Life in Indian Art : an analytical view by Dr. Ved Prakash Bhardwaj

 

Painting by Amrita Sher-Gil. Bride Toilet. Source: public domain

Indian art has always been connected with life. Whether we look at folk traditions, tribal paintings, miniature schools, or modern and contemporary works, one important element remains constant: the celebration of everyday life. The forms, themes, and styles may change from one century to another, but life continues to be the central inspiration behind Indian creativity.

Woodcut by Chittoprasad

From ancient times onward, art in India has never belonged only to kings, temples, or wealthy classes. It has flourished in villages, on mud walls, in courtrooms, on palm leaves, in caves, and on canvas. It grows wherever there is life, emotion, memory, and imagination. Thus, Indian art becomes not only a visual expression but also an archive of how people lived, how they worked, how they worshipped, how they celebrated, and how they felt.

life in mithila painting

Folk and Tribal Art: Art Rooted in Life

The clearest example of life-based art is found in folk and tribal art. In these traditions, art is not a separate profession or a luxury; it is a part of living. A festival, a wedding, a harvest season, or a ritual automatically produces art. The walls of houses become the canvas, and nature provides the tools—soil, leaves, stones, plant colors.

Paintings from Madhubani, Warli, Gond, Pattachitra, Bhil art, Sohrai, and Kalamkari show a world full of farming, marriage rituals, forests, gods, animals, motherhood, and music. There is no artificial separation between life and art. Nature, society, faith, and everyday work become inseparable parts of this expression.

Warli painting

These works rarely show kings or dramatic heroism. Instead, they present simple, yet profound, slices of existence—women preparing food, farmers sowing seeds, hunters in the forest, children playing, birds, cattle, seasonal festivities, and community gatherings. The beauty of folk art lies in its simplicity, vitality, and closeness to nature.

Miniature Painting: Life Replaced by Royalty

When we turn to miniature painting, life seems to take a different form. Miniature schools such as Mughal, Rajasthani, Deccani, and Pahari Kalam were largely funded by kings and emperors. As a result, artists painted what the courts demanded: royal portraits, hunting expeditions, palace love stories, religious scenes, and mythological narratives.

Common life disappeared from these surfaces. Instead of farmers or ordinary women, we see richly dressed rulers, queens, musicians, elephants, court dancers, and divine figures. Even when nature appears, it is more decorative than lived. The trees, rivers, birds, and mountains serve beauty rather than experience.

Despite their technical brilliance and delicate brushwork, miniature paintings often remain distant from everyday realities. They show an idealized or luxurious life that belonged only to a few.

Painting by Ram Kinkar Baij

Modern Art Brings Back Ordinary Life

Amrita Sher-Gil was one of the earliest and most influential modernist painters in India to portray the everyday lives of ordinary people, especially women. At a time when much of Indian art focused on mythology or elite subjects, Sher-Gil shifted attention toward the lived experiences of the common man. Her works—such as Three Girls, Bride’s Toilet, and Village Scene—capture the emotional depth, struggles, and quiet dignity of rural life. Through this focus, she helped bring the realities of ordinary individuals into the mainstream of modern Indian art, earning her recognition as a pioneer who humanized and modernized artistic representation in India.

Paintign by Haku Shah

With the rise of modern art, life once again becomes the focus of Indian creativity. The colonial period introduced western education in art schools like the JJ School of Art in Mumbai, where artists learned perspective, anatomy, oil techniques, and realism. Although the style was influenced by European methods, the subject matter began to shift toward Indian life.

Painting by Nandlal Bose

Urban cities, markets, colonial streets, industrial workers, students, middle-class families, and office employees started appearing on canvas. Meanwhile, the Bengal School took inspiration from Indian heritage, rural culture, and the simplicity of folk life. Artists like Nandalal Bose, Binod Bihari Mukherjee, Yamini Roy and Abanindranath Tagore rejected both western romanticism and courtly extravagance. They painted humans engaged in everyday tasks—women drawing water from wells, farmers working, children learning, village fairs, and devotional practices.

For the first time, ordinary women were not treated as decorative figures. They were shown working in the fields, raising children, walking to rivers, selling goods, and performing rituals with dignity and strength. The most powerful contribution came from Ramkinkar Baij, whose sculptures and paintings brought tribal life and rural labourers to the forefront. His large sculptures of Santhal people, especially the Santhal Family, are milestones in Indian art. They show peasants walking with their children and belongings, symbolizing strength, survival, and migration. Through such works, art stepped into the real world of struggle, identity, and social truth.

