Narayan Shridhar Bendre (21 August 1910 – 19 February 1992) was a 20th-century Indian artist and one of the founding members of

Baroda Group The Baroda Group refers to the artists involved with the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, now known as Vadodara in Gujarat state of India. An experimental art school that drew artists of a variety of backgrounds, the ...

Narayan Shridhar Bendre was born in

Indore Indore (; ISO 15919, ISO: , ) is the largest and most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The commercial capital of the state, it has been declared as the List of cleanest cities in India, cleanest city of In ...

. He was known for being landscape artist. In 1992 he was awarded the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

Life and career

Narayan Shridhar Bendre was born in a

Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and North Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Brahmins are also concentr ...

family on 21 August 1910 in

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

. He was initially trained in the State Art School there prior to taking the Government Diploma in Art from

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

in 1933. His initial interests were conditioned by the quasi-

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

landscape painting as practiced in the Indore School at the beginning of the 20th century. An avid traveller, Bendre continued to paint the landscape throughout his career, often with different stylistic means. Early recognition came with the Silver Medal from the Bombay Art Society in 1934, followed by the then ultimate honour of the gold medal in 1941. Part of 1945 was spent as artist-in-residence at

Santiniketan Shantiniketan (IPA: Help:IPA/Bengali, �antiniketɔn is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendra ...

, where he met

Nandalal Bose Nandalal Bose (3 December 1882 – 16 April 1966) was one of the pioneers of modern Indian art and a key figure of Santiniketan: The Making of a Contextual Modernism, Contextual Modernism. A pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, Bose was known for his ...

Ramkinkar Baij Ramkinkar Baij ( (25 May 1906 – 2 August 1980) was an Indian sculpture, sculptor and painter, one of the pioneers of modern Indian sculpture and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. Early life and career Baij was born in an economic ...

and Binode Behari Mukherjee. He also met

Jamini Roy Jamini Roy (11 April 1887 – 24 April 1972) was an Indian painter. He was honoured by the Government of India the award of Padma Bhushan in 1954. He remains one of the most famous pupils of Abanindranath Tagore, another praised Indian art ...

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

. Bendre's early work has been classified as being academic and impressionist, dominant subjects being the landscape and the portrait, in oils and gouache. Bendre was back in Bombay in 1947, from where he left in June for the United States, holding a solo exhibition at the Windermere Gallery, New York, in 1948. On his way back to India, he travelled through Europe, gaining exposure to original works of the modernist masters. An independent nation and an art scene animated by the adventure of the Progressive Artists Group greeted his return in March 1948. In 1950, Bendre moved to

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is a city situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district. The city is named for its abundance of banyan ...

as the first Reader and Head of the Department of Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts. He remained there until 1966, becoming Dean of the Faculty in 1959. He helped lay the foundations of a new program at the

Faculty of Fine Arts Faculty or faculties may refer to: Academia * Faculty (academic staff), professors, researchers, and teachers of a given university or college (North American usage) * Faculty (division), a large department of a university by field of study (us ...

. It was here that he embarked upon a phase held as his most important, which involved experiments with

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

and abstract tendencies, producing such works as Thorn (1955, National Award)', Sunflowers, The Parrot and the Chameleon, which give evidence of his shifting allegiances to currents in mainstream European modernism, and his attempts to combine these with Indian formal and thematic considerations. Travels continued, within India and internationally: he visited West Asia and London in 1958, the US and Japan in 1962. The adventure of modernism that Bendre carried from Bombay to Baroda bore fruit in the formation of the Baroda Group of artists in 1956. Along with Bendre, several of the first generation of his students at Baroda were members of the Group, which held regular shows in Bombay,

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

and Baroda, providing wide exposure to work being produced at the new art school. After he resigned from Baroda in 1966, Bendre experimented with his version of

pointillism Pointillism (, ) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism ...

and held shows in Bombay every alternate year. He was awarded the

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

in 1969. He was elected to chair the International Jury at the Second Triennale in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

in 1971 and as fellow of the

Lalit Kala Academy The Lalit Kala Akademi or National Academy of Art (LKA) is India's national academy of fine arts. It is an autonomous organisation, established in New Delhi in 1954 by Government of India to promote and propagate understanding of Indian art, in ...

in 1974. His career was recognised further with a retrospective exhibition at the Lalit kala Academy in 1974, the Aban-Gagan Award from Vishwa Bharati University in 1984, and the Kalidas Samman in 1984. He continued to paint until his death on 18 February 1992.

Awards and honours

In 1955, Bendre received the National Award from the

Lalit Kala Akademi The Lalit Kala Akademi or National Academy of Art (LKA) is India's national academy of fine arts. It is an autonomous organisation, established in New Delhi in 1954 by Government of India to promote and propagate understanding of Indian art, in ...

for his work, ''Thorn''. In 1969, he received the

award and in 1992, he received the

award. In 1974, he received the fellowship of the Lalit Kala Academy. In 1984, the

Visva Bharati University Visva-Bharati (IAST: ''Viśva-Bhāratī''), () is a Public university, public Central University (India), central university and an Institute of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath ...

conferred him the Aban-Gagan Award and Madhya Pradesh state government conferred him the

Kalidas Samman The Kalidas Samman () is an arts award presented annually by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in India. The award is named after Kālidāsa, a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer of ancient India. The Kalidas Samman was first awarded in 1980. It ...

(1986–87).

Notable works

Hairdo (1949), "The Sunflower" (1955), "Monkey" (1957), "The Cow and the Calf" (1948), "The Female Cowherd" (1956), "Homebound", "The Bullock Cart" and "Gossip"

Students

Students of his included Balkrishna Patel,

Ghulam Rasool Santosh Ghulam Rasool Santosh (1929 – March 10, 1997), also known as G. R. Santosh, was a Kashmiri painter and poet. He was best known for his themes inspired by Kashmir Shaivism. In 1979, he became the recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award for his poem ...

Gulam Mohammed Sheikh Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (born 16 February 1937) is a painter, poet and art critic from Gujarat, India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1983 and Padmabhushan in 2014 for his contribution in field of art. Early life Sheikh was born on 16 Februa ...

Haku Shah Haku Vajubhai Shah (26 March 1934 – 21 March 2019) was an Indian painter, Gandhian, cultural anthropologist and author on folk and tribal art and culture. His art belonged to the Baroda Group and his works are considered in the line of artists ...

Jayant Parikh Jayant Parikh (born 2 April 1940) is an Indian modern contemporary artist, printmaker, and muralist. He is a student of N. S. Bendre, K. G. Subramanyan and Sankho Chaudhuri. He lives and works in Vadodara, India. Biography Jayant Parik ...

, Jyoti Bhatt, Kamudben Patel, Naina Dalal, Shri

Ranjitsinh Pratapsinh Gaekwad Ranjitsinhrao Gaekwad (8 May 1938 – 10 May 2012) was an Indian politician. Early life and education Born 8 May 1938 at Ootacamund, Ranjitsinhrao Gaekwad was the second son of Maharaja Pratap Singh Rao Gaekwad (r. 1939–1951), and Maharani Sh ...

Ratan Parimoo Ratan Parimoo is an Indian art historian from Kashmir Valley, Kashmir, who has worked as an art educator, pedagogue, artist and former director of the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum, Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum, Ahmedabad. Ratan Parimoo was one of the ...

, Shanti Dave, Triloke Kaul.

References

External links