‘The Big Book of Indian Art’ – an encyclopedic look at over 300 Indian artists

I first heard about Bina Sarkar Elias in 2017, when she was writing an article on her daughter Yuki Elias’s play. I was introduced International GalleryA global art and ideas magazine founded in 1997 by Beena, a poet and curator. She edits, designs and publishes it herself.

his new job, The Big Book of Indian Art: An Illustrated History of Indian Art from Its Origins to the Present Day (Aleph Book Company), although very different in its concept. It is a 688-page encyclopedia on over 300 Indian artists. While it has 22 pages devoted to art from 20,000 BC to 1854 – when, after the Great Exhibition in London, the School of Industrial Arts was established in Kolkata by the British to help Indian artists learn craftsmanship – the story, It actually dates back to 1896 when art historian EB Havell and artist Abanindranath Tagore introduced Oriental art and founded the Bengal School of Art.

From there, the book is divided into eight sections, six of which feature artists who were part of a historical art movement or Indian art school. For example, the Bombay School looks at seven artists, including Pestonji Bomanji, MV Dhurandhar and S. Haldankar is included. While the Calcutta Group, Progressive Painters Association of Chennai and Cholamandal Artists Village, Bombay Progressive Artists Group and Baroda Group are considering about nine artists each.

“The intention was to reach a larger public, including the uninformed; “Opening the doors to a galaxy of experiences that will lead them to appreciate the visual arts,” says Beena. “I believe that art and culture humanizes. In this fragmented world, I hope to promote unity in diversity. Therefore, this book is inclusive. It’s connecting with people outside the sanctum of the art community.

Bina Sarkar Ilyas | Photo Credit: Rafiq Ilyas

Research over 45 years

The book is a visual encyclopedia of India’s artists. Each entry is accompanied by an artwork, its origins and details of the artists, including their birth and background, style, awards and exhibitions. You can see Bina’s style in many of the entries, her voice coming out like a football forward waiting for the opportunity to share some personal details and unknown facts about the artists.

For example, a favorite work of Indian-American artist and printmaker Zarina Hashmi, letter from home (2004), based on his sister’s letters. Or that painter Sunil Das won the National Award during his graduation. It took him more than two years to write the book, and the immaculate notes at the end reveal that many of the details come from his conversations with the artists. In his old diaries he has kept handwritten notes of his nearly 45 years of association with extraordinary artists, many of whom are no longer in this world.

Jamini Roy, boating1920 (oil on canvas)

“I am not an art historian or academic, and my vocabulary is devoid of art theory. “My love for art and literature came naturally… a compulsive attraction that dates back to when I was a fourth-grader,” she says. “Art history studies, by and large, leaned not only toward historical documentation and iconographic readings. but also interprets with a certain stylistic analysis, which many ordinary people cannot understand. I’m glad to know that this book provides an introductory education to people outside the art community. It is especially gratifying that readers are coming forward to express their happiness.”

A large section is ‘The Art Landscape Post Independence’, which includes entries about over 200 contemporary painters, sculptors, illustrators, printmakers, multimedia artists, lithographers and muralists. These names include some of India’s most renowned contemporary artists, from Atul Dodiya and Subodh Gupta to Jayshree Burman, Rekha Rodvitiya and Ranbir Kaleka. It is a pleasure to be introduced to artists such as Theodore Matiano Mesquita, who helped establish the Goa Art Forum, and Ganesh Gohain, a sculptor who is collected internationally. I didn’t know that Indrapramit Roy illustrated for Tara Books, or that British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor moved to Israel in 1971 to live in a kibbutz.

Shanti Dave, untitled1977 (coloured woodcuts on paper pasted on fabric)

Where are the traditional artists?

big book of indian art There is also improvisational work involving a large number of women artists, notably modernists such as Madhavi Parekh, whose work shows an intuitive connection with her surroundings, singer Shobha Bruta, who infuses rhythm in her abstract works, and the late Gogi Saroj Pal, who breathed life into his folk-style stories. But as a writer, I can argue the exclusion of some artists like Shilo Shiv Suleman, Ritika Merchant and Pritika Choudhary for example. Suleiman’s Fearless Collective, with its approximately 400 artists, uses art to protest gender violence around the world; Chaudhary creates anti-monuments to traumatic geopolitical events such as Partition and terrorist attacks; And Merchant also explores comparative mythology as well as science and fantasy. Each is an example of what Indian artists are doing around the world.

Equally, I miss contemporary indigenous and traditional artists. For example, in addition to folk art, murals and street art have gained momentum. But Bina says it is impossible to include every art.

SL Haldankar, divine flameEarly 20th century (watercolor on paper)

At the end there is a Notes section which gives such a detailed bibliography that it would probably be worth buying the book to get an idea of ​​the books, articles and catalogs published on each artist. The artists’ index could, in a pinch, also stand in for the table of contents, which is missing at the beginning of the book. One downside is the absence of artist paintings. The second is the poor quality of the publication, which does not do justice to the luxury of the concept. The paper and reproduction quality of the photographs is quite low.

Bina’s research on over 300 artists is painstaking and thorough. Now, I will look forward to her work on contemporary traditional artists, if she decides to write it.

The author is an expert on South Asian art and culture.