A rare 1969 self portrait of M F Husain, rarely seen impastos on paper by Sohan Qadri and an oil on canvas "To The Market" (1961) by N S Bendre are among 45 paintings by modern masters in a group show at Kumar's Gallery here.
Part of "Celebration", the sixth edition of the gallery's annual show, the exhibition is scheduled between January 25 to February 5 and is part of a collateral event of the upcoming India Art Fair 2016.
Works by modern masters such as F N Souza, S H Raza, Ram Kumar, Satish Gujral, Krishen Khanna, K H Ara, K S Kulkarni, G R Santosh, B Prabha, Sohan Qadri, A Ramachandran, Jamini Roy, Ramkinkar Baij, Prodosh Das Gupta, N S Bendre, K G Subramanyan, J Swaminathan, Rameshwar Broota, J Sultan Ali and Paresh Maity are included.
"This is the sixth edition of 'Celebration' show but this time, the emphasis is on modern masters whose aesthetic merit is not only publicly acknowledged but who are also academically most sound, the true avant garde of Indian modern art," Sunit Kumar, Director of the gallery who has curated the show.
Accompanying the exhibition is a comprehensive 200 pages book, which includes artworks from the show and essays by art critic Keshav Malik. The tome also archives some of the early shows of Modern Masters at Kumar Gallery in the 1950s and 60s and most candid images of bonhomie amongst Indian artists, critics, and their mentors, the Kumars.
Captured at various events over the last six decades, these images in the book serve both as visual documentation of historical importance as well as reflect on the evolution and growth of modern Indian art.
The earliest work in the show is a 1938 oil on canvas by Ram Kinkar Baij titled "Toilet". Then, there is a late 1940s Jamini Roy depicting the finesse of his folk-based lines in a tempera work titled "Man with Hookah".
Some of the other highlights of the show are a 1996 Rameshwar Broota titled "Scripted in Time" (also the largest in the show at 70 by 90 inches).
Apart from these there is a 1984 acrylic on canvas titled "Radha in Vrindavan" by K S Kulkarni and a striking work titled "The Foreman" from 1961 by Souza.
