Born in 1910 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, Narayan Shridhar Bendre
is counted amongst those masters whose pioneering talents and committed
contributions to the art of modern India were instrumental in bringing
the art of India to it’s glorious blossoming.
|
|
After completing his Bachelor of Arts at Agra University, Bendre
took the first steps into his career in art with his initial training at
the State Art School, Indore, where the quasi-modernist landscape painting
of the Indore School made an impact on his early works. This was followed
by the Government Diploma in Art from Bombay in 1933. In 1940, he moved
to Chennai to work as the art director for a film company. Recognition
of his gifted brush came early with the Silver Medal from the Bombay Art
Society in 1934, and honour was once again bestowed with the Gold Medal
in 1941. |
|
Between 1947 and 1950, Bendre an ardent traveller, visited America,
Europe, the Middle East and Japan. In New York he had the opportunity to
study printmaking, and he also held a solo exhibition at the Windermere
Gallery, New York, in 1948. On his European sojourn, he accrued inspirations
from the original works of the Modernist masters. In 1950, he joined the
Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.University of Baroda, as the first Reader and
Head of the Department of Painting, where he rose to be the Dean of the
Faculty, in 1959. Bendre had the privilege of spending time with his other
acclaimed contemporaries, Nandalal Bose, Ram Kinkar Baij and Benode Behari
Mukherjee, as an Artist in Residence at Shantiniketan, in 1945. In 1954,
Bendre was in a committee of nine artists under whose watchful eyes, the
Lalit Kala Akademy was set up .
|
|
Bendre's early work had been labeled as being academic and impressionist,
dominated by landscapes and portraits in oils and gouache. But, experiments
with Cubist, Expressionist and abstract tendencies marked his works during
his Baroda days and yielded such exceptional paintings as Thorn (which
won the National Award in 1955), Sunflowers, The Parrot and the Chameleon.
His brush was witness to his drifting loyalities to trends in mainstream
European modernism, and his efforts to blend Indian themes and forms with
them. |
|
Bendre’s journey of modernism that ran from Bombay to Baroda
culminated in the formation of the Baroda Group of artists in 1956. Several
of the first generation of his students at Baroda, were members of the
Group. It held regular shows in Bombay, Ahmedabad and Baroda, extensively
showcasing the work being produced at the new art school. After he resigned
from Baroda, Bendre explored Pointillism in his own manner, holding exhibitions
regularly in Bombay.
In 1969, Bendre was awarded the Padamshri by the President of India.
He was elected to chair the International Jury at the Second Indian Triennale
in New Delhi in 1971 and was fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1974.
A Retrospective Exhibition at the Lalit Kala Academy in 1974, was held
as a tribute to his talent. The Aban-Gagan Award from Vishwa Bharati University
in 1984, and the Kalidas Samman in 1984 were some of the other honours
earned by Bendre before he passed away in 1992.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment