The Significance and Relevance of Early Modern Indian Painters to the Contemporary Indian Art, written in 1971, reevaluates the legacies of painting inherited by the artist Nilima Sheikh.
Drifting between two inadequate models, one an import of British Colonialism, and another desperate for an identification as "Indian", the artist engages with the works of Raja Ravi Varma, Abanindranath Tagore, Amrita Sher-Gil, Nandalal Bose, and Jamini Roy, as well as the critical and art historical writing surrounding these practices, to offer a revaluation of these legacies and a possible way forward—one that she would go on to articulate in her own decades-long engagement with painting.
Published here for the first time, The Significance and Relevance of Early Modern Indian Painters to the Contemporary Indian Art was written as part of Nilima Sheikh's Master's in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. The complete facsimile of this dissertation is accompanied by a recent interview with the artist by Nihaal Faizal and Sarasija Subramanian.
Nilima Sheikh (born 1945) is a visual artist based in Baroda, India. Nilima Sheikh is rooted in Eastern painting traditions such as miniature painting and oral traditions found in vernacular folk songs. Through her own life experiences, Sheikh creates bodies of work that evoke mystical imaginary landscapes that address feminine experiences. Inspired by reading Rabindranath Tagore, the artist became interested at an early age in the connection between stories and images, and age-old connection from murals to ancient manuscripts. Beyond appropriating traditional techniques in her work, Sheikh works with figure and narration in her practice, which has also beautifully translated into theatre sets such as the 1993 Vivadi theatre production of Umrao, as well as children's books. Internationally exhibited, Sheikh has inspired several generations over her five-decade career as a Baroda based painter.
