
Of Spaces of their Own : Women Artists in 20th Century India
December 9 - January 11, 2025 at Akar Prakar, Kolkata
As the title suggests, the exhibition tries to bring together women artists across India with their diverse practices spanning the 20th.century: early to late mid-twentieth century.
It speaks about how they held and made spaces of their own. To chart out this journey one can start with the beginning of modernism in the early twentieth century during the pre-independence period. With the Swadeshi movement as a context, one sees the arrival of the women’s question which also created spaces of visibility for the women art practitioners. The informal educational spaces of antahpur or the grihavidyalayas became spaces of utmost importance which opened up the public domain for the women art practitioners, most of the early women artists began their journey within these domestic folds. Later, there was a shift to a more institutionalised space of the university education in Kala-Bhavana which from its very inception was inclusive of female students. Artist personas like Amrita Sher-Gil arrive at the scene with aesthetics that address the East-West dilemma. She creates spaces of her own interpretations of indigenism and Western modernism.
Gradually it is seen how the women are coming under these educational systems and becoming self-reliant professionals engaged with design institutes and educational centres. With the gradual development of art educational institutions, their inclusivity and women’s political involvement one sees more of them joining and participating in the art movements all over India like; the Calcutta Group, the Progressive Artists’ Group in Bombay and the Madras art movement. At the juncture of the pre- and post-independence one sees the ideas of the progressive movements coming to the fore; opening up spaces of elective affinities towards Western modernism. There were emigree artists and writers who brought in a new language of cultural exchange. Women artists also received scholarships and went abroad to receive further education which enhanced their art conceptions and enriched the contemporary practices.
The show includes pre- and post-independence period women artists of different time frames ranging from the early twentieth century to that of the sixties though their practices often extend beyond this timeline. There are ruptures in the artists’ list, it’s not complete but open, it tries to tell the many stories of these artists which were not told in an exhibition space and some of them are retold so that the colleagues of early years may converse with their sisters in the future.
~ Aparna Roy Baliga
Amrita Sher-Gil | Untitled 1 (Double-Sided) | Mixed Media | 13.25 x 9.75 in | 1927
Amrita Sher-Gil | Untitled 2 | Watercolor on Paper | 10.5 x 12.5 in | 1924
Amrita Sher-Gil | Untitled 5 | Charcoal on Paper | 14.25 x 10.75 in
Ambika Dhurandhar | Untitled | Oil on Paper | 25.7 x 15.5 in
Sunayani Devi | Untitled | Watercolour on Paper | 5.75 x 8.75 in
Sunayani Devi | Untitled | Watercolour on Paper | 8.75 x 7.75 in
Sunayani Devi | Untitled | Watercolor on Paper | 7.5 x 5.5 in
Sunayani Devi | Untitled | Watercolour on Paper | 8 x 6.5 in
Nasreen Mohamedi | Untitled | Ink on Paper | 25.4 x 25.4 in
Kiran Barua | Untitled | Linocut | 4.5 x 4.75 in
Kiran Barua | Monkeys | Linocut | 7 x 4.25 in
Gouri Bhanja | Untitled | Tempera | 13 x 8.75 in
Kamla Das Gupta | Untitled | Bronze | 11 x 7 x 9 in
Meera Mukherjee | Krishna | Watercolour on paper | 9.5 x 13.5 in
Meera Mukherjee | Bus | Bronze | 9.5 x 8.5 x 8.5 in
Gauri Bhanja | Untitled | Tempera | 26.5 x 15.25 in | 1955
Devyani Krishna | Mahakala | Gouache on Handmade Paper | 29.5 x 20.75 in
Ira Choudhury | Untitled (Set of 6) | Ceramic | 4.25 x 3.75 x 3.75 in each
Zarina Hashmi | By the Mango Tree 18/25 | Woodcut on Paper | 13 x 10.5 in | 1988
Zarina Hashmi | Untitled 1_20 | Woodcut and Letterpress Print on Kozo Paper | 20.75 x 20.75 in
Reba Hore | Untitled | Mixed Media on paper | 17.25 x 13 in
Reba Hore | Untitled | Mixed Media on paper | 17.5 x 13 in
B Prabha | Untitled | Oil on canvas | 14.75 x 22.5 in