To be
modern means to be innovative, forward looking , it could be modern technology,
modern society or modern art .
1863 is
often regarded as the beginning of modernism in art in the West, this was the
year when famous artist Edouard Manet , displayed his works Le Dejeuner sur
l’herbe and Olympia, these paintings caused a scandal in the Paris art circles that
year. What was so scandalous about these paintings, that are considered such
classical works of art today ?Certainly not the nakedness of the women, the
artists at that time were not that prudish, more over painting nudes was pretty
common at that time…what shocked the viewers was the artists deliberate
challenge to the way art was created, which stipulated that female nudes be
elevated spiritually or through their classical context …What Manet painted
were naked women, totally at ease among the men dressed in formal clothes,
without the slightest pretense of divinity …
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| Edouard Manet, Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe, (1863) |
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| Edouard Manet, Olympia,(1863) |
It was
around 1870 in Paris, where a circle of painters whom we now know as Impressionists,
shook up the established art world. They painted their pictures with broad
strokes that seemed unfinished as compared to the meticulous way of painting in
those times, they portrayed life on the street instead of overblown heroic scenes . A whole movement of artists emerged
who no longer stuck to the prevailing rules, who had not necessarily come up
through the academy and for whom individual expression was of prime importance.
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| Claude Monet, Impression-Sunrise (1872) |
The modern
period in Indian art began around 1857 or so, I am taking it as a historical
premise because The National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi covers its
collection from about this period which saw the landmark Indian rebellion against their British rulers in 1857. In the west, the modern period starts conveniently
with the Impressionists, Indian context is harder to define as India was ruled
by the British and the main form of art was miniature paintings that went back to Buddhist
and Jain manuscripts of the 9th century and continued through the Mughal period
into colonial times. However, when we
talk of modern Indian Art, we generally start with the Bengal School of
Painting, that started in the late 19th /early 20th
century.
The
nationalist project in art was led by Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951) and some
enlightened Europeans such as EB Havell, the principal of the Government School
of Art in Calcutta from 1896, and Sister Nivedita, an associate of Swami
Vivekananda. Moving away from oil painting and subjects that were popular with
both the British and Indian intelligentsia, Abanindranath looked to ancient
murals and medieval Indian miniatures for inspiration both for subject matter, he
used indigenous material such as tempera
for his works. They sought to develop an indigenous yet modern
style in art as a response to the call for ‘swadeshi’ to express Indian themes
in a pictorial language that deliberately turned away from western styles such
as those practiced by Raja Ravi Varma.
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| Bharat Mata by Abanindranath Tagore(1871-1951) |
This was
the beginning of Modern art , what followed were
various art movements that have inspired and shaped today’s art , the
modernist drive to make something new is still alive ,and expresses itself in
different forms .
