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In the post
liberalized India , Groups are
vanishing fast. This has predominantly two basic reasons.
Firstly the artists are experiencing a wide
spectrum of influence and thus the relevance of groups has reduced
these days. A few groups that do exist do not show any coherence but
rather exhibit a need to stick together more for financial
management than any binding philosophy. In fact some of the noted
artists of today like
Sudip Roy
or
Paresh Maity
work rather independently than in groups.
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Highly stylized and
differentiated works of present generation artists: Paresh Maity
(above) and Devajyoti Ray (below)
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The second reason why the successful
artists of the newer generation are averse to group-making is that
the viewers today are more learned and open-minded and are willing to
accept newer concepts.
Devajyoti Ray for
example had single-handedly grafted the brand new concept of
Pseudorealism
into Indian art scene
without the bandwagon of a group
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Since the beginning of
eighteenth century, artists have shown tendencies to from groups while
showcasing their works to the larger public. This has often proved
necessary when artists have tried to put forward a common view or style.
In Europe mostly important groups rallied around a common style of work.
Thus early impressionists formed groups when their works were yet to
gain wider recognition and cubists stuck together when their style was
only gathering ridicule.
This rallying around a common idea is
seen in the pre-independence India too. Most Bengal School
artists like
Abanindranath Tagore
and
Nandalal Bose
used to
hold their annual exhibitions jointly. With their effort and
with patronage of the wealthy Bengali families, in 1907, the
Indian Society of Oriental Arts
was founded. The group’s
paintings had over-zealous nationalistic overtones. So strong
were these sentiments, that any entry made in traditional
English realistic tradition
was
instantly rejected.
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Chinese watercolour
technique (left) adopted by the Bengal School artists as an alternative
to oil works of the Company School. A work of Gobardhan Ash of the later
day Bengal School. (right) |
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This strictness was greatly resented by
younger artists like
Jamini Roy,
Atul Bose and others who thus had to start their own show in
the open corridor of
Indian Museum
without the benefit of much patronage of the Bengali
elite. This Group for a short time was called the Rebel Centre of Art. This was the beginning of one of the most prolific groups of the
time.
In post independence period, the most
important Group of Bengal had been the Young Artists' Union,
which was later rechristened as the Calcutta Group, which
ran parallel to the Progressive Artists’ Group of Bombay. This
group consisted of some of the most well known names of Bengal
Art: Ramkinkar Baij, Abani Sen,
Partitosh Sen ,
Pradosh Dasgupta and
for a certain
amount of time
Zainul Abedin.
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Works of Society of
conteporary artists as shown here do not in any way adhere to any common
underlying philosophy |
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But after independence the relevance of
groups reduced drastically. The earlier philosophy of making
nationalistic art works was no longer appealing to the artists
of an independent country. For some time issues like
communism, etc kept the artists together. But in course of
time, so much of variety came into Indian art that no common
ideology could keep the artists together. Thus important
groups like
Prokash Karmakar’s
Society of
Artists, Shuvaprasanna’s Art and Artists in City, and
Jogen Chaudhuri
's Calcutta Painters Group, etc all fizzled out. The only surviving group
in Bengal
today is the Society of Contemporary Artists, whose members
include the doyens of Present day Bengal Art:
Ganesh Paine, Ganesh Haloi,
Jogen Chaudhuri,
Panesar and
Manu Parekh
. But this
Society also does not bind the artists in any common philosophy or ism.
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