In 1943, a few young artists in Calcutta formed the Calcutta Group. What kind of art did this group believe in?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → An art that was universal in character and free from older values
Option (1) An art that was sentimental and deeply interested in the past — Incorrect. This is what the group did not like in the Bengal School of Art, which it found too sentimental and too interested in the past.
Option (2) An art that was universal in character and free from older values — Correct. The Calcutta Group, formed in 1943, believed in an art that was universal in character and free from older values. They wanted their works to speak of their own times.
Option (3) An art that drew on Mughal and Pahari miniatures and Ajanta frescoes — Incorrect. This was a source of the Bengal School, the older style the group turned away from.
Option (4) An art that captured the immediate environment of flora and fauna — Incorrect. This describes the sketching and painting of Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinker Baij at Shantiniketan.
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): “Modern Ideologies and Political Art in India …In 1943, under the leadership of Prodosh Das Gupta, a sculptor, few young artists formed the Calcutta Group, which included Nirode Mazumdar, Paritosh Sen, Gopal Ghose and Rathin Moitra. The group believed in an art that was universal in character and free from older values. They did not like the Bengal School of Art as it was too sentimental and deeply interested in the past. They wanted their paintings and sculptures to speak of their own times.” |