Exhibition tracks use of Cubism to express desi ideas

The Poet is unlike any Rabindranath Tagore sculpture there is. It has hollowed eyes, sunken cheeks, a lifeless beard and an excavated, hollowed brain. The composition is fragmented, distorted, yet vaguely familiar. In the work, sculptor Ramkinkar Baij (1906-1980) has rendered the Nobel Laureate in Cubist style.

- Riddhi Doshi

Pioneered by French artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, Cubism was influenced by the industrialization of the 1900s, when machines, factories, trains, buildings and geometric and structured shapes mushroomed rapidly and everywhere.

Like Baij, many Indian artists, especially the modernists, experimented with the art form. They broke away from traditional Indian styles and created new ways to express Indian identity by experimenting with western styles. They, however, introduced Indian motifs, subjects and philosophies, to create their art, which resonated with the nationalist sentiment of the time, and yet was modern. About hundred such works, by 40 artists, produced from the 1920s until about 1960s, are on display at Colaba’s DAG gallery, in an exhibition titled Deconstructed Realms: India’s Tryst with Cubism.