In the context of modern art in India, what is the role of artists like Gaganendranath, Amrita Sher-Gil, and Jamini Roy?

1. They rejected modernism
2. They were avant-garde artists
3. They emphasized academic realism
4. They continued traditional art forms

2

Answer: They were avant-garde artists

Modern art in India may have drawn some ideas from the West but it differed from it significantly. The fact that modernism as an art movement came to India when it was still a British colony is hard to deny. This is clear when we turn to artists like Gaganendranath, Amrita Sher-Gil and Jamini Roy, who began to be considered as modern during as early as 1930s. In the West, particularly in Europe, modern art came up when academic realism in art academies began to be rejected. These modern artists saw themselves as avant garde or at the frontier of change from tradition to modernity.