Making History: How PAG came together

In 1947, artists F N Souza, M F Husain, S H Raza, H A Gade, K H Ara and S K Bakre

On December 15 1947, a meeting was held in Bombay during which Souza, Raza, Ara
and the critic Rashid Husain spoke about their disappointment regarding the lack of
principles in the current judging process of exhibitions. They wanted to break the
arbitrary selection process and bring greater transparency in the judging criteria by
setting up a Judging Committee so as to create an equal ground for rising artists to
exhibit their work. Although the first exhibition of the Progressive Artists Group was held
in 1949, the group formally came into being as early as 1947, following this particular
meeting.

Before the meeting, Raza, Souza, Bakre and Ara had already met and decided to
exhibit their works together. Bakre, being the only sculptor in a group of painters had
been convinced by Ara to join in. Soon Souza persuaded Husain while Raza introduced
Gade into the PAG bandwagon. Together they decided to limit the number of members
at six in order to avoid stylistic scramble. The PAG primarily intended to promote an
anti-imperialist outlook and bridge the increasing gap between artists and the life of the
people. Later they were to rescind their primary objective as unachievable and focus
instead on experimenting with subject matter in their individual styles.

While each of these artists that constituted the PAG produced a large body of work,
they were inspired by very varied movements and stylistic influences that made
categorizing their work under one school or art style impossible. After three of its
members moved abroad in 1951; Souza and Bakre settled in London and Raza went to
Paris; the group stopped functioning as a whole and the focus was divided among the
artists themselves. Of these, Souza, Raza and Husain were constantly in the limelight,
while the others were joined by younger artists such as Tyeb Mehta, Vasudeo S.
Gaitonde, etc. under the PAG banner. The Group as such practically disintegrated soon
after its joint exhibition with the Calcutta Group held at Calcutta in 1951.

Francis Newton Souza (12 April 1924 – 28 March 2002)

The mastermind and author of the PAG manifesto, Francis Newton Souza played an
eminent role in the inception of the Bombay Progressives. His talent in painting was
equaled by his proficiency in expressing himself through words. Born in 1924 in Saligao,
Goa, Souza lost his father at a very young age. A lot of his work is characterized by his
early experiences formed during India’s fight against colonialism. He was expelled for
participating in the Quit India Movement while studying at the Sir J J School of Art in
Mumbai. His independent and rebellious nature came across on his canvases through
disturbing imagery that covered a variety of subjects such as still life, nudes and
Christian (Catholic) iconography. His unconventional distortion of form and combination
of Goanese folk art with western influences such as Cubism was unprecedented in
Indian art. He laid great emphasis on the conflicts and sexual tensions in man-woman
relationships and used techniques such as crosshatched strokes to achieve a restless
and unrestrained style of painting that became his trademark.

After Souza moved to London in 1949, he officially arrived in the international art scene
a few years later with his solo show in Gallery One, simultaneously publishing his
autobiographical essay Nirvana of a Maggot. In 1967, he migrated to New York where
he received the Guggenheim International Award and remained there till his demise.
Much of his artistic career was spent in Europe and America and therefore he is one of
the first progressives to be acknowledged for his work on an international level.

Maqbool Fida Husain (17 September 1915 – 9 June 2011)

Hailed as one of the most controversial artists in Indian art history, Maqbool Fida Husain
received equal amounts of fame and flak for his radical works. He was born in 1913 in
Pandharpur, Maharashtra and came to Mumbai in 1937, unwavering in his goal of
becoming a painter. In 1948, he was invited by F N Souza to join the PAG.

Husain’s career had a modest beginning in Mumbai where he painted billboards for
feature films and made furniture designs and toys. Later when he had the opportunity to
take up painting, he still held on to his roots and inculcated a truly multi-media style,
experimenting with photography, installations and eventually even dabbling in
filmmaking. His vibrant works were a curious blend of folk and tribal art with elements
and figures from Hindu mythology that were striking and much ahead of his time.
Cubism, Symbolism and animal imagery were recurring themes in his works. Artistic
proficiency aside, his depictions of iconic goddesses in the nude were heavily criticized
by the nations pedagogues and orthodox Hindus and deemed blasphemous. After being
attacked by Hindu extremists who vandalized his artworks in 1998, Husain was forced
to take up self-imposed exile towards the rear end of his life.

