WHEN people think of modern Indian art, they tend to consider a handful of Mumbai-based artists who have dominated art-world headlines in recent years. This group, which includes Syed Haidar Raza, M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza and Tyeb Mehta, are all members of the extrovert and well-travelled Progressives Group. But interest in Bengal art, which bloomed in the 19th century, is now enjoying a revival that recognises the area's contribution to the development of Indian culture.
Ramkinkar Baij, who died in 1980 aged 70, was one of the most important of India's early Bengali moderns, both as an experimental sculptor and as a painter. He is now the subject of a splendid retrospective exhibition of over 350 works at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi. Meanwhile, the privately owned Delhi Art Gallery (DAG) features a show of work by more than 100 Bengal artists, ranging from traditional 19th-century miniature painting to strong figurative pieces by contemporary artists, such as Jogen Chowdhury and Ganesh Pyne.