An inside view of the show at DAG, New Delhi
| Photograph Credit score: Particular Association

To condense an artwork motion that spanned a long time and ideologies, and gave Modernism a brand new visible language in India, into the confines of a gallery is a mammoth process. Within the second version of Madras Trendy: Regionalism and Id, at Delhi’s DAG, canvases lend a birds-eye view right into a follow that took pleasure in its Indianness.  They communicate volumes of a late modernist motion that originated in South India, extra particularly then-Madras.

An paintings by RB Bhaskaran
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association

The Madras Artwork Motion of the Nineteen Sixties, fading traces of that are nonetheless seen within the remoted, and now-changed Cholamandal Artists’ Village in Chennai, was a pivotal second within the artwork historical past of South India, its roots firmly planted inside the picturesque campus of the Authorities School of High-quality Arts, Egmore. 

Beneath the watchful and guiding eyes of artist-teacher KCS Paniker, the motion sought to decry the omnipresent colonial gaze, and discover a new language that was unapologetically Indian, deriving largely from the area’s cultural heritage. From DP Roy Chowdhury’s unparalleled command over shadows and light-weight, and his scholar Paniker’s progressive use of textual content, strains and hanging colors, to a extra fashionable language of abstraction by L Munuswamy, and complex sculptures of Dakshinamoorthy, Madras Trendy makes an attempt to indicate aspects of a motion by way of a two-part exhibit. 

An paintings by J Sultan Ali
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association

“The primary iteration was in Bombay in 2019. Sometimes, we take historic views of such actions, whether or not it’s the Bengal faculty, Shanitiniketan or the Bombay Progressives. It was instinctive for us to attempt to cowl all components of central historical past to get into the Madras Artwork Motion,” says Ashok Singh, Senior VP at DAG who was additionally concerned within the curation of this present. Although barely extra edited than the primary, the artists on show stay the identical. “The majority of it comes out of DAG’s personal stock, and the place we weren’t in a position to fill a void, was within the girls’s voice,” says Ashok. The e book, revealed alongside the primary version, was written by Ashrafi S Bhagat and is a complete explainer of the Motion and the way it influenced up to date artwork in India, with a peek into among the distinctive works that have been born out of the varsity. 

Setting context

Finding a motion as huge as this one traditionally is essential for the curation, says Ashok. “We had initially begun with Paniker, however that will not have supplied a transparent sense of historical past of how the Madras faculty of artwork obtained this large enhance when Roy Chowdhury reinvigorated the Visuals Arts Division of the Authorities School of High-quality Arts. His pedagogy led to the excellence of somebody like artist-teacher Paniker.” And a later exhibition in London the place a critic exclaimed, ‘whereas the work was wonderful, the place was India in it?’, proved as a set off level for this shift in perspective. 

An paintings by L Munuswamy
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association

“This set him off on a search,” he continues. Having discovered that pivot, he inspired fellow artists to create artwork across the new route. “This led to a transparent sense of regionalisation and a concentrate on the written phrase and letter, and the road,” says Ashok including that they walked by way of the motion with artists from numerous paradigms, together with the huge gamut of sculptural follow. The curation additionally seems to be at figuration, and the way the rapid environments of the Cholamandal Artists Village and its environment, formed the our bodies of labor, making it extra native. “Then there are the abstractionists like C Douglas,” says Ashok. Later artists, (some are descendents of the pioneers, like Paniker’s son S Nandagopal) who’ve taken this legacy ahead by way of a language extra up to date, have additionally marked their presence within the assortment.

“The inspiration of the motion was so sturdy that every artist was capable of finding one thing to take ahead. And that’s the greatest type of legacy,” says Ashok.      

Madras Trendy: Regionalism and Id is on present until July 6 at DAG, New Delhi.