Meet the artists: The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975 - 1988 - Barbican London

We spoke with six of the artists during their visit to the Barbican for the exhibition opening. Featuring Anita Dube, Sudhir Patwardhan, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Sheela Gowda, Sunil Gupta and Nalini Malani.

Art Exhibition In Delhi: Celebrating 100 Years Of Four Icons Of Modern Indian Art

Source Times Now by Ishita Roy
In a dazzling tribute to four pioneers of modern Indian art—F.N. Souza, K.G. Subramanyan, V.S. Gaitonde, and Ram Kumar—an extraordinary retrospective titled 'Creating the Century: Four Iconic Artists' was inaugurated on October 29, 2024, at the Triveni Kala Sangam. Curated by renowned art historian Yashodhara Dalmia, the exhibition marks the centenary of these artistic legends, whose distinct yet interconnected journeys helped define India's artistic identity in the 20th century. "A happy coincident", is what the Raza Foundation's managing trustee Ashok Vajpeyi calls the exhibition honouring the four pioneers of modern Indian art, all born in 1924. Curated by art historian Yashodhara Dalmia, 'Creating the Century: Four Iconic Artists' marks the centenary of FN Souza, KG Subramanyan, VS Gaitonde, and Ram Kumar.
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Debashish Paul presents narratives of queer repression and resurgent hope at Emami Art

Source Stir World by Manu Sharma
Emami Art, a space for contemporary art in Kolkata, India, is currently presenting A Thousand Years of Dreaming, a solo exhibition by Debashish Paul, an Indian artist from Nadia district in West Bengal. The show is on view from September 6 - October 26, 2024, and is curated by Mario D’Souza, director (programs) at Kochi Biennale and co-artistic director and curator, HH Art Spaces. The exhibition centres around the short film Hazaro Saalon ka Sapna (2024), which translates to the exhibition’s title, and includes various costumes, mixed media works and sculptures that appear in or are inspired by the work. A Thousand Years of Dreaming is Paul’s first solo show at the gallery and offers a jarring and surreal look at the repression and hope that typify the romantic and sexual lives of queer Indian men. STIR visited the show at Emami Art, where it caught up with Paul for an interview that sheds light on his articulation of queerness, and how he positions his work vis à vis the queer art being created in the West.
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Durga Puja pandals | When Kolkata rivals the Venice Biennale

Source The Hindu by Sharan Apparao
Every year, during Durga Puja, nearly three crore people visit Kolkata’s pandals — up for just five days. But now, the evolving nature of public art during this season is catching the attention of the art cognoscenti, rivalling any of the big art shows around the world. Over the last decade, more and more contemporary artists have been involved in conceptualising, designing, and orchestrating massive installations that have gone far beyond conventional pujo pandals. An explosion of creativity post-COVID has only boosted this vernacular vocabulary. As a novice pandal-hopper, I was recently part of a small preview group, which included art aficionados Lekha Poddar (of Devi Art Foundation), Saloni Doshi (founder, Space 118), artists Sakshi Gupta and Suhasini Kejriwal, and a few diplomats — invited by my artist friend Sayntan Maitra. Over three evenings, we visited intricately-crafted pavilions, met the artists, artisans and technicians behind the installations, and even caught a show by itinerant puppeteers in the intimacy of a private courtyard.
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A century on, Begum Rokeya’s feminist science fiction is still inspiring Indian artists

Source Scroll In by Kamayani Sharma
n a 2021 article for The Caravan, Devangana Kalita, a member of the women’s collective Pinjra Tod jailed in relation to the 2020 Delhi riots under a draconian law, shared her drawing featuring women swimming among fish with their fists raised sto the sun in a gesture of political resistance. The work was inspired by the illustrations of artist Durgabai Vyam, in the Pradhan Gond style, for a story called Sultana’s Dream: “We had a reading session of the story in our barrack one night,” writes Kalita in a letter published in the article. “It felt special, warm and familiar…” What was this old tale that inspired and heartened Kalita, an activist who is part of a movement seeking to liberate women from patriarchal fetters like curfews, confinement and surveillance in the name of safety and security? How does it appear to have become reactivated in contemporary Indian visual culture? And what does this reactivation tell us about the times we live in, seemingly distant from the historical moment of the story’s origin?
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"I am a child of the Indian Ocean" - Shiraz Bayjoo on his practice and politics

Source Stir World by Chintan Girish Modi
Shiraz Bayjoo, an artist who was born in the Mauritian capital Port Louis and has called London home for over two decades, unpacks histories of colonialism with a rare tenderness that seeks accountability without being overwhelmed by rage. With his training as a student at the University of Arts Institute, Cardiff, and as a young artist-in-residence working with charities for the homeless, he developed a visual language and a research-based practice championing the marginalised. Whether he is grinding pigments for paintings or rummaging through colonial records in dusty archives, there is a strong awareness of the movements and interconnectedness of people, flora and fauna, languages and seasons. He is keen to speak of the violence of the past in a manner that helps us understand, not sensationalise, and walk together in the direction of healing.
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