Indian Art and Letters

Author(s): India Society
Publisher: India Society

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India Society's Exhibition of Modern Indian Art Glancy, Sir Edward and Lady Gait, Sir Murray and Lady Hammick, Lady Hartog, Sir Stanley and Lady Jackson, Sir Reginald Johnston, Sir Cecil and Lady Kisch, Lady Keymer, Mr. and Mrs. Rudyard Kipling, Sir Walter Lawrence, Sir Edward and Lady Maclagan, Sir Reginald and Lady Mant, Sir Henry and Lady McMahon, Lady (John) Marshall, the Hon. Mrs. M. Meade, Sir Francis and Lady Oppenheim, Lady Pearson, Sir Abdul and Lady Qadır, Mr. Ranganatha Rao (Mysore Trade Commissioner), Sir Frederick and Lady Sykes, Sir Malcolm and Lady Seton, Sir Findlater Stewart, Sır Ronald and Lady Storrs, Lady Solomon, Sir Charles and Lady Tegart, Sir Brum well Thomas, Mr F. H. Andrews, Mr. and Mrs. S K. Brown, Mr. F H. Brown and Miss Brown, Mr. and Mrs Frank Beresford, Mr and Mrs K. de B. Codrington, Mr. and Mrs Arthur Davis, Mr. J. H. Drummond, Mr. R. B Ewbank, Miss Christina Foyle, Miss Margaret Farquharson, Mr. and Mrs Basıl Gray, Mr. and Mrs. O M. Green, Sheikh Abdul Hamid, Mr. and Mrs. Lionel Heath, Mr. Leonard Jennings, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Jerrold, Miss de Laredo, Mr. and Mrs Philip de Laszlo, Mr. and Mrs H. V. Lanchester, Mr. Hugh Molson, M.P., Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Montgomery, Colonel and Mrs. W. G. Neale, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Polak, Mr George Pilcher, Mr P. J Patrick, Mr. Gladstone Solomon, Mr. R. R. Tatlock, Mrs Patrick Villiers Stuart, Mr. Barada Ukil.
The following speeches were made upon this occasion
Lord Zetland (President): Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen, - Not only the organizers of this Exhibition, for whom I am particularly authorized to speak, but the artists whose works are displayed around these walls, and many of their fellow-countrymen who appreciate the significance of the flowering of art which has been one of the features of the intellectual life of India during recent years, will be more than grateful to your Royal Highness for the sympathetic interest which you are showing in the movement by your presence here to-day.
What, it may be asked, is the significance of the recent art movements in India? The first question to which one naturally seeks a reply, when trying to assess the value of any particular movement, is this : Is it creative, or is it merely imitative? Is it the outcome of a genuine and instinctive impulse towards self-expression, or is the motive force behind it merely a desire on the part of the artist to taste the enjoyment which is always to be derived from the conscious mastery of a particular technique ?
I have no hesitation in placing the modern art movement in India in the first of these two categories.
The art of India has certainly been affected by contact with the art of Europe, more particularly perhaps in the west of India than in the east, and
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