‘Still Life with Mangoes’ (1961), oil, sticks and stones on canvas pasted on plyboard[KG Subramanyan] Image by Courtesy: DAG Modern Archives
KCS Paniker(1911-77)Taught at: Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, of which he was principal Referred to as a child prodigy for his early start as an artist, Paniker went on to form the Progressive Painters’ Association and, later, the Cholamandal Artists’ Village. Influenced by India’s hidden language of symbols in traditional art, he chose to work in the abstract, influenced also by calligraphy. He chose bright colours, reflecting the local landscape, but also inspired by the Impressionists. Associated with the Madras Art Movement as its key motivator, not only did he provide southern artists growing confidence, as an abstractionist he was able to use established heritage to embody his work with roots, one of the few artists from the region to invest in this, since tantra-based abstraction had become the norm in North India.Image by Courtesy: DAG Modern Archives
‘Picture in Yellow and Blue’ (1964), oil on canvas[KCS Paniker] Image by Courtesy: DAG Modern Archives
Nandalal Bose(1882-1966)Taught at: Kala Bhavana at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, on Rabindranath Tagore’s persuasion Abanindranath Tagore’s student, who went on to outshine his teacher, Bose’s career can be divided into two parts—the first in Calcutta (now Kolkata) where he soon became renowned for his amazingly elegant paintings in the style that came to be known as the Bengal School, and then at Santiniketan where he was associated with a native expressionism that went on to represent India’s first indigenous art movement. In particular, the recording of his journal in the form of postcards—drawings based on his travels, daily observations and as notes to family and friends. Jawaharlal Nehru commissioned him to paint (with a posse of artists) the first two hand-calligraphed copies of the Constitution of India. Image by Courtesy: DAG Modern Archives
‘Flute player’ (1937), tempera on paper[Nandalal Bose] Image by Courtesy: DAG Modern Archives
Sankho Chaudhuri(1916-2006)Taught at: Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda, and visiting fellow at Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, and Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi The quintessential teacher—he established the sculpture department at MS University—he studied at Santiniketan under Ramkinkar Baij, India’s first modernist, and went on to teach sculptors Raghav Kaneria and Dhruva Mistry. A sparse modernist, his sculptures were about form and movement, parsed of anything that was inessential or superfluous. Though he did portrait busts of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, among others, it was these austere works that caught the imagination of a collecting, art-loving public. This was especially notable given how abstraction in sculpture is difficult to achieve and harder to communicate. Chaudhuri’s big achievement was the setting up of the Garhi art studios in New Delhi, and he was also responsible for establishing Bhopal’s Museum of Man at Bharat Bhavan. Image by Courtesy: DAG Modern Archives
‘Tribute to Bhabeshda’ (1992), bronze[Sankho Chaudhuri] Image by Courtesy: DAG Modern Archives
NS Bendre(1910-92)Taught at: Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda Along with Gulam Sheikh, NS Bendre was the kind of teacher who encouraged students from different backgrounds to join art classes, sometimes also organising or paying for their fees. Among those he encouraged to study art was MF Husain, whom he met in Indore, and Gulam Rasool Santosh, who was introduced to him by SH Raza. An inspiring teacher, Bendre was considered a great colourist and went on to emerge as the country’s best-known pointillist. His subjects were often pastoral and before he became a master of pointillism, he dabbled in cubism, expressionism and abstraction, fusing together European styles that he experimented with before finding his own distinct voice, which was based in an indigenous vocabulary that had been sparked by the early Santiniketan artists and also Calcutta-based Jamini Roy, arguably India’s earliest modernist.Image by Courtesy: DAG Modern Archives
Untitled (‘A Village Fair, Rajgir-Bihar’), water colour on paper[NS Bendre] Image by Courtesy: DAG Modern Archives
Rameshwar Broota(b. 1941)Taught at: College of Art, Delhi he serves as Head of Department at Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi Many artists have passed through Rameshwar Broota’s mentorship, particularly at Triveni. He might be said to have influenced generations of painters. As a teacher, he has never imposed his own style or authority, and his students have benefitted from his presence and approval, to continue experimenting till they arrive at their own oeuvres. Broota’s own style—aside from a time when he satirically commented on the Emergency with a series of apes—has been a masculine manner in which he paints canvases in black and white representing abstracts or (mostly) male torsos. He scratches through the surface of the paint using razor blades to create depth and perspective. Broota’s canvases are usually overpowering, as much in size as in the intense close-up he offers of his subject, reflecting their honesty and purity.Image by Courtesy MAP / Tasveer
