Artists: Akbar Padamsee, F. N. Souza, Ganesh Pyne, Gogi Saroj Pal, Jogen Chowdhury, Krishen Khanna, Prabhakar Kolte, Rajendra Dhawan
The works, which primarily include still lifes, studies of forms and abstractions, range from the latter half of the 20th century to the early years of the 21st century, reflecting a post-Independence amalgamation of both decolonial affirmations as well as regional interpretations of Western influence on the South Asian artistic temperament. One of the cornerstones of Indian modernism – which later paved the way for the reception, infrastructure, politics and academia for the coming era of contemporaneity – is the urgency these artists experienced to develop a formulaic aestheticism that not only acknowledged, however conflictingly, centuries of colonial influence, but also sought to reconcile the landscapes, textures, cultures and politics of the Indian context through resolved oeuvres of personal expression.
The Glenbarra Art Museum was founded by Masanori Fukuoka in 1991 with the aim to introduce a broader Japanese audience to the work and practices of approximately sixty prominent 20th century Indian artists. Through this initiative, Masanori continues to foster an appreciation for Indian art beyond its own borders. Masanori first visited India in 1975, drawn to the country’s rich legacy as the heart of Buddhist history. He collected his first Indian artwork in 1990, and over the next fifteen years returned to India several times, maintaining a deeply personal impulse in his practice of collecting.