Gaganendranath Tagore

Abstraction , ie compositions beyond forms had been existent in Indian art since time immemorial and elementary abstraction in the form of distortions in proportions, spatial compositions, nonrepresentational colour schemes can be seen in artworks found in ancient temples, caves, forts, etc. Designs seen in folk art forms like Batik, Bandhni, Warli and Gond Works similarly show another form of meaningless aesthetics beyond known forms of nature.

While in European art, movement from realism to abstraction had been a linear progression and pure abstraction as form of fine art arrived only in 20^th century, in the orient, this had never been the case. Oriental Art including Indian art had always exhibited high degrees of abstraction and it was only in 19^th century when these countries were influence by the realist schools (like the Company School) of west. Abstraction which appeared in the western art scene is however quite distinct from the kind of abstraction that existed in India before the coming of colonial powers to these countries.

In the 19^th century when the great debate on national art was initiated by the Bengal School artists, two main schools of though had emerged. One school wanted to adapt the new art forms of India and accordingly this school produced many artworks in European styles of Cubism, Futurism, Impressionism and abstract expressionism. This school included such abstractionists as Gaganendranath Tagore, The other school primarily guided by Abanindranath Tagore tried to reinvestigate into Indian traditional modes of expression and bring these ideas into fine arts.

Ramkumar

The Bengal School movement was for nationalist art and it had helped revive many traditional forms of art and reintroduced many lost techniques of art in India. However the debate on what kind of abstract art should Indian art adapt to, fizzled out in course of time. In the post independence era, many artists had taken up abstraction in art important among whom are Akabar Padamsee, Ramkinkar Baij, Ramkumar, Jehangir Sabbawala, Ganesh Haloi, Raza, GR Santosh, etc. Each of these artists had traversed a very individualist journey to arrive at their own forms of abstraction.

However pure abstraction like pure realism is an impossibility. Modern day abstractionists like Sacha Jafri thush use it only as a technique while keep the thematic construction meaningful.