This is an archive article published on February 18, 2019

An exhibition shares how the visually challenged pioneer of modern Indian art, Benode Behari Mukherjee saw the world

Around a month after Santiniketan announced that it will honour its eminent alumni Benode Behari Mukherjee with a gallery dedicated to the work of the visually challenged modernist master, an exhibition in Delhi traces his oeuvre, from the time Mukherjee completed his studies at Kala Bhavan. “He registered as its second student in 1919, when […]

4 min readUpdated: Feb 18, 2019 08:06 AM IST

The work, ‘Two Figures’.

Around a month after Santiniketan announced that it will honour its eminent alumni Benode Behari Mukherjee with a gallery dedicated to the work of the visually challenged modernist master, an exhibition in Delhi traces his oeuvre, from the time Mukherjee completed his studies at Kala Bhavan. “He registered as its second student in 1919, when the institution was established,” says art historian R Siva Kumar, who has curated the exhibition titled “Between Sight and Insight: Glimpses of Benode Behari Mukherjee”. Born into a highly literate family, a childhood illness had left him blind in one eye and myopic in the other. Unable to pursue formal education, Santiniketan is where Mukherjee gave new life to the close association he had built with nature.

At a time when most other artists were instilling nationalistic fervour by turning to mythology and history, Mukherjee was painting his surroundings and the self. “He began to paint landscapes and placed himself in the work, lending a more personal vision. Some of them are quasi-autobiographical paintings. In a way, he is looking at the world through his eyes and we are made aware of that — this is something that Indian artists might do later,” says Siva Kumar, turning to some of the early works in the exhibition.

Sourced from the collection he bequeathed to his daughter, the late artist Mrinalini Mukherjee, the display, spread over two galleries, shows the evolution of the master from a young student to the pioneering modernist who did not let his failing eyesight interfere with his artistic endeavours. If in his teachers in Santiniketan, Nandalal Bose and Rabindranath Tagore, he found guidance, his travels exposed him to global trends as well as more local orientations. Influences of his brief stay in Japan in 1937-38, for instance, are visible in the manner in which he painted scrolls and flowers. “He is not directly influenced in terms of style. He would look at what is the constructional framework underlining the practice,” says Siva Kumar.

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benode behari mukherjee, santiniketan, kala bhavan, art, culture, artist, indian express

Artist Benode Behari Mukherjee.

Back in Santiniketan, in 1946-47 Mukherjee designed what has been described as “perhaps the single most important work painted in modern India” — his mural Life of the Medieval Saints which featured the numerous saint-poets of India.

Appointed as the curator of the Government Museum in Nepal in 1949, he came in close contact with the craftspeople and artisans. “Their work convinced him that a visual language could be structurally simple but rich in functional and expressive suggestiveness, and this is a quality that folk and traditional styles shared with certain post-cubist painting,” writes Siva Kumar in the catalogue. In the exhibition, we see the mountainous terrain with sloping roofs and cloudy skies. The landscape changes in the ’50s, when Mukherjee moves to Mussoorie after travelling to Banaras and Banasthali. With further deterioration in his eyesight, there is a visible change in the line detailing of his landscapes. Appointed educational adviser at the Art School of Patna in 1954, he begins to draw more from memory. “The definite strokes, the graceful web of assured touches, and the measured wash of colour, characteristic of his work so far, give way to vague scribbles, harder edges, and thicker layers of pigment,” notes Siva Kumar.

By the time he returned to Kala Bhavan in 1958, he had lost his eyesight and began to find alternative mediums to experiment with; apart from drawings, he produced several collages and paper cuts, some of which were later turned into coloured lithographs. Siva Kumar writes, “Besides paper cuts and collages, he also made drawings, capturing the form, its edges and spatial disposition in a single gesture. Going further, after exploring the surface with his hands and fixing the field in his mind, he performed a sequence of gestures big and small, leaping blindfolded from island to island, to create complex compositions with several elements.”

A tribute also comes from his student Satyajit Ray. In the 1973 biographical film, The Inner Eye, playing in the gallery, Ray paints a picture of the life story of the modernist, ending with Mukherjee’s now famous observation: “Blindness is a new feeling, a new experience, a new state of being”.

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(The exhibition at Vadehra Art Gallery, Defence Colony, is on till February 22)

Vandana Kalra

Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More

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