using abstract components.