The Modernist period of Indian art is most often taken to refer to the artists who came of age during
and after the turbulent times of Indian Independence and then throughout the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s. The
most famous artists of this period are the Progressive Artist group, which was a short lived group that
came into existence after independence but which included some of the most famous names in Indian
art: Francis Newton Souza, Maqbool Fida Husain, Syed Haider Raza, etc.

Arpita Singh, India’s most celebrated female Modernist artist is here represented by a large luminous
painting from her solo show in 2003 in New York. Stop ringing the bell continues the artist’s exploration
of the role of women in Indian society, as the artist uses her knowledge of textile design in
composing her unique voice in Indian Modern art.

Jehangir Sabavala, the eminent Cubist artist, also a peer of the more turbulent Progressives, is here
represented by two of his lyrical and meditative works, Lunar Alchemy, a lovely moonlit seascape and
The Guiding Light II, the ever-questing figures searching for a deeper truth from the universe. Collected
by the top society families in India, Sabavala is an artist who is very much treasured by collectors.

Two of the Progressive artists, Souza and Husain, are represented in this show. There is a magnificent
Nude from 1962 by Souza, one of his most famous subjects and one that he never tired of painting.
This nude is truly a masterful portrait, with the almost coy and vulnerable figure boldly returning the
ogling male gaze of the artist and the male viewer.

Husain is represted by two works, one of his important series of Mother Teresa, to which he devoted
several paintings throughout his career, and the other, a work from the 1960’s, that shows this master
artist skillfully combining both Western modernist art ideas and Indian traditional art into a new
expression more in tune with a modern India.