Notable Modern Indian Sculptures
Santhal Family
Artist: Ramkinker Baij
Medium: Cement and Concrete
School: Modern School
Santhal Family by Ramkinker Baij (1910-1980) is a rare example of an artist who rose to greatness by sheer willpower and dedication. He was born in 1910 into a poor family of barbers on the outskirts of Bankura, West Bengal. The family could not spare money for his papers, paints, or teaching.
The sculpture Santhal Family is a complex composition featuring two figures standing side by side, a dog, and a child sitting in a basket hanging from a pole. The woman walks beside the man, carrying a load on her head. A dog accompanies the man. It depicts an entire family in migration, symbolizing labor migration. This is a harsh, realistic picture of a family forced to leave their land by hunger. The sculpture follows no set style but reflects the rough textured land of gravel and red clay of Shantiniketan.
Cries Un-heard
Artist: Amar Nath Sehgal
Medium: Bronze
School: Modern School
Cries Un-heard by Amar Nath Sehgal: Amarnath Sehgal was born at Ampbelpur in the district of Attock, Pakistan, in 1922 A.D. After the Indo-Pak partition, he came to India. In 1950 A.D., he earned a Master’s degree in Art from New York University.
The widely known bronze casting entitled Cries Un-heard by Amar Nath Sehgal won him the President’s Golden Plaque Award in 1958. It is a symbolic creation of a family of three figures — the parents and their child — expressing the deep anguish of the sculptor at the injustice prevalent in society. The tall, elongated figures with hollow, distorted faces and hands raised towards the sky are showing the world how, through the ages, they have been victims of political and social injustice with no one to hear their protest. The mask-like faces of the victims seem to suggest they have been suffering in perpetuity at the hands of unjust people in society who have been exploiting them.
Ganesha by P.V. Janakiram
Artist: P.V. Janakiram
Medium: Oxidized Copper, Tin, and Wires
School: Modern School
Ganesha by P.V. Janakiram: P.V. Janakiram was born in Madras (Chennai) in 1930 A.D. He obtained degrees in Fine Art, Sculpture, and Vocational Art from the Art College, Madras. Janakiram’s idols express mystic principles. A main specialty is that the idols are standing, sometimes facing towards one another, and they are ornamented with copper and thin wires.
Aesthetically, P.V. Janakiram’s Ganesha in oxidized copper, preserved in the N.G.M.A. (National Gallery of Modern Art), is one of the finest creations of the sculptor. It is an example of repoussé work, consisting of hammering concave surfaces into the metal to serve the style. It has been termed as frontal sculpture or two-dimensional sculpture. The six-handed dancing figure of Ganesha uses the lower two hands to hold and play the Veena, while the four other hands hold the traditional Shankha-Chakra-Gada-Padma, giving the look of a deity in incarnation. The sculpture shows some unique features of plasticity of form, frontality, continuity and smoothness of surface, and exquisite ornamentation, as there is a conscious effort to revive the folk art of the South.