A 1922 Bauhaus exhibition of Klee and Kandinsky travelled to Calcutta…

A 1922 Bauhaus exhibition of Klee and Kandinsky travelled to Calcutta. What did this exhibition give Indian artists and the public for the first time?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → A direct encounter with modern art of an abstract kind

Option (1) A direct encounter with the academic realism of Europe — Incorrect. The Bauhaus artists had rejected academic realism, and this is what appealed to the Swadeshi artists.
Option (2) A direct encounter with modern art of an abstract kind — Correct. Their abstract language of squares, circles, lines and colour patches gave Indian artists and the public their first direct encounter with modern art of this kind.
Option (3) A direct encounter with the wash technique of painting — Incorrect. The wash technique was taught at Shantiniketan by two Japanese artists who came with Kakuzo Okakura, not by the Bauhaus exhibition.
Option (4) A direct encounter with oil painting of the West — Incorrect. The Japanese artists who came with Okakura taught the wash technique as an alternative to western oil painting. The Bauhaus works showed an abstract language of squares, circles, lines and colour patches, not oil painting.

Note: This topic was not named in the CUET 2026 syllabus, but it was part of the NCERT chapter. In 2025 and 2026, NTA also asked questions on topics in NCERT that the CUET syllabus did not name. So our mocks have questions from every part of the NCERT chapter, to give you enough practice. Read the whole chapter, not only the sub-topics named in the syllabus.

NCERT (2026-27): “Pan-Asianism and Modernism …Hence, the year 1922 may be regarded as a remarkable one, when an important exhibition of works by Paul Klee, Kandinsky and other artists, who were part of the Bauhaus School in Germany, travelled to Calcutta. These European artists had rejected academic realism, which appealed to the Swadeshi artists. They created a more abstract language of art, consisting of squares, circles, lines and colour patches. For the first time, Indian artists and the public had a direct encounter with modern art of this kind.…”

A 1922 Bauhaus exhibition of Klee and Kandinsky travelled to Calcutta. What did this exhibition give Indian artists and the public for the first time?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → A direct encounter with modern art of an abstract kind

Option (1) A direct encounter with the academic realism of Europe — Incorrect. The Bauhaus artists had rejected academic realism, and this is what appealed to the Swadeshi artists.
Option (2) A direct encounter with modern art of an abstract kind — Correct. Their abstract language of squares, circles, lines and colour patches gave Indian artists and the public their first direct encounter with modern art of this kind.
Option (3) A direct encounter with the wash technique of painting — Incorrect. The wash technique was taught at Shantiniketan by two Japanese artists who came with Kakuzo Okakura, not by the Bauhaus exhibition.
Option (4) A direct encounter with oil painting of the West — Incorrect. The Japanese artists who came with Okakura taught the wash technique as an alternative to western oil painting. The Bauhaus works showed an abstract language of squares, circles, lines and colour patches, not oil painting.