Indian Contemporary Art : What is it ?

Post-modernism flirted , without gravitas , with the notion to become an appendage by extention to Modernism . No such luck. In the melee free for all certain timeline had to be inserted . Bingo ! Postwar the 2nd , as if the end of an insane war amongst mostly Europeans and British Isles would also be the end of Modernism . Thus a nomenclature , never thought of at any time in Art History was acceptable to the Art fraternity , christened with much aplomb and little controversy was born Contemporary Art.

How would one if asked place the India Contemporary Art in context to the Post-War Westren Art. Very easy to say , its Post- Independence , Post Colonial ,etc ; but not quite . From 1948 until 1995 Indian Artists pursued Modernist mannerist art. Without exception Indian content was suffused within Westren Modernist formalism. Often visually remarkably stunning but lacking sorely in innovation. But there were exceptions ; Jamini Roy , VS Gaitonde and J. Swaminathan . The modernist impulse in their work is derived from local aesthetic tradition . Nandlal Bose and his hand picked student Ramkinkar Baij ; one in painting the latter in sculpture , both sustained Indian Modernism to its inherently rootedness in the history , continuity admired and cherished albeit in formal progression of artistic expression .