The Baroda Group
Post India’s independence in 1947, the establishment of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Maharaja Sayajirao (M. S.) University of Baroda proved to be a significant catalyst for the official formation of the ‘Baroda Group of Artists’. It was in 1957, when leading artists such as N. S. Bendre, Bhupen Khakhar, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Jyotsna Bhatt, and Ratan Parimoo joined the group.
K.G. Subramanyan had offered a significant contribution to the group with his own teachings. Known for celebrating folk art and craft, he believed in supporting it as an alternative to the negative effects of consumerism.
The Baroda Group preferred to reject the European legacy of art introduced by the British in India, and instead adopted a fusion of traditional Indian and the German Bauhaus style that incorporated everyday reality with aesthetics. Thus they defined their own identity, an intermediary space or a confluence of the oriental and occidental.
Gradually, artists like Jyoti Bhatt, Shanti Dave, G. R. Santosh, Prabha Dongre, Triloke Kaul, J. Patel, Vinay Trivedi, Balkrishna Patel, Prafull Dave, and Ramesh Pandya were associated with this dynamic group.
N. S. Bendre, Darjeeling Coolie Girls, 1947, Gouache on Card, 13x 14% inches,
Courtesy of Mutual Art
NARAYAN SHRIDHAR BENDRE (1910-1992)
‘I belong to the earth… It’s like a library to me…. I do not create dream paintings. Whatever, I have experienced in this world, I paint.’
-N. S. Bendre
Born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, N. S. Bendre was drawn to art and graduated from the Holkar College, Indore, in 1933 and received a diploma in painting in 1934. Initially interested in the landscape painting of Indore School, he pursued it with oils and gouache. He later experimented with abstract, Cubist and Expressionist genres, combining European Modernism with Indian reflections in his work. There wasdirectness in the handling of colour, discarding hard edges. Bendre’s palette was light and luminous.
With wings in his feet, he sojourned through his life, painting in the punctuations. It is said that once when he had experienced a bus accident in Kashmir, he woke up in shock, and asked for his paints! In 1945, he was in Santiniketan where he met Nandalal Bose, Binode Bihari, Ramkinkar Baij, and K. G. Subramanyan-all of them along with camaraderie, helped shape his own way of approaching his canvas.
Travelling to the US in 1947-48, he held his first solo overseas at the Windermere College in New York. His return journey through Europe offered him exposure to original works of European stalwarts.
In 1950, equipped with his immersive experience with artists through his travels, his own artworks and his personal evolution, he moved to the Baroda Faculty of Fine Arts as Head of the Department of Painting. And here, he was energised into mapping the most significant phase in his life, when he not only continued honing his own skills with landscape and figure studies, but established a space that would be a vibrant nurturing ground for excellent artists of the future. His students included Gulammohammed Sheikh, G. R. Santosh, Haku Shah and Ratan Parimoo, besides many other artists who would later claim their own spaces. Thus, the Baroda Group of Artists was formed in 1956. In the same year, he held a solo show in Bombay.
After a decade at the Baroda Group, Bendre resigned in 1966, at the age of fifty-six, leaving for Bombay where he continued with his interpretation of the Expressionist oeuvre; not to forget his fascination with the Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka’s unique style of bold hues. Bendre’s portraits too bore the stamp of his technical mastery.
At this point, he was also lured by pointillism and a series of paintings emerged with the dot technique that somehow were characterised by some as feeble. But then, in those years he had aged as well and more importantly, his work was celebrated through several awards bestowed on him: in 1955, a National Award for his work ‘Thorn’; in 1969, a Padma Shri Award; in 1992, a Padma Bhushan besides other awards.
With his passing in 1991, N. S. Bendre left a legacy of works that would be cherished forever.
Jeram Patel, Untitled, 1969, Ink on Paper, 81⁄2 x 11 inches, Courtesy of Artsy
JERAM PATEL (1930-2016)
‘When we burn something, or peel a colour pigment from the canvas, or scratch something on paper or canvas. We are not destroying but are in the process of creating.‘ -Jeram Patel2
Jeram Patel (1930-2016) was born in Sojitra, Gujarat and raised in a traditional home with his parents and four siblings. He is known for his rebellion against Modernist approaches and desire to transform the Indian art scene of the sixties with his own visual identity and method of abstraction.
He moved to Mumbai to attend Sir J. J. School of Art from 1950– 55 and in 1959, studied typography and publicity design at the Central School of Arts and Craft in London for two years. During his visit to Japan in 1961, on experiencing a large retrospective of Paul Klee, he was reassured in his conviction that art practice is a deeply individualistic
process.
