MODERN INDIAN SCULPTORS

Ramkinker Baij D.P. Roy Chowdhury

Chintamonikar Somnath hore
Sankho Choudhuri, Sadanand Bakre
Dhanraj Bhagat, Satish Gujral ,
Nagji patel Himmat shah
Mrinalini Mukherji Raghave Kaneria
….and many more sculptors were full of energy and ready to face all odds of the
nation as well as the world. It came as a movement in the 1940s and 50s.
• From the early eras, sculptures were mainly used as a form of
religious art to illustrate the principles of Hinduism, Buddhism, or
Jainism.
• This plastic art is best suited for architectural projects for providing
both narrative and decorative functions to the structure.
• These narrative reliefs are almost similar round the world projecting
an extended narration to the architectural projects.
Modern Sculptures
• The beginning of modernism in Indian sculpture can be traced to its
adaptation of western academic art traditions in the early 20th
century.
• Sculptors who trained in the academic realist style at British art
schools worked on secular subjects in a departure from ancient and
medieval Indian norms, where myths and deities formed the major
themes.
• Sculptures were now created to cater to the demands of the newly
emerging upper and middle social classes.
• The innovation of Indian sculptors can be seen in the intense and
exaggerated realism during this period.
The next phase of sculptural development is represented by artists such as
• D.P Roy Chowdhury, Fanindranath Bose and V. P. Karmarkar who were
influenced by the dignified and monumental works of the French sculptor
Rodin.
• It was only in the 1940’s and 1950’s that Indian modern sculptors developed
a unique indigenous language. Ram Kinker Baij looked afresh at both
western and traditional Indian norms, amalgamating them in a modern
context.
• In a distinctive style, he experimented with unconventional material such as
concrete, gravel and cement, looking to the rural landscape and tribal
communities for subjects.
• The 1950’s were marked by experimentations with wood and stone, in
which the essential character of the solid block was retained.
• The sculptors celebrated the spirit of humanism and their work was
also infused with a sense of the spiritual, that is reminiscent of classical
sculptural styles.
• The search for pure form induced by European aesthetics added a new
and interesting dimension.
• Experiments with unusual material, sometimes in combination with
traditional material, had intriguing results.
Apart from the classical traditions, folk and tribal sources had a
profound effect on the artistic imagination.

The NGMA’s sculpture collection is amongst the richest in the country and narrate the
story of the history of modern sculptures in India in a holistic way.
Santhal Family, 1938. Ram Kinker Baij
Widely considered to be the first public Modernist
sculpture in India. Depicts a mother, father, child and dog
from the Santhal tribe, carrying their few possessions with
them to a new life. Larger than life sculpture. Use of
cement and laterite mortar to model the figures.

"GANDHI, DANDI MARCH".

Untitled (Dandi March - II), 1948
Medium: bronze
• Ramkinkar Baij (1906-1980)
• He brought in the turning point in the 1940s and 1950s.
• He looked afresh at both western and traditional Indian norms,
and mixed them up in modern context.
• He experimented with unconventional material such as
concrete, gravel and cement.
• The rural landscape and tribal communities were his subjects.
• In the decades to come, sculptors utilized a variety of
techniques to create new relationships between material,
theme and form.
• The sculptors celebrated the spirit of humanism and their work
was also infused with a sense of the spiritual that is reminiscent
of classical sculptural styles.
D. P. ROY CHOUDHURY
He is known for large size outdoor
sculptures, such as Triumph of
Labour, and the statue of Mahatma
Gandhi, both at Marina Beach,
Chennai, Martyrs’ Memorial in
Patna, When Winter
Comes and Victims of Hunger, both
bronze statues, Dandi March statue
in Delhi and The Temple Entry
Proclamation by Chithira Thirunal
Balarama
Varma at Thiruvananthapuram.
An Inmate of Harem, Ras Leela, A
Dramatic Pose of a Man in a Large
Cloak and Hat and The Tribune are
some of his notable paintings.

D.P Roy Chowdhury, Fanindranath Bose and V. P. Karmarkar were the prominent artists of
this phase of intense and exaggerated realism in Indian sculpture.
Deviprasad Roychowdhury (1899-
1975)
Devi Prasad was quite a maverick
and unorthodox in approach.
The landmark Gyarah Murti statue
gives a sense of motion, purpose,
inherent determination and
urgency– characteristic of the
Dandi March. It is quite strange
that there is virtually no published
material available on Gyarah
Murti.

We at Probashi could glean pieces of information through discussions with people whom we thought might
know about the artwork. Of the eleven figures depicted, one is obviously Mahatma Gandhi, leading the pack.
The two ladies in the statue are modelled on Matangini Hazra and Sarojini Naidu. One of the male figures was
identified to be modelled on Brahmabandhab Upadhyay, freedom fighter and thinker. The fourth figure is
Abbas Tyabji who was second in command of the Dandi march. Deviprasad expired before the sculpture could
be completed and his wife and students completed the statue.
The question on who decided to have the Gyarah Murti on the Rs.500 currency note is difficult to answer.
Somnath Hore-
An exact traumatic encounters get maps in his
sculptures, his life-long involvement in painting, drawing
printmaking in different media and sculpting is the most
expressive objectification of the essence of wounded
humanity of the Bengal famine and the war.

