Arts November 16, 2009

Gandharan art

Gandhāra is noted for the distinctive Gandhāra style of Buddhist art, which developed out of a merger of Greek, Syrian, Persian, and Indian artistic influence. This development began during the Parthian Period (50 BC – AD 75). Gandhāran style flourished and achieved its peak during the Kushan period, from the 1st to the 5th century. It declined and suffered destruction after invasion of the White Huns in the 5th century.

Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 1000 years in Central Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, and the Islamic conquests of the 7th century CE. Greco-Buddhist art is characterized by the strong idealistic realism of Hellenistic art and the first representations of the Buddha in human form, which have helped define the artistic (and particularly, sculptural) canon for Buddhist art throughout the Asian continent up to the present. It is also a strong example of cultural syncretism between eastern and western traditions.

Contemporary Art October 25, 2009

Contemporary Art

With the strengthening of the British control in India, creative Indian art suffered a setback. The English engaged Indian artists to paint landscapes in water and oil colour, resulting in loss of originality. Soon the political wave hit the country and what came about was the famous Bengal (revivalist) School. The pioneers of this school were ace painters like Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore and Nandlal Bose. They contributed a lot in re-shaping the Indian art and motivating others for the same. Abanindranath specialised in portraiture, Gaganendranath in cartoonist-critic of social and political mishappenings of that time and Nandlal was an expert in painting epic themes and later graduated to explore Asian art. However, nationalism witnessed some of the painters move towards folklore. Rabindranath Tagore (Nobel Prize winner) gave a charter for free variations on naturalism, abstraction and expressionism. Today, India has a host of world famous painters like Jamini Roy (discovered the virility of the folk tradition and modulated it in many ways), Amrita Sher-Gill (integrated the pictorial idiom of the west and an Indian vision), Binod Mukherjee and Ram Kinkar. New genres of painters who have invaded the old space are M.F Hussain, Krishnan Khanna and Satish Gujral.

Source : India Portal