In India, the genre of landscape painting is multitudinous in style, subject and theme, ranging from the realistic to the stylised; from the tranquil to the violent; from the vibrant to the stationary. In many of these works, humans formed an integral part of the landscape, either serving to heighten a sense of awe one might feel for natural forms, or for political purposes, such as uprooting colonial influences. Here we look at the significance of landscape painting in India in the context of its social and political role, and how it has influenced present-day art.
Read MoreLandscape painting encapsulates a history of a hundred millennia. The Bhimbetka cave paintings are replete with hunting and war scenes: highly stylised warriors, horses, hunters and cattle adorn their walls. Jumping forward to the glorious ages of miniature painting, elaborate court scenes of kings and princesses against beautifully manicured gardens defined the tradition of many Mughal and Rajput paintings. From the time of the cave paintings which outlined rudimentary documentations of everyday Paleolithic life, to the miniaturists’ sophisticated renderings of the opulence of the royalty, humans remained an integral part of these paintings.
It wasn’t uncommon to see figures populate many folk paintings, such as those by the Warlis or the Santhals. Religious paintings, such as Rajasthani pichwai paintings—ornate cloth paintings used as backdrops in Srinathji and Krishna temples—depicted festive scenes and deities in villages or forests, with birds and animals. These augmented spiritual feelings; landscapes not only simulated a setting for worshippers to connect with, but romanticised the notion of Gods perpetually surrounded by beauty.
When academic painting entered the picture in the 18th and 19th centuries, the focus turned to natural forms and architecture. Landscape artists adopted a realistic approach of documenting landscapes under the influence of the British. Not merely pretty pictures bearing a photographic quality, they “served as emblematic systems of knowledge-gathering of the colony, and the ideological function of presenting these geographical conquests for metropolitan consumption” (‘Indian Landscapes: The Changing Horizon’, Delhi Art Gallery, pg. 9). To achieve a semblance of reality, many local artists began travelling and copying from nature, instead of working in a studio.
During this time, the indigenous arts were almost entirely neglected. Miniature artists who wished to retain their jobs had to adapt their skills to a growing demand for academic-style paintings. The resulting works carried some of the flatness of perspective, with tints and shades realistically rendered — a feat made possible due to the growing popularity of oil paints. While figures were practically obliterated from this space, kings in princely states often commissioned artists to paint battlefields. These artists often combined “the conventions of local styles and religious iconography with the new syntax of the topographical and picturesque” (‘Ibid.’, pg.16).
The arrival of the 20th century brought in varying techniques that were reactionary to the dominant styles. Artists such as Nandalal Bose, Abanindranath and Gaganendranath Tagore of the revivalist Bengal School brought in an Orientalist approach, using the Japanese wash technique to portray picturesque landscapes, shunning the academic approach in the process, while artists like Ramikinkar Baij created landscapes with an expressionistic twist.
Following independence, a new wave of modernists sought to balance their visions of India with a modern idiom. S. H. Raza never painted figures: he began with realistic paintings of landscapes, turning to gestural renderings of the French countryside in the 1950s and ‘60s, before moving on to geometric abstracts by the ‘70s. F. N. Souza’s landscapes, on the other hand, were jarring and angry, with thick, black lines enclosing his structures against sombre colour palettes. For some, spirituality and landscape painting went hand-in-hand. Ram Kumar, who turned from figurative to abstract landscapes in the 1960s, frequently depicted the holy city of Banaras through large swatches of colour, evoking its spirituality through layers of paint. Manu Parekh’s canvases were populated with Banarasi shrines and ghats against twilight skies, with a subdued glow emerging from the temples.
StoryLTD’s collection of landscape paintings situates the rich history of this genre in the present day. Picturesque, everyday scenes offer an ode to the academic style of painting, while those of temples and ghats echo India’s inseparability with the spiritual. Abstracts merge with the real, carrying forward the legacy of the modernists’ vision of a new India. The collection is a concise space to buy beautiful landscape paintings that explore and experiment with various techniques, palettes, textures and themes.
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