MODERN TRENDS IN PAINTING

MODERN TRENDS IN PAINTING

(I)                 Painting

When the British were busy conquering eastern India, the art of the Kangra Valley was yet in a thriving state. In the hill areas of the Punjab and Jammu, the artists retained and developed the Mughal style of painting with Hindu themes as their subject matter. In many other areas of northern India, too, the art of paining flourished during the latter half of the eighteen century. That was the time when the western influence began to penetrate into the field of art.

The company’s merchants began to procure items of India arts and Crafts. Simultaneously, the interested persons among them draw the attention of the Indian artists to the technique of water – colour painting. Gradually, the Company’s servants crated a demand for Indian paintings, painted according to their choice. Artists were required to depict Indian life and scenes but in a medium o\to the foreigner’s linking. In such circumstances, artists were required to imitate the English style of painting. Art critics found this tendency dangerous and to them it ws the beginning of the degradation of Indian art, since any imitation was suicidal.

When combined, the western technique and the Indian form brought about a synthetic style of a raw standard. In spite of the realistic approaches in art, which the new influence brought, the process of its assimilation into Indian miniature paining did not work well. But the new trend continued to assert itself for a country. During that century the British power was consolidated and English education introduced. In the general educational policy of giving India the benefits of Western learning, the Government established Art schools at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Lahore about the Middle of the nineteenth centry. In these schools, the western methods of art remained the basic subjects of study and were paid greater attention. To the critics, these schools did not improved art in any real sense; but on the other hand, they institutionalized art Edina commercial way. Traditional Indian painting began to decline rapidly.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, one notable Indian artist, Raja Ravi Varna of Kerala, tried to re-establish Indian art through Western methods, techniques, principles and traits. He studied the technique of oil p painting from the famous European portrait painter Theodore jimson who visited Ravi Aram’

S palace in Travancore. The artist chief concern ws to reproduce Indian life and scenes as well as the traditional mythological subject matter in oil painting into Western style, Ravi Varna’s was no doubt a great venture which attained considerable success. But to critics the Europeanization of Indian art could not be of any lasting value. After Ravi Varna, his innovations and examples did not inspire other artists to follow the life or develop the trend. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century,                E.B havell was teaching art at the Madras School of Avert. His experience brought him to the conclusion that Western art would never appeal to the Indian mind; and that therefore it would never prosper in India. He amen to the inevitable conclusion that the artistic heritage of the country should be revived and that India should be given the benefits of her own art system resting on traditional foundations. Havell came to Calcutta from Madras, and there be started to experiment on his ideas. It was due to his noble endeavors’ that the seeds were sown of a new art movement for the revival of the list values, and for the revitalization of the indigenous system. The movement reminded the Indian artists of the styles of their ancestors and inspired them to look ahead with confidence. Another achievement of havell was atom bring to the notice of the world the rich heritage of Inaner an architecture. His three great works Indian Sculpture and Paining. Indian Architecture and ideals of Indian Art served this purpose.

The modern school of Art – The Bengal Revival or Renaissance

Under the inspiration of men like Havell there emerged a distinct school of Indian painters who came to be designated as the modern school of artists. The pioneer of the new school was abanindra Nath Tagore, a colleague of Havell in the new movement. His work was two – fold – to rediscover the best in the Indian art of the ancient and medieval eras and to regenerate art in its modern setting. He had no need to mitt the western style and theme, since the had found a new purpose in an abundance of indigenous material. But the combined effort of havell and Abanindra Nath the modern phase of Indian art began., In reviving the spirit of the lost art, abanindra decided to use the ancient artist’s supreme mental weapon 0 emotion or feeling. Art without behave, or the inner feeling of the heart ws a mere mechanical exercise for the reproduction of the objects observed. His paintings thus began to narrate a philosophy an impale. For example his famous picture, Sha Jahan looking at the tag, depicted the very depth of the artist’s emotion in lines and colur, among other masterpieces of abanidnra Nath were Buddha and Sujata. A new school of artists bean to emerge to represent ‘Indians’’ in all its vivid meaning in the recreation which lead to the emergences of Modern School of painting, often known ‘Bengal Revival’.

The new school contained a number of distinguished artists like nandalal Basu, Surendra Nath Gangooly, Sarada Charan Ukil, Hakim Khan, K.Venkatappa, Asit KumarHaldar, Kshitindra Nath Maunder, Abdurrahman Chaghtai, MukulChandra Dey and others. Modern Indian Art assumed a bolder character under them.