In a career that spanned seven decades, Husain created many iconic works such as his
series on horses and his portraits of famous Bollywood actresses. With every passing
decade his popularity increased nationally and internationally and he became a well-
known public figure. He also made feature films, such as Through the Eyes of a Painter,
in 1967, which was a Golden Bear Award winner at the Berlin Film Festival, and
Gajagamini in 2000. Husain’s contribution to modern Indian art is commendable and his
association with the PAG placed him on the map. But it was his dynamic and fearless
approach to explore his cultural roots in diverse ways that established him as one of the
greatest modern artists in India. The Government of India awarded him the Padma
Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan awards.

Sayed Haider Raza (22 February 1922 – 23 July 2016)

Sayed Haider Raza was one of the founders of the Progressive Artists’ Group, along
with K H Ara and F N Souza. Raza’s works range across a diversity of themes
beginning from his childhood memories of growing up in a small town called Babaria in
Madhya Pradesh. After receiving a French Government Scholarship in 1950, he left for
Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Following his relocation to Paris, he began
painting landscapes of French towns and villages in an expressionist style, which later
transformed into abstract works once his preoccupation with geometric forms set in. In
the 1970’s he experimented with line, color and form eventually settling on non-
representational imagery. Over the years his style of painting evolved into an eccentric
mix of expressionism and geometric abstraction teamed with Indian iconography. 1980
onwards, he explored in great depth the ancient Indian symbolism behind a single
point/circle or ‘The Bindu’, which is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘point’ or ‘dot’.

Nature being the predominant theme in his works, Raza was fascinated by the concept
of Bindu as a seed that bears the potential of all life; a single point in which the entire
universe converges. It also represents a metaphorical space in the mind as the
epicenter of our thoughts and essentially our existence. Apart from the Bindu, to which
Raza dedicated a significant body of his work, the iconic artist also explored themes of
Kundalini, Panch Tatvas and Purush(man)-Prakriti(nature), which again look at the
importance of cosmic energy in nature.

He has received numerous awards for his pioneering works including the Prix de la
Critique (Paris, 1956) and the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the Govt of India in
1981 and 2007 respectively.

Krishnaji Howlaji Ara (April 16, 1914 – June 30, 1985)

Unlike Souza and Husain who explored various subjects, Krishnaji Howlaji Ara devoted
a majority of his career to the female nude. His painting style was initially met with
criticism as crude and uninspired, until the critic Rudy Von Leyden from Times of India
acknowledged his hidden potential.

Born in 1913 at Bolarum, Andhra Pradesh, Ara was not a trained artist. As the son of a
chauffeur, Ara moved to Mumbai at the age of seven and earned his bread by cleaning
cars. He joined Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement during the struggle for India’s
independence and later worked in a number of odd jobs including cleaning cars for a
Japanese firm. Painting was his hobby and he devoted all his free time to it, surprisingly
even winning prizes in local art competitions, slowly working his way into the art world.

After joining the PAG his repertoire expanded to include still life and human figures
along with his long-standing preoccupation with female nudes. His style had an inborn
dynamism that comes from meticulous exploration of a subject. After working under the
guidance of Leyden and Walter Langhammer, the then art director of Times of India,
Ara’s works gained more visibility and acclaim. Critics later recognized his crude
rendering as a raw vitality that possessed a spontaneous impressionistic quality.

A key member of the Bombay Art Society since its foundation, Ara was also a part of
the selection and judging committee of the Lalit Kala Academy. He was associated with
the Artist’s Center in Bombay’s thriving art district, where he spent the bulk of his time in
later years once his fellow PAG members moved out of India.

Hari Ambadas Gade (August 19, 1917 – December 16, 2001)

Hari Ambadas Gade was an intellectual. He was the only one among the PAG to
complete his education till the university level, that too in subjects that were far removed
from the field of art. Born in Amravati Andhra Pradesh on, 1917, as a child he loved
drawing but he was also good at science and mathematics and went on to pursue
degrees in these subjects from Nagpur University. After enrolling as a teacher in
Jabalpur, Gade finally started painting landscapes under the guidance of Raza. Much
inspired by his friend and fellow PAG member’s expressionist landscapes, Gade
developed his own unique style of painting that stand out for their bold vibrant colors.

