Bibliography of Modern Indian Art (An Old and Rare Book)

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Dr. D.C. Ghose was born on the 8th of October, 1909, in Luchiana (Punjab) and joined the St. Stephen's College, Delhi, in 1927, acquiring his Degree of M.A. in Economics, in 1933. He joined the Punjab University as Research Scholar, in 1935, and worked under Dr. John Mathai and Prof. P.C. Mahalonobis in Indian Statistical Institute, Presi- dency College, Calcutta. He was awarded the Ph. D. Degree by the Punjab University, in 1938, and worked thereafter in the Forman Christian College, Lahore. In 1946, he went to England and joined London School of Economics as a research student and was awarded M.Sc. Degree in Eco- nomics, in 1948. He was taken on the staff of St. Stephen's College, Delhi, in January 1949, and retired therefrom on October 8, 1974, as Vice-Principal. Dr. Ghose is presently working on a Senior Fellowship granted by the Indian Council for Historical Research, on Folk Art. He is deeply interested in art and is an amateur painter, having held two individual exhibitions.

I have been working on this Bibliography for a number of years, with my main base in the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. Much of the material has been collected and collated there. I have also utilised the vast amount of information from the Art Institutions of the country who responded to a detailed questionnaire.

I would like to express my thanks to the following societies for the whole-hearted cooperation I received from them from time to time.

I am happy that the first bibliography on contemporary Indian art has been published by the Lalit Kala Akademi. Though the Akademi has published over 221 titles which include portfolios of miniature paintings, multicolour reproductions, monographs on artists, selections of essays on contemporary art, journals on contemporary and ancient art and an artists directory, a bibliography of publications on the vast and growing area of contemporary art was not undertaken earlier, despite the very real need for such a documentation and survey. Such a project required immense research and arduous compilation, as articles and essays have appeared in scores of journals and newspapers scattered throughout the country and seminar papers have only occasionally been published.

A comprehensive bibliography which provides handy reference to subject-matter and to the source of the publication is of immense value to scholars of art, to artists and, particularly, to students of art, as books tracing the development of contemporary Indian art are rare. Besides its obvious need in India, such a bibliography will also be most welcome abroad where the study of Indian art, both of the past and the present, is now a part of the academic carriculum in institu- tions in most parts of the world.

The Akademi, therefore, is indebted to Dr. D.C. Ghose, the author of the bibliography, for having undertaken this challenging task primarily as a labour of love. Despite the fact that the plastic arts is not the field of his specialization (Dr. Ghose is a retired Pro- fessor of Economics) he has patiently devoted nearly ten years to compiling this bibliography single-handed in defiance of his old age.

Because of his devotion to painting as a Sunday painter (with two exhibitions to his credit) Dr. Ghose has been able to express his sensibility and interest in art through this compilation.

The story of Modern Indian Art is the story of a nation's soul in search of its own identity. Writ large on its body and brow are the tell-tale marks of its restless journey, seeking and search. The Mughal brought his own attenuation and deviation, but these were adumberations that fell within the scope of adaptation by its value- pattern, its integrating gestalt.

Indian society has been ever open-minded. It never closed its mind to outside influence, became impervious to new styles, thoughts and trends. In fact, embeded in this elasticity, this inclination to improve, energize and enlarge its own capacities, is the true secret of its survival. Thousands of years of tradition point to this.

But Europe brought with it competition as a value in life. It struck at the very heart of India's cooperative value system, tending to Corrode it to its very core. The roots began withering in the ground. So, as in other walks of life, in Art too, it failed to provide true inspiration and fire imagination to unfettered reach. Except at the folk, folkish and tribal levels, art got isolated and lost contact with the people.

By 1890, the British rule had been firmly established. The executors of the Raj, its pall-bearers and command-carriers, dictated, patronized and promoted what conformed with their pre-conceived notions of beauty and good taste. Thus came into existence and pro- minence an art which was frigid and frozen, externally representa- tional, inwardly anemic. Disdainful of people's support, it was haughty and indifferent. This so called Imperial art patterned itself on the classical academic style. For Indian sculpture, it resulted in complete deviation from the past and was without doubt a retrograde step.