His works are indeed individualistic and unique, evocative, and visually potent. Even as he created masterly figurative drawings from an early stage, he was lured into Abstract Expressionism. Working with blowtorch on wood, black and white drawings and paintings on board and canvas, he creates intriguing forms; the force of black for instance, in some of his abstract floating images, can reveal hidden thoughts if you look long enough. A metaphysical quest is hidden there. Through his practice he remained ‘the lone wolf as alluded to by photographer Richard Bartholomew.
He received multiple awards over the years, including the National Award from the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1957, 1963, 1973, and 1984 and a silver medal from the Bombay Art Society in 1960. He was awarded Emeritus Fellowship from The Government of India in 1994. He also represented India at various biennales such as the Tokyo Biennale of 1963 and the Third World Biennale in Baghdad in 1980.
Patel’s work was shown at ‘Group 1890’, an artist collective, at the Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan in New Delhi in 1963. This was the only exhibition of the artist collective. His fellow associated artists were Jagdish Swaminathan, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Rajesh Mehra, Himmat Shah, Eric Bowen, Jyoti Bhatt, Balkrishna Patel, and Nasreen Mohamedi among others. Jeram was dean at the Faculty of Fine Art in M. S. University of Baroda for a long while.
Jeram Patel will be remembered for having mapped his own journey, for not succumbing to pressures of conventions, for lighting his own candle.
Bhupen Khakhar, Portrait of Shankarbhai Patel Near Red Fort, 1971,
Oil on Canvas, 35.4 x 35.4 inches, Courtesy of Sotheby’s
BHUPEN KHAKHAR (1934–2003)
‘I think your own weakness should also be reflected in painting. One can’t hide oneself behind a painting. It is standing naked in front of everyone-what you are, you are.’
-Bhupen Khakhar3
Bhupen Khakhar, a self-trained artist who bravely expressed homosexual love when it was still under covers in India, was born in 1934 in Bombay. He was a trained accountant but moved to Baroda in 1962, where he
chose a new career path as a writer and an artist. His career as a painter began relatively late in his life; with works that were figurative in nature, concerned with the human body and its identity.
In 1958, Khakhar met the young Gujarati poet and painter Gulammohammed Sheikh, who encouraged Khakhar’s latent interest in art and motivated him to join the newly founded Faculty of Fine Arts in Vadodara. An artist who wasn’t afraid to accept his queerness, the problem of gender definitions and gender identity were major themes of his work. His paintings often contained references to Indian mythology and mythological themes.
The artist’s work celebrated the day to day struggles of India’s common man. He took special care to reproduce the atmosphere of small local shops and environments in these paintings, revealing a talent for seeing the intriguing within the mundane. He held his first solo exhibition in Bombay in 1965 and has had several solo shows thereafter, in Bombay, New Delhi, Vadodara, London, Ahmedabad, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Paris, and Tokyo.
In the 1970s, Khakhar bore witness to the increasing acceptance of homosexuality in the UK. After interacting with artists such as David Hockney, this became the hallmark of the next phase in his artistic production, which made him the first Indian artist to freely disclose his sexual orientation through his work.
In the year 2000, Khakhar was honoured with the Prince Claus Award at the Royal Palace of Amsterdam. Among other honours, he won the Asian Council’s Starr Foundation Fellowship in 1986, and the prestigious Padma Shri in 1984.
Bhupen Khakar passed away in 2003.
Ratan Parimoo, Self-Portrait as Icarus Transformed, 2022, Oil on
Canvas, 29 x 42 inches, Courtesy of the Artist
RATAN PARIMOO (B. 1936)
‘My art training helps me understand my country and its long tradition. I can seamlessly move from one to the other. And, as an art historian I find them linked, and therefore, mutually enriching.’
-Ratan Parimoo1
Ratan Parimoo, art historian and painter, was born in 1936 in Srinagar, Kashmir. In 1951, at the age of fifteen, he studied painting under N. S. Bendre at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara. In 1960, he travelled to England on the prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship to study art history. Being completely captivated by the splendour of the fine arts, he could not feel satisfied with the acquired knowledge, and hence further obtained a PhD in art history.
With thorough acquaintance in art history and aesthetics, he started educating as a lecturer and at a later stage as a professor to enlighten the coming generations in the field of fine arts. He also served as a Dean for Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda. Simultaneously, he became associated as a member of various influential organisations like the Central Advisory Board of Museum of the Government of India, University Grants Commission (UGC) panel for fine arts, and the art purchase committee of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.
He has contributed enormously to Indian art history by writing books on various studies such as the art of Raja Ravi Varma, Gujarati School and Jain manuscript paintings, and the chronology and comparative study of the paintings of the three Tagores.