In retrospect, Gade was one of the first abstract expressionist painters of post-
independence India. Gade began by painting watercolors, but he later switched to oils
on canvas. He used both the palette knife and brush in his paintings. His works exude a
subtle rendering of color and form and his compositions seem to be conceptualized
from unusual eye levels. He also had an affinity to paint landscapes from high vantage
points.

In his paintings, poverty stricken people and dirty slums of Mumbai crop up once in a
while. Yet, he did not abandon his first love, landscapes, and travelled all over India
recreating the beautiful Indian landscapes on his canvases.

Sadanand Krishnaji Bakre (10 November 1920 – 18 December 2007)

Sadanand Bakre was the only sculptor in the PAG group. Born in 1920 in Baroda,
during his teenage years he worked in Mumbai under the sculptor Raghunath Phadke,
who ran a studio famous for producing sculptures in marble and bronze. At Phadke’s
studio, Bakre acquired his formative training in sculpting which he explored later in Sir
J.J. School of Art. He wanted to be trained in painting but due to financial deficits he
was unable to afford the materials needed for the painting course at the time.
Fortunately the school faculty and eminent personalities in the Indian art scene such as
Rudi Von Leyden and Wayne Hartwell gave him enormous support and
encouragement. Through Leyden’s inputs Bakre was exposed to modernism in Europe
and America, which aided him in developing his own distinctive style. He was known in
later years for his expert handling of color and aesthetic sensibility. After his initial
works, he moved away from making representational art and instead attempted to
transcend form and capture the true essence of a sculpture or painting. For instance, in
Bakre`s portrait sculptures – he was known to brilliantly portray the character of the
subject more than their physical and anatomical features.

As a member of the PAG, Bakre did not achieve the iconic status of Souza, Raza or
Husain, but the exposure that came with the group was immensely helpful in displaying
and selling his works to the public and earn enough money to travel to England. There
after a short period of struggle, he finally had the time and money to take up painting
and became a member of the New Vision Group, a gathering of non-figurative and
abstract artists. After exhibiting with the Group in several shows, including a series in
Mumbai in the mid 1960`s, Bakre moved back to India. Till the end he was a man who
stayed true to his principles and genuinely believed in painting for the love of it, and not
for the money.

To realize this new mode of thinking, the Progressives looked to the rich tradition of
the past, from the composition of 17th century Mughal and Pahari miniatures to the
sensuous carvings of Khajuraho temples. In mining this past for inspiration, the artists
combined elements from Hindu and Jain imagery and Muslim tradition, espousing in
this process an argument for a secular modernity. Incorporating both formalist
techniques and spiritual, metaphysical themes, the Progressives invocation of the
past was an attempt to accurately evoke the pluralism of their modernist present; by
tracing a trajectory of simultaneous histories that led to the 20th century, their aim
was to take stock of the rich landscape in which their own practices developed. Yet,
this mode was not without its problems: MF Husain, the Group’s sole Muslim
member, would face harsh criticism and even censorship later in his career for his
incorporation of Hindu deities in his paintings, eventually leading to a self-imposed
exile from India in 2006.

True to their expansive idea of Modernism, the Progressives did not limit themselves
to the inheritance of doctrinal Indian tradition but looked to the styles and modes of
Asian painting, including Korean landscape and Japanese ink painting, as seen in the
numinous forms of Padamsee and Gaitonde. Vernacular and folk traditions of tribal
peoples within India also served as a crucial mode of inspiration for Raza and Husain,
whose depictions of rural village life were newly invigorated by gestural strokes,
resplendent color and tightly composed forms that placed the pastoral sharply into
India’s rapidly industrialized present.

Such contradictions have come to define the legacy of the Progressive Artist’s Group,
the cohesiveness of which began to erode following Souza’s departure for London in
1949, where he would remain until the late 1960s. His fellow compatriots would follow
suit—Raza to Paris, Bakre to London—and the remaining artists, while still committed
to the Group’s principles in their work, would slowly move toward individualized
practices. By the time the Group had officially disbanded in 1954, they had scattered
across Europe and India, but had left in their wake an indelible imprint on the
development of an international Modernism, with manifold perspectives, subjects, and
aesthetic registers. The Progressive vision stands today as a record of such a
development with reverberations ever-sounding.