Indian Art and Letters

Author(s): India Society
Publisher: India Society

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Modern Art in Western India means." In speaking to-night I shall deny myself the tempting opportunity which the occasion offers for calling spirits from the vasty deep: unless indeed they be those aerial forms which are said to typify consciousness-the lovely nymphs of Hindu allegory, who can endow the artist with powers of perception, and may best be invoked by energetic and whole-hearted application to his work. The practice of painting, architecture, and sculpture is an art as well as an inspiration in India as elsewhere, and the Indian was a craftsman before he became an artist.
These conclusions, which you will probably think obvious enough, have had to be stressed again in recent times, although they were always admitted in the old days by foreigners who worked for the furtherance of art in Western India, where the modern revival began. Among the early British pioneers who guided the destinies of the Bombay School of Art in its infancy were Mr. Terry, who revived an attractive type of essentially Indian pottery; Mr. Lockwood Kipling, who later started the Lahore School and taught sculpture in Bombay, where it has flourished chiefly ever since; and Mr. John Griffiths, who revealed the Ajanta Caves to the world by means of his book illustrated by his Indian students during eleven years of study. Then there were eminent writers, like Fergusson, Burgess, and Birdwood, who also maintained a view of essential unity in all art; they were keen admirers of the past, but did not attempt to hamper progress in India by reactionary theories of harking back to ancient times for the mandates and forms of her modern artistic expression. And, when all is said and done, this does seem a sensible line for European friends of India to follow. In Bombay we have maintained the liberal and untrammelled view of art training, and since I took charge of the school in 1919 I have been privileged to participate in larger and more extensive developments.
In his book on the Ajanta Caves, to which I have referred, Griffiths included a plea that the rediscovery of the aptitude of young Indians for a form of art-mural painting-"which is still congenial to the Oriental temperament and hand" should entitle Indian students to be given work of the same kind on an original basis. This conclusion was only given practical effect in recent times when the class of Mural Painting was founded in the Bombay School of Art through the keen interest of Lord Lloyd, when that well-known admirer of art was Governor of the Province. This class was based upon scholarships and supported by other improvements, including more advanced training from nature in painting and sculpture, as well as closer study of Indian design in all sections of the school. The object of the class of Mural Painting has been to guide rather than to instruct art students of special capacity towards applying the remarkable Indian talent for space
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