Painting by Satish Gujral

Art after Independence: New Ideas, New Realities

After independence, India entered a new journey full of hope, pain, and questions. The horrors of Partition, the dream of democracy, growth of capitalism, rise of socialism and communism, and rapid modernization affected artists deeply. Art was no longer only about depicting life; it was also about questioning life.

Painting by Arpana Caur

In the 1960s and 1970s, artists began to paint not only what they saw, but also what they felt, thought, feared, and protested against. The canvas became a space for emotional and psychological exploration. Themes such as poverty, gender inequality, social injustice, political violence, loneliness, and identity crises came into focus.

Painting by Arpita Singh

Artists like Somnath Hore, Chittaprosad, M.F. Husein, Souza, Tyeb Mehta, Akbar Padamsee, Bhupen Khakhar, NS Bendre, Arpita Singh, Anjali Ela Menon, B. Prabha, Ganesh Pyne, Shyamal Dutta Ray, Bikas Bhattacaryjee, Jogen Chowdhury, Manu Parekh, Madhavi Parekh, Dhiraj Chowdhury, prakash Krmakar, Paritosh Sen, Satish Gujral, Jai Zarotia, Amit Ambalal, Hakku Shah, Gulam Mohammd Shekh, Neelima Shekh, Rekha Rodvittia, N. Pushpmala, Lalitha Lazami, Naina Kanodia, Latika Katta, and many more pushed Indian art toward new directions. They expressed not just appearances, but underlying truths. The influence of global movements, political journalism, student activism, and industrialization made art more critical and reflective.

Paintign by Gulam Mohammad Shekh

Art did not change society directly, but it transformed how intellectuals and thinkers looked at society. It offered a mirror that did not beautify reality but revealed its cracks.

Painting by Jogen Chowdhury

Life and Conceptual Art in the 21st Century

In the 21st century, Indian art entered a new phase dominated by conceptual ideas, surreal forms, unusual materials, and experimental installations. The artist’s focus shifted from how a painting looks to what it means. Sometimes the concept dominates so strongly that the visual form becomes secondary or confusing for viewers.

painting by Jagannath Panda

This created a distance between the art and the audience. Art now required explanation, writing, curatorial notes, and sometimes technical understanding. Many viewers began to feel excluded. Yet, alongside conceptual art, many artists continued to engage deeply with life by showing pain, memory, gender struggles, environmental issues, migration, and urban isolation.

Painting by Vijender Sharma

Artists like Arpita Singh, Sudhir Patwardhan, Laxma Goud, Satish Gujral, Jogen Chowdhury, Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh, Neelima Shekh, Lalitha Lazami, B. Prabha, Dheeraj Choudhury, Atul Dodiya, Neeraj Goswami, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Vijender Shrma, Jagannath Panda, Rekha Rodwittia, G.R. Iranna, Arpana Caur, Gogi Saroj Pal, Ved Nayer, Shipra Bhattacharya, Maruti Shilke, K.S. Radhakrishnan, GR Iranna, Jagannath Panda, Veer Munshi, Arun Panidt,  and many others continue to keep life at the centre of their art. On the other hand, abstract and experimental artists such as Prabhakar Barwe, Prabhakar Kolte, Jeram Patel, Shobha Broota, Amitava Das, Mona Rai, Santosh Verma, Manish Pushkale, Amrut Patel, Anil Gaikwad, Nupur Kundu, Harpreet Singh, Pandurang Tathe, Vijayraj Bodhankar, And many more explore life through colour, texture, and form rather than direct representation.

Painting by Veer Munshi

The Challenge of Medium-Based Art Today

A new trend today focuses heavily on unconventional materials—metal scraps, plastics, digital projections, industrial waste, sound, light, fabric, and recycled products. While experimentation is necessary, problems arise when medium becomes more important than meaning. When art stops reflecting life, it risks losing its human connection. Many viewers find themselves unable to relate or understand what they are looking at.

Art must evolve, but it must not forget the society from which it grows. If art forgets life, it becomes hollow; if art remembers life, it remains meaningful.

The journey of Indian art shows one unbroken truth: art survives only when it is connected to life. Whether it is the tribal painter using natural colours, the miniature artist painting court life, the modern painter exploring labourers, or the contemporary artist expressing identity struggles—each reflects a lived reality.

Indian art is not merely visual decoration; it is a living dialogue with people, nature, dreams, pain, and hope. As long as art continues to breathe the air of life, it will evolve, challenge, inspire, and remain rooted in the soil of human experience. Art that comes from life goes back to life, and this intimate relationship is what makes Indian art unique, diverse, and eternally alive.

Note: All Images from public domain and used only for refrence.