Mother and child

 Shankho Choudhary

Untitilled, wood, 1956 Duck, 1955 Nude, Bronze

Sankho Chaudhuri was an Indian sculptor, a
noted figure in the art scene of India. 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.
“It is the playfulness while exploring the
possibilities of one given medium that fascinates
me. But enjoyment or reactions to a given medium
or style can never be static, or else it would soon
turn the artist into a fossil.”

Born in 1916 in Bihar, Chaudhuri is considered one

of the stalwarts of Modern Indian sculpture, whose
work is significant in the evolution of Indian
The Cock
sculpture away from the academic style.
“Material is not only a means, but a whole process”
Sadanand Bakre
Bombay, Progressive Artist Group
Sadanand Bankre.
Dhanraj Bhagat

His style reflects a unique blend of Indian heritage and

Western artistic traditions, across materials such as
wood, metal, terracotta, paper pulp, stone, and fibre
glass. In his later years, despite the effects of old age, he
continued to produce works of art but switched to
drawings and paintings.
Titles of the exhibited pieces include Spirit of Work, Cry,
Mahakala, Musician, Dual Personality, Cosmic Energy,
Shiva Dance, Burden, Family Horse, and Musical
Construction, and reflect themes ranging from the
romantic to the geometric.
Dhanraj Bhagat
Dhanraj Bhagat
Dhanraj Bhagat
Chintamoni Kar
Born, 1915 in Kharagpur, West Bengal, Died 2005.
Received his training at the Indian Society of Oriental Art.
Kar moved to Paris in 1938 where he studied at
the Académie de la Grande Chaumière before moving back
to India.
Kar sculpted with a variety a materials including wood,
terracotta, stone, and metal. He was initially trained in an
academic and representational style but also produced
work of a more abstract natur.

Chintamoni Kar was a globally recognized Indian sculptor,

who created sculpture with the aide of various materials
like terracotta, metal, stone and wood. He is honoured with
an Olympic silver medal which was offered to him on behalf
of Britain. Indian and French governments offered him Nayika, 1993
civilian awards to appreciate his works of sculpture. Bronze
 Chintamoni Kar

Untitled, Circa. 1993 Untitled, Circa. 1993

Medium: Wood Medium: Wood
 Himmat Shah at work.

Untitled, Bronze
Height: 19 in (48 cm)
Width: 6.5 in (16.8 cm)
Depth: 8 in (20.6 cm
Himmat Shah. Born, 1933. Gujarat
As a young boy, studied at Gharshala, a school for the intellectual and cultural centre of the nationalist renaissance in
Gujarat.
joined the J J School of Art in Bombay, and then moved on to Baroda for futher studies from 1956 to 1960.
At Baroda Himmat Shah learnt avidly from N.S. Bendre in whom he saw the image of a modern artist, and from K.G.
Subramanyan whose quest for language and appraisal of folk art stimulated him.
Himmat Shah was a member of Group 1890. Himmat Shah then received a French Government scholarship in 1967,
where he learnt etching.

On his return, from 1967 to 1971, Himmat Shah designed and executed monumental murals in brick, cement and
concrete, then, he started working on relief in plaster in a series called silver paintings and soon sculptures – in
terracotta as well as bronze. His best known work remains the heads in terracotta and bronze.

Some of his quotes on his works and philosophy.

“Human being is an enigma, and what he creates should also be all enigma. Mystery should be everywhere - like the
bird that slowly spreads its wings, revealing hidden colours as it does so ¬¬ especially so in art forms.”
"Once I began the search, I kept learning. Today also, I feel that so long as one keeps searching, one lives. The moment
one stops searching, one ceases to grow and that stage is what I call death."

"Creativity cannot be taught; it is not a skill that can be cultivated. Art appreciation cannot be taught. It is something
that emerges from within the self. And I use the word self in a metaphysical sense which is a sum total of experiences—
personal, historical and cultural."
Sudarshan Pattnaik
(born 1977)
is an Indian sand
artist from Odisha.
Awarded the Padma
Shri by Government of
India in 2014. He is the
pioneer of sand art in
the country and has
mastered it without
any formal guidance or
training. On the occasion of Govardhan Puja, at a beach in Puri.

