Canvas of defiance

“Art emerges from personal, spiritual and aesthetic inspection — not just political allegiance. It dares, it questions and it reveals,” says Wendy Amanda Coutinho, curator of ‘Intertwined: Revisitation of the Indian Art Narrative’, which is currently on view at Progressive Art Gallery in Dubai. And at this exhibition, protest takes many forms.

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This show brings together a stupendous range of artists whose works continue to shape conversations about identity, resistance, and legacy. From the pioneering Progressive Artists’ Group, including MF Husain, FN Souza, SH Raza, KH Ara, HA Gade, and SK Bakre, to modern visionaries like Tyeb Mehta, Bhupen Khakhar, Jehangir Sabavala, and VS Gaitonde, the exhibition highlights how these artists resisted not just colonial hangovers, but also the confinement of ideologies, markets, and expectations. Their protest was often formal rather than political, as seen in Raza’s meditative abstraction, Souza’s provocative figuration, or Gaitonde’s Zen-infused minimalism.

Alongside these modern masters, the exhibition also presents powerful feminist and folk-rooted counter-narratives by artists such as Anjolie Ela Menon, B Prabha, Madhvi Parekh, and Arpita Singh — women who dared to tell stories often ignored by the dominant discourse.

The inclusion of visionaries like Jamini Roy, Ganesh Pyne, Jogen Chowdhury, Shyamal Dutta Ray, and KG Subramanyan further expands the conversation, showing how protest in Indian art was rarely linear — it was layered, introspective, mystical, and at times, heartbreakingly personal.

The conception of ‘Intertwined: Revisitation of the Indian Art Narrative’ lay in the desire to rethink and reposition the narrative of modern Indian art, says Coutinho. She shares that the selection process prioritised works that embody this defiance — whether in subject, medium, or philosophy. She calls the Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG) the anchor for the exhibition, “representing a pivotal moment when artists sought to break free from both colonial academic traditions and the heavy-handed nationalism of their time. The inclusion of luminaries like J Swaminathan, Ganesh Pyne, and Arpita Singh enriches the narrative by showcasing diverse, individual acts of resistance — whether through a return to folk traditions, poetic abstraction, or challenging gendered notions of art”.

As such, the ‘protest’ in this exhibition transcends the conventional understanding of the word.

“These artists protest by choosing their own paths, challenging the artistic and cultural frameworks that sought to define them. In many ways, their works are acts of silent defiance. They resist the commodification of art, the erasure of cultural identities, and the flattening of individual expression. This protest is also deeply personal and poetic. It is the act of asserting one’s vision in a world that often demands conformity. By resisting external expectations, these artists celebrate the multiplicity of Indian identity, carving spaces for dialogue and contemplation in a homogenised cultural landscape,” she says.

And it is through such acts of resistance that history is made. The PAG being the biggest case in point. Coutinho calls it “a radical act of collective resistance”.

“Emerging in the wake of India’s Independence, PAG was not just a group but a statement — an audacious rejection of colonial academic art and the limitations of nationalist art movements. The founding members sought to forge a new, modernist vocabulary that was uniquely Indian yet global in its outlook. The works of PAG members are quintessential acts of protest. Their resistance lies in their break from tradition — not as a dismissal of India’s artistic heritage but as a way to reinterpret and revitalise it. Their collective effort redefined Indian modernism, paving the way for future generations of artists to navigate their individual identities within a global context. This was not a protest in the sense of overt political agitation but a deliberate and profound resistance to being categorised, dictated, or confined—by colonial narratives, nationalist prescriptions, or global expectations.”

And Coutinho says it continued to evolve in the post-Independence era, with artists such as Krishen Khanna, B Prabha, J Swaminathan, Jehangir Sabavala and others pushing the boundaries of Indian modernism in their own ways. “These artists and their works represent a continuum of resistance — against convention, against erasure, and against the complacency of the status quo,” she says.

Harshvardhan Singh, director of Progressive Art Gallery, calls the exhibition a celebration of artists who didn’t just paint pictures, but carved paths. “Their works, drawn from across decades and ideologies, converge here to speak a common truth — art is, and always has been, a powerful agent of change.”

On till May 31