Women Artists: from the collection of National Gallery of Modern Art

Spirit of Daily Work by Meera MukherjeeNational Gallery of Modern Art

Meera Mukherjee

Meera Mukherjee, one of  the most outstanding Indian
Sculptor to emerge in the post-Independence period, produced works of
considerable power. A heroic individualist, she denied any feminist content in
her work, considering herself to be a professional first and a woman second.
Mukherjee had her first lessons in sculpture from a traditional sculptor,
gaining further technical training later in Munich. On returning to India she
renounced her western training in favour of traditional art, Mukherjee used the circ perdu or the lost wax process for her sculptures. Deeply influenced by the Dhokra sculptors of Bastar in Madhya Pradesh, Mukherjee perfected a technique in bronze that was completely her own. Similarly, she evolved an iconography that was unique. Opposing pulls of mass and movement, strength and vulnerability give an intense character to her figures enhanced by the textural play created by the use of decorative elements on the surface experience that included an anthropological study of the Bastar crafts: ‘To my mind, every artist must also be an artisan, who brings to his work a devotion

Untitled, Meera Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Untitled, Meera Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Untitled, Meera Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Crossing the River, Meera Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Harvest by Sandhu HarbhajanNational Gallery of Modern Art

Sandhu Harbhajan

Hailing from Punjab and having studied at Baroda
followed by higher education at Kent, USA, Ms Harbhajan Sandhu had a firm
foundation in art. Ms Sandhu was not contented with just one medium and
experimented with different media – bronze, cement and stone, easily slipping
from one to another, testing their inherent qualities and creating different
forms with them. 

Jairam Patel Eating Pan by Latika KattNational Gallery of Modern Art

Latika Katt

Latika Katt experiments in a multidimensional way; on the one hand she prefers to capture typical characters in her portrait sculptures; on the one hand she releases energies by movement of material in pure abstract kinetic forms. She displays a world of dream in a conscious distortion. The Plane at which Latika meets the materials is clearly characterized by a surrealist strain, especially in the way her teasing of the material yields form. 

Arthi, Latika Katt, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Steps of success leading to what?, Latika Katt, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Fields, Latika Katt, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Evolution, Latika Katt, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Pig by Pushpmala NNational Gallery of Modern Art

Pushpmala N.

Pushpmala N showed her promise in the representation of human and animal forms, through terracotta. Her treatment is soft and very intimately handled. There is an overwhelming descriptive realism and representation of detail in her attempts.  Starting off her career as a sculptor, Pushpamala began using
photography and video in the mid -1990s, creating tableaux and photo-romances
in which she casts herself in various roles. She is known for her strongly feminist work and for her rejection of authenticity and embracing of multiple realities. As one of the pioneers of conceptual art in India and a leading figure in the feminist experiments in subject, material and language, her inventive work in sculpture, conceptual photography, video and performance have had a deep influence on art practice in India.

Sleeping Pig, Pushpmala N, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Devi by Mrinalini MukherjeeNational Gallery of Modern Art

Mrinalini
Mukherjee

 A
brilliant sculptor of the post 1980’s generation, Mrinalini Mukherjee is the
daughter of Binode Bihari Mukherjee and a student of K.G. Subramanyan at
Baroda. She offers a subtle but complex feminist message through the medium of
an unconventional material, a species of vegetable fibre resembling hemp.
Mrinalini fully exploits the dynamics of the material, its capacity to fold,
twist, drape and stretch. She begins by dying the material in deep colours,
such as purple or carmine, and then knots and weaves it. She then slowly builds
up her totemic figures, some of them menacing, many of them sexually ambiguous,
occasionally a flower symbolizing the genitals.  

Night Bloom A, Mrinalini Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Waterfall, Mrinalini Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Night Bloom B, Mrinalini Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Basanti, Mrinalini Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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From The Series “Natural History No. 6,, Mrinalini Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Rudra, Mrinalini Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Palanis Daughters of Pieces by Navjot AltafNational Gallery of Modern Art

Navjot Altaf

A painter, sculptor, installation artist and
filmmaker inspired by Marxist ideologies, Navjot consciously questions various
frameworks of social commitment. Born in Meerut, she has travelled extensively
across continents in her quest for empowering people, whether in art or in the
different issues she has addressed as a writer and filmmaker . In the Seventies,
she was also associated with the Progressive Youth Movement. Navjot maps the
trajectories of memory, history and culture, interrogating ‘body politics’,
seeing the self as a source of knowledge. I her work She articulates her own experience to
address issues related to the social, the political and the artistic. Her
interaction and experimental works with traditional artists from Bastar, a
tribal community from Madhya Pradesh, lasted over two decades. 

Dance II by Leela MukherjeeNational Gallery of Modern Art

Leela Mukherjee

Wood carving has been a special interest of Leela Mukherjee. She evidently chiselled prototype aboriginal human forms with great confidence. Dark polished surface also adds intensity in its archaic behavior. 

Dancer I, Leela Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Figure Lifting Foot, Leela Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Mother & Child, Leela Mukherjee, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Erosion by Pilloo PochkhanwalaNational Gallery of Modern Art

Pilloo Pochkhanwala

During her lifetime Pochkhanwala, proved her competence both as a technician and visualizer. She was of the strong opinion that "art can exist without a subject to portray", however maintained that  "form and emotion are interlinked. The moment a form is consciously created, it has an emotional content, even when it depicts the negation of emotion"  For Pochkhanawala, every new material was a challenge to be confronted and
phrased into the often archetypal or literary images that fascinated her,
whether abstracted figures, cloud forms, masks or weathered architecture. She
would work with aluminium, steel, wood, and stone of various kinds, producing
works on a scale from the intimate maquette to the monumental public sculpture.

Metal-scape II, Pilloo Pochkhanwala, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Ophelia, Pilloo Pochkhanwala, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Flight, Pilloo Pochkhanwala, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Teeming Millions, Pilloo Pochkhanwala, From the collection of: National Gallery of Modern Art
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Credits: Story

-The artworks included are a part of the collection of National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.

References

-Indian Women Sculptors (in Celebration of international Women’s Day) National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, 1987

-Indian Contemporary Art Post Independence Vadhera Art Gallery New Delhi, 1997

-Marg Contemporary Indian art other Realities ed Yashodhara Dalmia March 2002 Vol 53 No. 3

-Marg Vol 52 No. 1 2000

-Contemporary Art in Baroda ed Gulammohammed Sheikh Tulika Publication, New Delhi, 1997

-A Visual History of Indian Modern Art Volume Ten- In The Round: Modernism in Indian Sculpture. Delhi art Gallery, Delhi, January February 2015

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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Celebrating women's impact on culture in India.
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