New Delhi, December 5, 2013: Oxford Bookstore Connaught Place, in association with Delhi Art Gallery, organised a discussion on The Art of Portraiture, based on the book ‘Indian Portraits: The Face of a People’, by Kishore Singh, on 5th December 2013. Mr. Singh enunciated his views amidst an illustrious gathering of artists and art aficionados. The event also displayed some select and engaging portraits from Delhi Art Gallery’s rich and extensive collection.
The art of modern portraiture came to India three centuries ago as part of a new, unexplored tradition brought in by colonial artists from Europe. Indian art till then had tended to depict attributes of godliness and kingship rather than particularities by way of portraits. The change was led by eighteenth century European artists who came in search of sitters and commissions for portraits in Madras and Calcutta, and later in Bombay, who were increasingly drawn to paint the princes. Soon, artists among royal ateliers began to experiment with the new medium of oil and canvas, and to emulate the work of the foreign artists while experimenting with chiaroscuro and perspective. While artists like Raja Ravi Varma were entirely self-taught, soon after, Indian artists like M. V. Dhurandhar, N. R. Sardesai, Pestonji Bomanji, M. F. Pithawalla and J. P. Gangooly trained in the art schools became celebrated portraitists. Photography also came to influence painted portraits, and painted photographs too were a rage. Portraits were painted by Amrita Sher-Gil as well as Jamini Roy, among other early modernists, and among the Bombay Progressives M. F. Husain and F. N. Souza proved most adept at it.
Delhi Art Gallery recently hosted an iconic exhibition of these magnificent portraits that trace the journey of the style of portraiture making across the centuries. Indian Portraits documents two-hundred-and-fifty-years of Indian portraiture with over 400 works by about 150 artists. The book records the Indian elite, the royal families, the women of India, mostly just courtesans, saints and sinners, national leaders and historical figures, as well as members of the artists’ intimate circle of friends and family. While the book documents all major artists who are known for painting or making sculptures in the form of portraits, it also includes several artists whose capability is only too obvious but who have remained unknown in the pantheon of Indian art. The book recognizes the contribution of these artists to portrait making and the rise of modernism in the country.
About Oxford Bookstores
Established in 1919 Oxford Bookstore is the best equipped ‘base-camp’ for journeys of the mind offering its customers the widest range of outstanding titles and consistently courteous and informed service for close to a century. Today, with more than 30 stores in India, India’s first dedicated Children’s bookstore, Oxford Junior, India’s first of its kind tea boutique, Cha Bar, India’s only literary festival created by a bookstore, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, Oxford Bookstore offers booklovers access to the very best in publishing enhanced by a variety of events which salute books, visual & performing arts and celebrate the word. Oxford Bookstore measures its success by the smiles on millions of happy customers that the brand has served over the last 9 decades. There are a few treats as sumptuous as a visit to Oxford Bookstore in India. Each time you walk into our iconic store in Calcutta where the brand started in 1919, its charm leaves you wanting for more. Our fleet of 200 happy to help expert booksellers and informed hosts work day and night to bring to customers world class reading experience be it through our books or our fine teas and live by the brand’s motto – Much more than a bookstore – at every Bookstore, be it Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Shillong, Silliguri, Guwahati or Goa. In December 2012 Oxford Bookstore took a chapter from its growth story in India by launching, Katakali, its first overseas bookstore in the luxurious Taj Palace Hotel at the foothills of the Atlas Mountains in the exclusive palm-filled oasis of the Palmeraie, Marakkech. In April 2013, with the opening of its most architecturally crafted retail store in a stunning new destination in Delhi’s historic centre, Connaught Place, Oxford Bookstore carved out yet another incredible space for quiet browsing, reading and contemplation. Its growth story continues…For more information, please also log on to: www.oxfordbookstore.com
About Delhi Art Gallery
Delhi Art Gallery was established in 1993, and has since grown to become a premier institution of art. It boasts of a distinctive and extensive collection of early-modern as well as modern and contemporary art, ranging from names such as Rabindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose to F. N. Souza, M. F. Husain and S. H. Raza, from Avinash Chandra and G. R. Santosh to Sohan Qadri and Gogi Saroj Pal, from Chittaprosad to Haren Das, among the over 400 artists in its inventory. Delhi Art Gallery has become distinguished for its focus on 20th century Indian art.