DAG Modern is pleased to bring to New York its celebration of the naked body in Indian modern art. With over 90 works, The Naked & the Nude brings together an exciting range of styles and artistic explorations from a diverse group of 37 Indian modernists and showcases the wide presence of the bare body in Indian modern art, drawing in the discourses connoted by the terms ‘naked’ and ‘nude’. The artists range from those known for their exploration of sexual themes and the body, such as F. N. Souza, Laxma Goud, P. T. Reddy, Avinash Chandra, Laxman Pai, or M. F. Husain to others known for a different oeuvre and who surprise with their engagement with the bare body–such as K. K. Hebbar or the landscape artist Gopal Ghose.

The range of expressions reflect the various rasas or mood of traditional Indian thought–from the joyful, sorrowing, reflective and exultant to the repellant–proving the extraordinary draw the human body has always been to the visual artist. The works are presented within several categories: the academic study, the sensual and the erotic, the body in narrative, anguish and fantasy, and the abstracted and ritual body.

The exhibition brings together expressions from the classical–such as Radha Charan Bagchi’s response to Manet and Titian’s Olympia and Venus respectively; the lasciviously presented women popularised by Indian calendar art to which contributed turn-of-the-twentieth-century academic style artists such as Hemendranath Majumadar in pin-up images; those by the Bengal School artists within the mythological space or nude studies of the elegant, graceful body made as part of art school training–to an exhilarating range of works that draw on sources as diverse as erotic temple sculptures, tantra art, folk art and popular culture. On view are sensitive and nuanced explorations of the muscular, preening body as the desirous and desirable body; as equally, the wasted, aged body that repels; the body as sexual as well as the body as contemplative, the ascetic body, the body in fantasy, feminist articulations and the suffering, tormented body that is the site of violence as seen, for instance, in the works of Jogen Chowdhury, Bikash Bhattacharjee or Rabin Mondal.

A substantial, illustrated volume featuring color plates, profiles of the featured artists and essays charting the eventful journey of the body’s presence in Indian art accompanies the exhibition.

ABOUT DAG MODERN

Founded in New Delhi in 1993, DAG Modern (formerly Delhi Art Gallery), is widely recognized as one of the leading galleries specializing in 20th century Indian art. DAG Modern has built, and owns entirely, what is likely the largest inventory of modern Indian art and has over 400 artists in its collection. The gallery showcases well-known and significant painters and sculptors such as F. N. Souza, M. F. Husain, S. H. Raza, Ram Kumar, K. Hebbar, V. S. Gaitonde, Ganesh Pyne, Bikash Bhattacharjee, and Avinash Chandra, as well as lesser-known but equally talented artists.

DAG Modern has traced, compiled, restored and archived entire collections. The gallery has organized numerous historically significant exhibitions that have been lauded for their curatorial excellence, range and the sheer number of landmark works. Exhibitions include artist retrospectives, those tracing art movements such as Mumbai Modern and Continuum on the Bombay Progressives, and The Art of Bengal, and numerous thematic exhibitions, such as Indian Landscapes, Indian Abstracts, Indian Divine and Indian Portraits or The Naked and the Nude, besides its signature, bi-annual Manifestations series that presents a select collection of modern art by seventy-five of the most important Indian artists. Each exhibition is accompanied by a handsome book of art scholarship that stands out for its high production quality, featuring research by leading art scholars and rare, archival material from the gallery’s collection.

In New Delhi, DAG Modern has a flagship gallery in picturesque Hauz Khas Village and a second location which opened in 2009 in the exclusive DLF Emporio mall. 2013 marked its Mumbai debut in a beautifully restored historic building in the Kala Ghoda art district. In March 2015, DAG Modern expanded its presence internationally with the opening of a 7,000 square foot space in Manhattan’s historic Fuller Building on 57th Street. DAG Modern participates each year in a number of leading national and international art fairs, such as Art Basel Hong Kong, Art 15 London, Art Stage Singapore and India Art Fair. DAG’s exhibitions and accompanying books form part of the gallery’s ongoing efforts to shed light on the extraordinary and unique Indian modernism journey and expand the reach of Indian modern art to new locations and audiences