On a vigilGulam Mohammed Sheikhb. 1937Though the youngest member of Group 1890, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh is an intellectual giant of the calibre of Swaminathan and his career was richly weighted with labels such as significant artist, poet-writer, art historian, scholar and art teacher. He has often been referred to as the group’s conscience-keeper or gatekeeper, keeping vigil against any wr
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All fired upHimmat Shahb. 1933Himmat Shah was still experimenting with materials when he became a member. Even though he had chosen clay as his medium while studying at MS University, Baroda, his outing at the group’s exhibition was a series of burnt paper collages consisting of sheets of paper scarred by a cigarette, held together with glue, paint and fragments of printed paper. It so ca
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Extreme abstractionistAmbadasb. 1922, d. 2012A student of Mumbai’s Sir JJ School of Art, Ambadas—the only Dalit in Group 1890’s members—often accused the Marxist Swaminathan for his Brahmanical views, but the two remained staunch friends. He was trained in the academic style, but Ambadas chose abstraction early in his career, and thereafter did not change his style or technique of using t
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The documenter Jyoti Bhattb. 1934Jyoti Bhatt has always claimed innocence about why he was included in the group, but as a young artist from MS University’s first batch of art students, he had a curious mind that enjoyed working across mediums. He was inspired by the Cubist style of his teacher, NS Bendre, and experimented with it but gave it up after a scholarship to Italy. There, he was
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Constructing paintingsEric Bowenb. 1929, d. 2002Born in Allahabad, Eric Bowen studied art in New Delhi and was part of Group Unknown along with Paramjit Singh before he joined Group 1890. In the year that he became a member, he was invited to study art in Italy, and so was represented at the exhibition by his works alone. His work at the time seemed to consist of construction- and archite
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Realisations in metalRaghav Kaneriab. 1936Raghav Kaneria was the only member of Group 1890 who joined as a sculptor—he had worked with junk metals in both Baroda, where he studied art at MS University, and, later, at London’s Walthamstow School of Art as well as Royal College of Art. He probably had the largest number of works on exhibit at the group’s exhibition, and was seen as a modern
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Surprising additionReddappa Naidub. 1932, d. 1999Part of the Group 1890 charter was to have artist representations from all over the country, and Reddappa Naidu seems to have been its choice as symbolic of the south, even though he hardly subscribed to their views, almost never attended meetings, and was not even present when the group members had their official photograph taken. Naidu’s
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VigilanteRajesh Mehrab. 1932Every once in a while, Rajesh Mehra, who taught at the College of Art, New Delhi, has been known to drop hints about why Group 1890 collapsed, though there is hardly any mystery about the movement petering out, even as individual artists continued along their trajectories. Mehra was co-opted as a member after his ‘Two Figures in a Deserted Garden’ received accl
