Kinds of Indian art
Schools, traditions and crafts: where each came from and how to tell it.
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Baroda School
From 1949, when the Faculty of Fine Arts was founded; the Baroda Group formed in 1957 · Vadodara (Baroda), GujaratArtists around the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, founded in 1949. They learned from craft and folk traditions, and in 1981 several of them were central to a return to figurative, story-telling painting.
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Bengal School
About 1900 to the 1920s · Calcutta (Kolkata) and Santiniketan, BengalAn early 20th-century movement that turned away from academic oil painting and looked to Mughal and East Asian art for an Indian modern style. It was tied to the swadeshi movement and led by Abanindranath Tagore.
For example: A Human Face -
Company painting
Mid 18th to early 20th century · British India: Murshidabad, Calcutta, Patna, Lucknow, Delhi, Banaras, Madras, Tanjore and TrichinopolyPainting by Indian artists for Europeans working for the East India Company and other trading companies. Mughal and Rajput training meets Western watercolour: birds and plants, monuments, festivals and people at work.
For example: Brahminy Starling on a Neem Branch -
Contemporary Indian art
The early 1990s to the present · Across India, especially Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kochi, and abroadIndian art since the economic liberalisation of the early 1990s. Installation, video, sculpture and everyday objects sit alongside painting.
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Deccani painting
Late 16th to mid 17th century, with a revival in the 18th century centred on Hyderabad · The Deccan sultanates: Bijapur, Golconda, Ahmadnagar, Bidar and BerarPainting from the Muslim sultanates of the Deccan, made at the same time as early Mughal painting but in a different mood. Where the Mughals wanted likeness, the Deccan wanted colour, luxury and a touch of the dreamlike.
For example: Portrait of Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur, from the Shah Jahan Album -
Gond painting
An old wall-painting practice; on paper and canvas since the early 1980s · Madhya Pradesh: Patangarh in Dindori district, and BhopalPainting by the Pardhan Gond community of Madhya Pradesh, carried from house walls onto paper in the 1980s by Jangarh Singh Shyam. Animals, trees and deities, filled in with dots, dashes and fine lines.
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Kalighat painting
About the 1830s to the 1930s · Kalighat, Kolkata (Calcutta), West BengalQuick, bold watercolours sold near the Kali temple in 19th-century Calcutta. Village scroll painters became city painters, and their gods, cats and pompous babus are drawn with one confident line.
For example: Trivikrama (The Three Steps of Vishnu) -
Madhubani painting
An old ritual practice; on paper and canvas since the 1960s · Mithila: Madhubani district, Bihar, and neighbouring NepalWall and floor painting from Mithila, made by women for weddings, births and festivals, and moved onto paper in the 1960s. No space is left empty.
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Mughal painting
Mid 16th to 19th century; the great years under Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan · Northern India, at the Mughal imperial courtPainting made for the Mughal emperors, first as book illustration and then as single pages kept in albums. It began with Persian masters and became its own thing: a court that wanted to see real faces, real birds and real flowers.
For example: Akbar and the Elephant Hawa'i, from the Akbarnama -
Mysore painting
From the early 17th century; most surviving works date from the reign of Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (1799 to 1868) · Mysore and southern KarnatakaThe quieter cousin of Tanjore painting, made under the Wodeyar kings of Mysore. Gods and myths in fine line and muted colour, with a low, thin layer of gesso and gold.
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Pahari painting
Early 17th to mid 19th century · Hill states of the lower Himalaya, from Jammu to Garhwal: Basohli, Guler, Kangra, Chamba, Mandi, Nurpur and othersPainting from the small hill kingdoms of the western Himalayan foothills, from the hot, bold Basohli manner to the soft Kangra style. Its great subject is Radha and Krishna, and one family of painters shaped most of it.
For example: A Courtesan and Her Lover Estranged by a Quarrel, from a Rasamanjari series -
Pattachitra
An old tradition tied to the Jagannath temple at Puri; still practised · Odisha (Puri and Raghurajpur) and West BengalPainting on prepared cloth from Odisha and Bengal. In Odisha, icons and stories of Jagannath for the pilgrims of Puri; in Bengal, long scrolls unrolled while the painter sings.
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Photography in India
1840 to the present · Across IndiaPhotography reached India within a year of the daguerreotype's public launch, and the earliest known Indian image dates from 1840. Its story runs from colonial survey albums and court studios to photojournalism and the photobook.
For example: The Great Elephant Saluting -
Pichwai
From around 1672 to the present · Nathdwara, RajasthanLarge painted cloths hung behind the image of Shrinathji, the form of Krishna worshipped at Nathdwara. They are changed with the seasons and festivals, and belong to the worship itself.
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Progressive Artists' Group
1947 to 1956 · Bombay (Mumbai)The Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, formed in 1947, months after Partition, to break with the Bengal School and make an Indian modern art on international terms. It had no shared style.
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Rajput painting
Late 16th to 19th century · Rajasthan: Mewar, Bundi, Kota, Bikaner, Marwar, Kishangarh and other courtsCourt painting from the Rajput kingdoms of Rajasthan, each state with its own hand. It runs from flat, bright and bold to Mughal-trained refinement, and most of it was made by families of painters rather than single names.
For example: Maharana Ari Singh with His Courtiers Being Entertained at the Jagniwas Water Palace -
Tanjore painting
Roots around 1600 under the Nayakas; the style as known today formed at the Maratha court of Thanjavur (1676 to 1855) · Thanjavur (Tanjore) and the Tamil country, Tamil NaduDevotional panel paintings from Thanjavur, built up in raised gesso and covered with gold foil and glass. They were made to hang in puja rooms and bhajan halls, a god at the centre and everything else in attendance.
For example: Navaneeta Krishna -
Warli painting
A long-standing ritual practice; on paper and canvas since the 1970s · North Sahyadri, Maharashtra: Dahanu, Talasari, Jawhar, Palghar and MokhadaWall painting of the Warli people of Maharashtra, white on an earth-red ground and built from circles, triangles and squares. Since the 1970s it has moved from hut walls to paper and canvas.