The Art of Nandalal Bose survey at the San Diego Museum of Art

Written by Kal Raustiala Monday, 06 September 2010 22:42

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Museum of Art has organized the first comprehensive traveling exhibition outside of Asia to survey the expansive repertoire of Nandalal Bose (1882–1966), the father of modern art in India. Running from February 23 through May 18, 2008, Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (1882–1966) features close to 100 of Bose’s finest paintings, which are executed in a variety of styles and media. Rhythms of India also reveals how Bose contributed to the success of India’s non-violent struggle for independence from colonial rule through his close association with Mahatma Gandhi.

Kicking off an international tour, SDMA’s opening of Rhythms of India will mark the 60th anniversary of independence in India and the death of Gandhi, who was assassinated on January 30, 1948.

Organized through an unprecedented collaboration with the government of India and the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi, this groundbreaking exhibition explores the crucial period of India’s transition from a British colony to an independent nation through the lens of the country’s premier artist of the time. The exhibition also marks the first time that a survey of Bose’s work has been permitted to leave Asia. With examples from its Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, the NGMA, and public and private collections, SDMA will present works of Bose that reveal the way he contributed to the development of a new Indian art form and laid the foundation for modern visual culture in independent India.

“Working closely with the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, and the Indian Cultural Ministry has been a high privilege for this museum,” says Derrick R. Cartwright, SDMA’s executive director. “Nandalal Bose was a seminal figure in Indian art history, and his paintings, drawings, and murals will engage visitors with their refinement and pure aesthetic power. Furthermore, Rhythms of India celebrates SDMA’s emergence as a primary source of Indian art scholarship in the United States.”

Born in Bihar, India, in 1882, Nandalal Bose spent most of his life in Bengal as a pan-Asian artist and teacher. At the beginning of his career in 1905, Bose was one of many artists and visionaries who sought to revive the spirituality and cultural authenticity of Indian art after 50 years of colonial rule and westernization. In 1919, Bose became the first director of the art school at the new university founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in rural Bengal. Here, traditional Indian teaching methods were favored over British-style education.
 
For the following three decades, Bose began to experiment with a variety of indigenous Indian, Japanese, and Chinese techniques. His work consisted more of scenes of nature and tribal and village life, as well as devotional subjects. It was his portrayal of village India without dependence on Western materials or styles that captured the attention of Gandhi and catapulted Bose to the status of national icon as the only artist Gandhi patronized. Although Bose’s art was not inherently political, Gandhi used his images of a more traditional India to represent his non-violent peace movement.

After his retirement in 1951, Bose’s work became more private and meditative. A deeply spiritual strain runs through his work that makes it unmistakably Indian and not derivative from western models of modern art. It is because he so successfully revived India’s cultural past and advocated the need for the Indian people to sink their roots in it that his work is hailed as the foundation for modern Indian art.

Rhythms of India will be accompanied by a catalogue, comprised of scholarly essays and reproductions of all the works in the exhibition, including stunning epic tableaux built for the maharajas of Baroda that will be published for the first time.

With more than 1,400 pieces, SDMA’s Edwin Binney 3rd Collection is renowned worldwide as one of the largest and most important concentrations of South Asian painting outside of India. Works from the collection were recently featured in SDMA’s major exhibition Domains of Wonder: Selected Masterworks of Indian Painting (October 22, 2005–January 22, 2006), which showcased paintings from the 14^th to 19^th century. Rhythms of India picks up where Domains of Wonder left off, beginning with artwork from the 1820s. Domains of Wonder is currently on view at the Dallas Museum of Art through January 27, 2008.

Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (1882–1966) is organized by the San Diego Museum of Art in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. The exhibition is made possible by the generosity of Roohi and Rajiv Savara, the Savara Art Foundation, Priya and Mukesh Assomull, the Arts and Culture Fund of The San Diego Foundation, and Gayatri and C. K. Prahalad.

Additional support is provided by Dr. and Mrs. V.S. Ramachandran, Lucy and James Haugh, the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program, and members of the San Diego Museum of Art.

The San Diego Museum of Art provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for more than 400,000 annual visitors. Located in the heart of beautiful Balboa Park, the Museum’s nationally renowned collections include Spanish and Italian old masters, South Asian paintings, and 19^th- and 20^th-century American paintings and sculptures. In addition, the Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as an extensive year-round schedule of supporting cultural and educational programs.  Web site: www.sdmart.org

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