A Quiet Revolution

After the bold and compelling success of the Progressive Artists Group, the stage was set for tremendous transformations in the art scene of India. Liberated from the many debilitating complexes and uncertainties, Indian artists began a quest for their individual styles, bringing forward new talent and new ideas. On the scene emerged several artists of substance like Satish Gujaral (b.1925), Tyeb Mehta (b.1925), Krishen Khanna (b.1925), Ram Kumar (b.1927), V.S..Gaitonde (b.1927), Akbar Padamsee (b.1928), Laxman Pai(b.1926), Jehangir Sabavala (b.1922) and a host of others.

Delhi and Mumbai which did not even a single gallery in 1947, were home to several commercial art galleries by the Sixties. Pioneer galleries like Gallery Chemould and Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai and Dhoomimal, Kunika and Kumar Art Galleries in Delhi began to display and sell the works of an increasing number of talented artists, Husian, Raza, Souza, Padamsee, Kumar, Ambadas, A. Ramanchandran, Tyeb Mehta, Gaitonde, Krishen Khanna, Biren De, Krishna Reddy and many others.

A quiet revolution took place, forging individual styles, bringing to the fore new talent and new ideas. The atmosphere came alive with art events, news and discussions, and exchanging of ideas, with more and more private art galleries and museums opening up everywhere. Visionary teachers like Subramanyan and Chaudhry at the art school of Baroda contributed to a flow of fresh talent entering the scene and artists began to travel abroad for further studies like Vivan Sundaram, Ghulam Muhammad Sheikh, Anjolie Ela Menon, Anupam Sud etc. They travelled between the leading artistic centers of Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta and also began to display their works in the Western Capitals successfully.

In 1950, the Indian government established the Indian Council for Cultural Relations for cultural exchanges with the rest of the world. The National Gallery of Modern Art was created in 1954 at the Maharajah of Jaipur’s palatial Lutyens-style mansion in Delhi. The same year, under the watchful eye of a committee of nine artists including Bose, Chaudhry and N.S. Bendre (1910–92), a national academy of art, the Lalit Kala Akademi, was set up. Exhibitions were regularly held in its spacious galleries together with a prestigious annual national exhibition and the Delhi Triennale.