The Art of Bengal,
Indian Abstractes- An Absence of Form

Santanu Ganguly

Documenting the unique cultural efflorescence in Bengal begun over two centuries ago, the exhibition begins in the19th century when local folk artists began creating their paintings on mythological and religious themes traditionally done on cloth, known as Kalighat pats, now on woodblocks printed on cheaply available paper. The century-long presence of European painters in Bengal began to influence local art making practice and aesthetics and viceversa, resulting in interesting blends of academic oil portraiture and traditional Indian art. By mid-19th century, trained local artisans began creating paintings with religious iconography using oil painting and the till then-absent perspective, termed Early Bengal Oils. The exhibition features several of these, and similarly themed works by academic school trained individual artists such as B. P. Banerjee, leading to the work of salon and ‘gentleman-artists’ produced by the newly-emergent art schools and institutions in Calcutta in late 19thearly 20th century, such as J. P. Gangooly.

Indian Abstracts: An Absence of Form charts the development of abstraction in modern Indian Art, featuring close to 70 artists. The exhibition brings together for the first time a vast body of work spanning a vast range of styles that have evolved in modern Indian art. The book is an investigation into the evolution of abstraction in Indian Art from the early 1950s till current times. Part of a continued series, Indian Abstracts is Delhi Art Gallery’s attempt to continue to document the richly diverse and many less understood aspects of modern Indian Art.