curatorial note
DAG’s booth at Art Basel Hong Kong at its second outing there consolidated its gains from the previous edition by building on the artists it had first presented at the seminal fair. It matched the fair’s focus of a vibrant Asian art with its premier selection of Indian modern art of the twentieth century. The selection presented twenty-five of the most significant Indian modern artists—consisting of painters and sculptors, figurative and abstract artists—who, with the innovations they brought to their art, contributed significantly to the rich diversity and expanse of Indian modern art as we know it today.
The selection brought works of artists of international renown, such as M. F. Husain, S. H. Raza, F. N. Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Ram Kumar, Krishen Khanna, Avinash Chandra and Sakti Burman, masters practicing in different art centres of the country, such as J. Sultan Ali, K. K. Hebbar, Laxma Goud,
N. S. Bendre, sculptor Himmat Shah and sculptor-painter S. K. Bakre, as well as several modernists from Bengal, such as Bikash Bhattacharjee,
Rabin Mondal and Sunil Das. A highlight of the selection was rare, early works of artists known for their markedly different later oeuvres, such as the
neo-tantra pioneer, G. R. Santosh, or a European-style landscape by Avinash Chandra.
As in the previous year, DAG accompanied the display with a specially published catalogue for the fair.
list of artists
highlights
installation views
