Explore the pre-modern artworks of Madras with this exhibition

Art enthusiasts and history buffs are in for a treat with Ashvita’s exhibition titled Light and Legacy: Pre-modern Art and Plein Air Painting in Madras, curated by Ashvin E. Rajagopalan. This showcase invites viewers to step into an era when Madras was a crucible of early artistic innovation—well before the rise of modernism and the Cholamandal movement.

The exhibition brings together a remarkable array of works by pioneers such as D.P. Roy Chowdhury, K.C.S. Paniker, S. Dhanapal, and G.D. Paulraj, alongside revered Bengal School figures like Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, and Nandalal Bose. Many of these paintings, created in the open air or plein air, capture now-vanished streetscapes and pastoral corners of Madras in the 1930s and 1940s—areas like Triplicane, Mylapore, and neighbouring villages.

According to curator Ashvin E. Rajagopalan, the exhibition didn’t evolve from a traditional research-based curatorial model. Instead, it emerged from a decade-long journey of collecting, observing, and connecting artworks and artists across regions. “I acquired a G.D. Paulraj watercolour nearly ten years ago. Then, just before the pandemic, another of his works surfaced in England. That led me to dig deeper into who Paulraj was—and what I uncovered was an entire network of artists linked by a visual language rooted in plein air painting,” he explains.

These discoveries sparked the central idea behind Light and Legacy—that artists from Madras, Bombay, and beyond were part of a broader practice of outdoor watercolour painting, driven in part by the need for quick colour references for printmaking, magazines, and calendars. But the works themselves transcend utility; they offer intimate glimpses of a time when art was grounded in observation, technique, and place.

A two-part narrative

The exhibition is thoughtfully structured in two sections. “The first half is a visual timeline—it situates Madras within the larger map of Indian art education and movements,” says Ashvin. This portion walks visitors through the foundation of art schools in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, and charts the emergence of the Bengal School and its influence.

The second half homes in on Madras, presenting a chronological display of artists who studied at the Government College of Fine Arts. “Each generation almost lines up with a succession of principals,” Ashvin points out. “Roy Chowdhury had Paulraj as his first student. Then came Paniker, Dhanapal, Krishna Rao, and so on—all of whom later became principals themselves.”

This lineage of artists were not just practitioners but educators who shaped generations. Their contributions to Madras’ artistic heritage are now being recontextualised through this exhibition, offering audiences a rare opportunity to witness their formative work.

A Madras rooted in history

While rooted in pre-independence India, the artworks speak with timeless immediacy. Their delicate watercolours, expressive lines, and vivid colours reflect the visual language of a city in transition—at once colonial and indigenous, traditional and experimental.

“Everything on display was painted in and around Madras,” Ashvin notes. “These are real places, familiar and forgotten, rendered in a style that’s both academic and spontaneous.”

Interestingly, the exhibition doesn’t try to straddle the line between traditional and modern. “This is not traditional, nor is it modern,” he clarifies. “We define it as pre-modern—a distinct period before Madras’ formal entry into modernism in the 1960s with the rise of Cholamandal and the creation of the Tamil Nadu state.”

On till April 20. 11 am to 7 pm. At Lalit Kala Akademi, Thousand Lights.

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