Contemporary Artists in India
The first notable `movement’ to ignite India’s art scene was initiated by the well known ` Bengal School ‘ of Abanindranath Tagore. The body of work generated by him and the renowned artists who followed – Gaganendranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Benode Behari Mukherjee, Mukul Dey and Asit Haldar among others had an enduring impact on the Indian art scene. With its centers in Calcutta and Shantiniketan, this movement exerted a huge influence on the art schools of the sub-continent.
In 1948 the `Progressive Artist’s Group’ with F. N Souza, Ara, Bakre, Gade, M.F Hussain and S.H Raza among its founders was started in Bombay. Then formed the Bombay group, the Baroda group, Delhi Shilpa Chakra, Triveni’s Art Department in Delhi.
Contemporary Indian artists are M F Hussain, Gaitonde, S H Raza, Amrita Shergil, Ravi Varma, Tyeb Mehta, F N Souza, Bhupen Khakhar, Akbar Padamsee, Ram Kumar, Ganesh Pyne, Krishen Khanna, KG Subramanyan, Somnath Hore, Nandalal Bose, Manjit Bawa, Jogen Chowdhury, Paritosh Sen, Rathin Maitra, Sunil Madhav Sen, Gopal Ghosh, Subho Tagore, Nirode Majumdar, Niladri Paul.
New media art is a genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including digital art, computer graphics, computer animation, virtual art, Internet art, interactive art, computer robotics, and art as biotechnology. New Media Art often involves interaction between artist and observer or between observers and the artwork, which responds to them. Yet, as several theorists and curators have noted, such forms of interaction, social exchange, participation, and transformation do not distinguish new media art but rather serve as a common ground that has parallels in other strands of contemporary art practice.
Performance art is an essentially contested concept: The meaning of the term in the narrower sense is related to postmodernist traditions in Western culture. From about the mid-1960s into the 1970s, often derived from concepts of visual art, with respect to Antonin Artaud, Dada, the Situationists, Fluxus, Installation Art, and Conceptual Art, performance art tended to be defined as an antithesis to theatre, challenging orthodox art forms and cultural norms. The ideal had been an ephemeral and authentic experience for performer and audience in an event that could not be repeated, captured or purchased. Performance artists often challenge the audience to think in new and unconventional ways, break conventions of traditional arts, and break down conventional ideas about “what art is” !!
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between these terms overlap. Installation art can be either temporary or permanent. Installation artworks have been constructed in exhibition spaces such as museums and galleries, as well as public and private spaces.
Essentially, installation/environmental art takes into account a broader sensory experience, rather than floating framed points of focus on a “neutral” wall or displaying isolated objects (literally) on a pedestal. Installation art operates fully within the realm of sensory perception, in a sense “installing” the viewer into an artificial system with an appeal to his subjective perception as its ultimate goal.
Some good examples are Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, Rachel Whitread’s Embankment, Neorizon, Maurice Benayoun’s urban interactive, Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror and Turning the World Upside Down and much more.
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood except when Softer (“plastic”) materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals or when the term has been extended to works including sound, text, and light. The sculpture is an important form of public art. A collection of sculpture in a garden setting may be referred to as a sculpture garden. Some sculpture, such as ice sculpture, sand sculpture, and gas sculpture, is deliberately short-lived.
The Buddhist sculpture from China, often monumental, begun in the Sui Dynasty, inspired by the Greco-Buddhist art of Central Asia, and many are considered treasures of world art.
The monumental sculpture of Ancient Egypt is world-famous, but refined and delicate small works are also a feature.
The first known sculptures are from the Indus Valley civilization (3300–1700 BC), found in sites at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in modern-day Pakistan. Later, as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism developed further, India produced bronzes and stone carvings of great intricacies, such as the famous temple carvings which adorn various Hindu, Jain and Buddhist shrines. Some of these, such as the cave temples of Ellora and Ajanta, are examples of Indian rock-cut architecture, perhaps the largest and most ambitious sculptural schemes in the world. The style, key aesthetic characteristics, materials, and techniques used in the creation of a piece of sculpture reflects the region from which it originates. Sculptures often have unique functions that vary widely from one geographical region to the next. Post-modern sculpture occupies a broader field of activities than Modernist sculpture, as Rosalind Krauss has observed. Her idea of sculpture in the expanded field identified a series of oppositions that describe the various sculpture-like activities that are post-modern sculpture.