Since 1956, he has held over ten solo shows and over twenty group shows in Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Vadodara, Bhopal, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Srinagar in India, and Durham in UK. He has also held retrospective shows in 1972 and 2006 in New Delhi and in 1999 in Mumbai. He is married to artist Naina Dalal. Living in Vadodara, presently, he is the director of L. D. Museum in Ahmedabad.
Gulammohammed Sheikh, Francis and Kabir, 2011-2022, Acrylic on Canvas, 78 x 123 inches, Courtesy of the Artist
GULAMMOHAMMED SHEIKH (B. 1937)
‘Like the many–eyed and many–armed archetype of an Indian child, soiled with multiple visions, I draw my energy from this source.‘
Gulammohammed Sheikh5
Gulammohammed Sheikh is an artist, curator, writer, and educationist. He was born in Surendranagar, Saurashtra. Trained at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University of Baroda in 1961 and the Royal College of Art in London in 1963-66, he has pioneered an engagement with historical forbears and a social and political investment in art practice. In his tenure as teacher of Art History and Professor of Painting at M. S. University of Baroda, and through numerous residencies and publications, he has contributed to a renewed understanding of cross-cultural themes in an Indian and international context.
Sheikh’s mural Journeys Across Time adorns the new international airport in Mumbai. He also painted the mural Tree of Life for Vidhan Bhavan (Legislative Assembly) of Bhopal. His solo exhibitions from1961 include Mappings, The Guild at Museum Gallery, Mumbai (2004); Palimpsest at Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi and Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai (2001); Kahat Kabir at Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi (1998); Pathvipath at CMC Art Gallery, New Delhi (1991) and Returning Home (a retrospective of work from 1968-85) at Centre Georges Pompidou, Musee National d’Art Moderne, Paris (1985).
He was a founder member of Group 1890, an artist collective established in 1963. He has participated in multiple group shows: Chalo India, A New Era of Indian Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2008); Horn Please: Narratives in Contemporary Indian Art, Kunstmuseum, Bern; New Narratives: Contemporary Art from India, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago (2007); III Triennale (India), Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi (1975); Cinquieme Biennale de Paris, Paris (1967) and The VII Tokyo Biennale in Japan (1963), among others.
Besides innumerable awards, Sheikh has received the Gagan-abani Puraskar, Viswa-Bharati University, Santiniketan in 2015, the Padma Bhushan in 2014, and the Padma Shri in 1983.
Gulammohammed Sheikh lives with his artist wife Nilima Sheikh in Vadodara, Gujarat.
Jyotsna Bhatt, Untitled (Cool Cat), Date and Dimensions Unknown, Ceramic
JYOTSNA BHATT (1940-2020)
I like the play of ash and flames on the works, which enhance the forms (of ceramic works), so accordingly let them be open body (without any glaze or glossy surface).‘ -Jyotsna Bhatt
Born in Kutch’s Mandvi, Jyotsna Shroff was an acclaimed Indian ceramist and potter. She studied at Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai for a year, and later joined M. S. University of Baroda in 1958 to study sculpture under the mentorship of Sankho Chaudhury. She later went on to study ceramics at the Brooklyn Museum Art School during the mid-1960s under the direction of Jolyon Hofsted. She married renowned printmaker and photographer Jyoti Bhatt whom she had met in her college years. They have a daughter, Jaii.
In 1972, she joined the Department of Sculpture’s ceramic studio in the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University of Baroda as a professor. She worked there for forty years and retired as the Head of the Department of Ceramics in 2002.
During her long career, Jyotsna experimented with stoneware and terracotta. She considered Ira Chaudhuri as the Guru of the Indian Ceramic Movement.
Excerpted with permission from the publisher.
Publisher: Aleph Book Company
Bina Sarkar Ellias is a poet, writer, art curator and founder-editor-designer-publisher of International Gallerie, a bi-annual award-winning global arts and ideas journal since 1997; over 25 years and 50 volumes. Her book of poems ‘Fuse’ has been taught at Towson University, USA. Her seventh book of poems, ‘Ukiyo-e Days… Haiku Moments’ was recently released at several national and international venues. Her recent ‘The Big Book of Indian Art’ has made a huge impact as the most comprehensive book on Indian Art. As an art curator, she is currently curating a 2025 show for the Pen and Brush Gallery, NY, USA. She has given talks at various global art centres. Amongst other awards, she has received the Times Group Yami Women Achievers’ Award, 2008 and the FICCI/FLO 2013 award for excellence in her work. She recently received the “‘Women to Watch’ 2024 Award for her outstanding contribution to the industry.” While she lives in India, Bina believes she is a nomadic world citizen.
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