Nandalal Bose was one of the pioneers of modern Indian art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism.
The Inner Eye is a 1972 short documentary film made by Satyajit Ray on Benode Behari Mukherjee, a blind artist and a teacher from Visva-Bharati University, a university founded by Rabindranath Tagore at Santiniketan. The twenty minutes documentary features the life and works of Mukherjee in the form of paintings and photographs, starring himself. The documentary covers his journey from childhood till his blindness along with much of his works and features his words, "Blindness is a new feeling, a new experience, a new state of being". The documentary was awarded as Best Information Film (Documentary) at 20th National Film Awards in 1972.
Achutan Ramachandran Nair was an Indian painter. He was born in Attingal, Kerala. In 2002, he was elected a Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi and in 2005, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, for outstanding service to the nation. In 2013, he was conferred with an honorary doctorate by Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala.
Ramkinkar Baij was an Indian sculptor and painter, one of the pioneers of modern Indian sculpture and a key figure of Contextual Modernism.
Sankho Chaudhuri was an Indian sculptor, and a noted figure in the art scene of India. (Although named Naranarain in due family tradition, he was more widely known by his pet name Sankho). Ram Kinker Baij was his teacher. He began close to cubism and then was influenced by István Beöthy, whom he had met in Paris. His themes have included the female figure and wildlife. He has worked in a wide range of media and produced large-scale reliefs and mobiles.
Kalpathi Ganpathi "K.G." Subramanyan was an Indian artist. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2012.
Beohar Rammanohar Sinha was an Indian artist who is very well known for his illustrations in the original final manuscript of Constitution of India, including the complete Preamble-page, which was brought to fruition in 1949 as one of the most beautiful Constitutions in the world in addition to being the most comprehensive one. He is also known as a cultural ambassador of India who disseminated Indian art in the Far East, and brought Oriental Art to India. His works are housed in numerous prestigious public and private collections throughout the world and his murals still adorn the walls and gigantic dome of Jabalpur's historic Shaheed-Smarak or Martyrs'-Memorial Auditorium even after more than half a century, though now demanding conservation.
The modern Indian art movement in Indian painting is considered to have begun in Calcutta in the late nineteenth century. The old traditions of painting had more or less died out in Bengal and new schools of art were started by the British. Initially, protagonists of Indian art such as Raja Ravi Varma drew on Western traditions and techniques including oil paint and easel painting. A reaction to the Western influence led to a revival in primitivism, called as the Bengal school of art, which drew from the rich cultural heritage of India. It was succeeded by the Santiniketan school, led by Rabindranath Tagore's harking back to idyllic rural folk and rural life. Despite its country-wide influence in the early years, the importance of the school declined by the 'forties' and now it is as good as dead.
Raman Siva Kumar, known as R. Siva Kumar, is an Indian contemporary art historian, art critic, and curator. His major research has been in the area of early Indian modernism with special focus on the Santiniketan School. He has written several important books, lectured widely on modern Indian art and contributed articles to prestigious international projects such as the Art Journal, Grove Art Online or The Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press.
Kala Bhavana is the fine arts faculty of Visva-Bharati University, in Shantiniketan, India. It is an institution of education and research in visual arts, founded in 1919, it was established by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
Siddharth Sivakumar is a curator, art critic, and writer. He is presently the Creative Director of a Kolkata-based gallery and archive space, Gallery Rasa. He is also the Curator & Director of the inaugural edition of Bengal Biennale, the largest arts festival of the region, that envisions itself as a cultural platform enriched by confluences, the meeting of history and the present, the tradition and the unorthodox, selfhood and community, home and the world. Siddharth's contribution to the art scene of Bengal and beyond has been significant with him organising and curating multiple impactful shows, including in his previous role as the Head of Visual Arts and Publication at the Kolkata-based multidisciplinary arts centre, Kolkata Centre for Creativity. He takes a keen interest in the matters of the art world and regularly writes for art magazines such as Art and Deal, ArtEast, and Art India. His articles on socio-cultural issues have appeared in National dailies including The Hindu Business Line, The Statesman, The Wire, and The Telegraph (India) among others.
Suresh K. Nair is an artist based in Banaras. Nair obtained his national diploma in mural painting from the Institute of Mural Painting Guruvayur, Kerala under the guidance of Mammiyur Krishnan Kuty Nair. He was inspired by the works of Rabindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinker Baij and continued his studies at the Department of Painting, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. Nair has acquired a presence in the Indian and international art scene over the last decade with several shows organized by regional and international galleries and museums, and created many murals in India and abroad. His early works are based on Kerala murals, both in terms of technique and ideas. One of his modern paintings, ‘Cosmic Butterfly" is owned by Essl Museum, Vienna, Austria since 2010. His works were exhibited in the US, Spain, and Canada, and his awards include the Elizabath Green Shield Foundation Scholarship (1999) of Canada; Fulbright Fellowship ( 2006–07) for an Educational Exchange Program at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia under Professor Nicholas Kripal; and the State Award of Kerala Lalithkala Akademi, Ministry of Culture, Government of Kerala.
Santiniketan: The Making of a Contextual Modernism was an exhibition curated by R. Siva Kumar at the National Gallery of Modern Art in 1997, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of India's Independence.
Mrinalini Mukherjee was an Indian sculptor. Known for her distinctly contemporary style and use of dyed and woven hemp fibre, an unconventional material for sculpting, she had a career lasting over four decades from the 1970s to the 2000s. Mukherjee's body of work is a part of public collections at, among others, the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Tate Modern, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. The artist's personal archive is digitised and freely accessible on Asia Art Archive's website.
The following is a list of notable people associated withVisva- Bharati University and/or Santiniketan, a neighbourhood in Bolpur city in West Bengal, India:
Tan Yun-Shan was a Chinese scholar and founder of Santiniketan's Cheena Bhavana, the oldest centre of Chinese studies in South Asia. He devoted his life to the cause of Sino-Indian cultural friendship.
Dinkar Kowshik (1918-2011) was an influential Indian painter and educator. As principal of Kala Bhavana at Santiniketan, he reshaped it for contemporary art practices.
Sangit Bhavana, of Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, started functioning as a part of Kala Bhavana in 1919 and as a separate institution in 1933. It was established by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
Jamuna Sen was an Indian artist, known for her design work in a variety of mediums including Batik and Alpona as well as developing, in an Indian context, a variety of traditional crafts from across the world. She was a pioneer in establishing the practice of Batik in India in modern times. Daughter of Nandalal Bose, a central figure in modern Indian art, she was brought up in the artistic and intellectual milieu of Santiniketan and made significant contributions in the field of design.
Leela Mukerji was an Indian artist; her artwork includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, printmaking and murals. Works by her are in the collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.
