After World War–I, modern European art began to influence Indian artists. Apart from the Bauhaus exhibition that travelled to Calcutta, through what did this influence reach them?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Art magazines that were in circulation
Option (1) Art schools in Lahore, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras — Incorrect. These schools came up in the nineteenth century and taught academic and naturalist art of Victorian tastes.
Option (2) Paintings of Raja Ravi Varma — Incorrect. Ravi Varma practised an Indianised naturalism, not the new European trends.
Option (3) Shows of the Calcutta Group — Incorrect. The Calcutta Group was formed only in 1943, during the Bengal famine years.
Option (4) Art magazines that were in circulation — Correct. Modern European art reached Indian artists through art magazines. So the Tagores came to know of Cubism and Expressionism.
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): “Introduction to Modernism in India …India’s first nationalist art school, Kala Bhavana, was set up in 1919 as part of the newly established Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan, conceptualised by poet Rabindranath Tagore. It carried the vision of the Bengal School but also followed its own path in creating art meaningful for Indians. This was the time when the whole world was in a state of intense political turmoil in the wake of World War–I. Apart from the famous Bauhaus exhibition that travelled to Calcutta, as discussed in the previous chapter, modern European art influenced Indian artists through art magazines that were in circulation. Artists from the Tagore family — Gaganendranath and poet–painter Rabindranath, thus, knew about the international trends of Cubism and Expressionism…” |