Artistic legacy of obscure Indian modernists

Hyderabad: The history of Modern Indian Art is etched with celebrated oeuvres of several famous artists who received tremendous recognition on a global scale. However, the discourse also bears the names of many artists whose memories have been blurred in mass consciousness due to the rarity of their works and lack of recorded history.

One of these was the master portraitist from Goa, António Xavier Trindade. He created striking compositions with the use of layered, multiple glazes of colour that rendered an almost life-like texture to his canvas. There exists a harmony of hues in his oil paintings that has led people to dub him as ‘Rembrandt of the East.’

A revered artist of the Bengal School, Hemendranath Mazumdar created extraordinary portraits depicting the sensuous beauty of the female form. Trained in the academic style of painting, Mazumdar’s paintings combined the elements of Western Classicism with the Indian tradition and completely changed the way women were depicted in Indian art.

A pioneer in the male-dominated world of Indian art, Pilloo Pochkhanawala rendered her sculptures with a rhythmic smoothness. She had a distinct mastery over form and strategically used negative space to explore the boundaries between time, space, and nature.

A celebrated Sikh artist of his time, Sobha Singh started painting in his early youth without the guidance of any master. The artist was inspired by the teachings of the Sikh Gurus and they became the principal theme of his paintings. Creating works spanning genres like landscapes, love legends, and portraits of prophets, saints and national heroes, Sobha Singh dedicated his life to art.

A master landscapist, Prahlad Anant Dhond was one of the most remarkable watercolour artists India has ever seen. The surrounding landscape of his birthplace town of Ratnagiri had the most formative influence on him in his early life. Dhond’s landscapes emanate an essence of intimacy and longing. He depicted nature in its varying moods through the soft and transparent use of watercolours as a medium.