Indian Art and Letters

Author(s): India Society
Publisher: India Society

Page 20

India Society's Exhibition of Modern Indian Art
The New Burlington Galleries are only a stone's throw off Bond Street, and therefore in the heart of the West End. On the well-lit top floor have been brought together in adjoining rooms some of the best work of present-day Indian artists. From Western India, where the Bombay School of Art has exercised such a marked influence, outstanding works have come, and from Bengal, where Calcutta has been the centre of the modern artistic revival. From Madras in the south, from Delhi, Lucknow, and Lahore in the north, beautiful pictures have been sent, whilst interesting pieces have been lent by the Maharajas of Patiala, Indore, and Jaipur, and the State Schools of Art in Baroda, Kashmir, and Indore.
In the first gallery the effect of Mr. Gladstone Solomon's teaching at the Bombay School of Art is clearly visible in the excellence of the drawing and the frequent use of European technique. Nevertheless, the graceful treatment of individual figures, the ease with which large groups are composed, and the general tendency of aims and ideals remain essentially Indian. Of historical interest is a big portrait in oils of Sir Jamsetji Jeejebhoy, who was not only the first Indian to be created a baronet, but also the founder of the Bombay School of Art.
The second gallery has on its north wall a very representative collection of water colours from Northern India, prominent among which are the works of the three bothers Ukil. In some cases we notice a tendency to exaggerate the wash-process of water-colour painting, which modern Indian artists have derived from Japanese rather than from Indian sources.
Further on are three exquisite water-colour figures by that brilliant artist Chugtai, which cannot fail to appeal. The Lucknow collection is rich in small paintings, some of them on silk, in which the line work is as delicate as the blending of the colours.
The south and part of the east walls are taken up by the Bengal school. The works here shown of the Tagore brothers explain why they exercised so great an influence on their contemporaries as to account for the modern renaissance of art in Bengal.
Dr. Abanindranath Tagore's set of illustrations for the Arabian Nights tales deserves to be used for its intended purpose, while Goganendranath Tagore's sepia drawings have many of the qualities which European modernists strive after. The younger exponents of this school show that they are versed in their native traditions, and yet not insensitive to modern artistic conceptions.
Madras sent only a few pictures, but every one of them perfect in quality. Perhaps the dismal crow on a dripping branch, entitled “After the Storm," by Mr. Roy Chowdhuri, Principal of the Madras School of Art, deserves to 08