Innumerable works of sand sculpture have been produced by him since he

was seven years of age.
He is always ready with an idea Sudarshan Pattnaik
to create a sand sculpture for
any happening or political or
social incident. Here is an
awareness come thought
provoking work on AIDS.
Many national and global
awards have been awarded to
Sudarshan Pattnaik to admire
his innovative sand sculpture.
He holds the World record for
building the tallest Santa Claus
sand sculpture in the world. He
also won the People's Choice
Prize at the Moscow
International Sand Sculpture
Championship which was
conducted in Russia.
Meera Mukherjee (1923–1998) was an
Indian sculptor[1] and writer, known for
bringing modernity to the ancient Bengali
sculpting art.[2] She is known to have used
innovative bronze casting techniques,
improving the Dhokra method
employing Lost-wax casting, which she learnt
during her training days of
the Bastar sculpting tradition of Chhattisgarh.
Mrinalini Mukherji
Satish Gujral
• In the initial stages of his career, his work was heavily influenced by the
suffering of people who lost their homes and families because of the
partition of the country. Slowly, Satish started diversifying his sculptural
materials with machined industrialized objects made up of steel,
copper, glass, etc., and even gave life to sculptures by using junk
materials.
• He started making large murals, mostly in mosaic and ceramic tiles.
Later, machined steel elements overtook the tiles. Satish Gujral's
sculptures, made out of burnt wood, come across as visceral exposure
of human and other forms.
• He left for Mexico in the year 1952 after he was granted a scholarship
from the Mexican embassy. He served his apprenticeship under well-
known artists Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Satish Gujral
• While creating a sculpture, Gujral does not begin with an idea. He lets his
feeling convert itself into form. Form is not guided; it grows out of a
feeling. He elucidates, “If an idea comes before form then it is as unlikely
as an arrow that reaches its target before its sound.
• This is one of the reasons that the artist does not give any title to his
forms, he wants to allow the beholder to find own form in the
sculptures. He is convinced that art should liberate and not enslave
either the artist or viewer.
• His recent sculptures can only be termed monumental, rising up to
twelve feet and yet their towering verticality has a lightness of being,
reaching out towards the spiritual, the divine. I
• n this series he has melded man and machine into a unified energy
matrix.
Satish Gujral (1925- )
A flawless artist for whom painting, sculpture and
architecture are equal manifestations of a single aesthetic.
It is no wonder then that sculptures have played such a
significant role in his artistic growth. His sculptures have
synthesized movement of life and industry with the
stillness of the soul, the darkness of dense material with
the luminosity of enlightenment, of playfulness of an artist
with the wisdom of the experienced sage.
His recent sculptures can only be termed monumental,
rising up to twelve feet and yet their towering verticality
has a lightness of being, reaching out towards the spiritual,
the divine. In this series he has melded man and machine
into a unified energy matrix; the mechanical and biological
confront and complement each other. The artist remarks
that these made forms make him feel “more akin to the
present age.” ‘Tree of Life’
‘Cooking the World’ By Subodh Gupta.
To most, pots and pans are only functional as cooking utensils and nothing
more.
Indian artist Subodh Gupta has collected more than 3,000, aluminium plates,
cups, pails and pots to create an enormous monochromatic sphere that
hangs in the Rotunda of the National Museum of Singapore.
Inscribed in the dents and soot encrusting the rims and undersides of each
worn-out utensil are personal histories of people marginalised by life and
history.
Gupta has channelled India’s wide poverty gap into his artwork – the 6-metre
tall monochromatic galaxy of pots and pans refers to the differences
between the parallel realities of our societies, where excessive opulence/
wealth exists alongside widespread deprivation.
 The Universe Inside Us –
“Cooking the World”
by Subodh Gupta
To most, pots and pans are only
functional as cooking utensils and
nothing more. However, for this
year’s Biennale, Indian artist Subodh
Gupta has collected more than
3,000 aluminium plates, cups, pails
and pots to create an enormous
monochromatic sphere that hangs
in the Rotunda of the National
Museum of Singapore.
Inspired by everyday realities he’s Sujata by Ram Kinkerbaij Inscribed in the dents and soot
observed, Gupta has channelled India’s wide poverty gap into his encrusting the rims and undersides
artwork – the the 6-metre tall monochromatic galaxy of pots and of each worn-out utensil are
pans refers to the differences between the parallel realities of our personal histories of people
societies, where excessive opulence/ wealth exists alongside
widespread deprivation.
marginalised by life and history.
The economy of art is viewed with suspicion, in a country where most still struggle with
the basic necessities of survival... The moon does look like a big pizza pie to most of India. Subodh Gupta, Full moon,
Well, more a chapatti. Speaking about his monochrome painting depicting empty plates of 2011 Oil on canvas.
leftover food is his Full moon’ painting, 2011.
Installation view ‘Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009’, Tate Britain, London
Subodh Gupta
Line of Control,
2008 Stainless steel and steel structure.
Gupta translates accoutrements of daily use into
sculpture. He says, “it is a paradox that most Indian
utensils made of aluminium are shiny and bright.
When 90% of the population use this for food -
there is some irony to the shininess of the object,
and its emptiness - because some of the plates go
without food too. Many layers come together to
make my story.”
Gupta is a son of a railway guard from the once
impoverished Indian state of Bihar, where he
struggled to make good.
 Environmental sculptures at
The Garden of five senses

Children meditating
Bell Tree
Thankyou!