At Frieze Masters 2026, Indian Modernism offers a complex, transnational history in its own right. The fair—running at The Regent’s Park, London, from 14–18 October foregrounds overlooked twentieth-century practices, including a rare international presentation of work by modern India’s abstractionist Ganesh Haloi.
- Akar Prakar presents Ganesh Haloi: Early Foray into Abstraction, curated by Devika Singh and Sofia Gotti.
Spanning works from the mid-1950s through the 1970s, the presentation traces a pivotal period in Haloi’s artistic journey following his participation in the Archaeological Survey of India’s Ajanta Documentation Project. Bringing together a carefully curated selection of paintings and works on paper, the presentation explores the evolution of Haloi’s distinctive abstract language, shaped by memory, landscape, displacement, and geological time.
2. Jhaveri Contemporary show hitherto unseen figurative works by Anwar Jalal Shemza. This display conjures a conversation between a series of spiky male heads made in 1956–57 and a series of elegant silkscreens from the 1970s of female figures, often nude and set within a simplified architectural framework.
Anwar Jalal Shemza is a world-renowned British Pakistani painter. There has been greater recognition of his work since his death in 1985 beginning with the pioneering exhibition ‘The Other Story’ 1989, Hayward Gallery. Shemza’s painting ‘The Wall’ was chosen to illustrate the cover of the catalogue. His unique style developed through a painting practice which fused Western ideas of abstraction with Eastern influences such as Islamic architecture and calligraphy.
3. Art Exposure presents a focused selection of works by Nihar Ranjan Chowdhury in the Spotlight section, curated by Dr. Devika Singh and Dr. Sofia Gotti.
The presentation brings together a selection of scrolls and card drawings, offering an intimate view into an artist whose practice developed through an engagement with the artistic traditions of Santiniketan and the disciplines of Chinese ink and calligraphy.
Chowdhury studied at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, under Nandalal Bose and within the intellectual and artistic milieu shaped by Rabindranath Tagore. In 1947, he became the first Indian artist to receive a Chinese Government scholarship, travelling to Beijing to study traditional ink and wash painting. His subsequent practice reveals a distinctive dialogue between Chinese brushwork and Bengali calligraphic forms.
Akara Modern has a solo presentation of works by Piraji Sagara (1931–2014). (Booth S17)
One of the most compelling and innovative artists of post-Independence India, Sagara forged a singular visual language at the intersection of sculpture, relief, and collage. Transforming humble and salvaged materials into poetic structures, his practice was shaped by memory, faith, and the lived landscape of Gujarat.
DAG presents Inheritance & Imagination: 18th–21st Century Indian Art brings together works that trace these shifting modes of representation and artistic exchange. Beginning with William Daniell’s depiction of the hill fort of Bijaigarh in Uttar Pradesh, the selection moves through the Company School traditions of Agra and Calcutta, Early Bengal oils, Kalighat pats and the Bengal School, before turning to the experimentation and diverse trajectories of Indian modernism.
Together, the works reveal how inherited traditions and new ideas continually intersect, as artists engaged with questions of identity, politics, memory and modernity. Featuring works by artists including William Daniell, Sewak Ram, Asit Kumar Haldar, M. A. R. Chughtai, Chittaprosad, Rabin Mondal, Madhvi Parekh and others, the exhibition reflects the richness and plurality of India’s visual culture.
List of artists
Agra Artist (Company School), Altaf, Ambadas, Asit Kumar Haldar, Avinash Chandra, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Biren De, Calcutta Artist (Company School), Chittaprosad, Edwin Lord Weeks, G. R. Santosh, Gieve Patel, Jyoti Bhatt, Kanwal Krishna, Kshitindranath Mazumdar, Laxman Pai, M. A. R. Chughtai, Madhvi Parekh, Nirode Mazumdar, P. T. Reddy, Rabin Mondal, Radha Charan Bagchi, Rajendra Dhawan, Ramgopal Vijaivargiya, Shanti Dave, Sunil Das, Unidentified Artist (Early Bengal School), Unidentified Artist (Kalighat Pat), and William Daniell.
For Indian audiences, the significance is twofold. First, artists such as Haloi and Chowdhury are receiving institutional and market visibility outside India, potentially reshaping international collecting and scholarship. Second, their presentation challenges the tendency, visible in earlier global exhibitions of Indian contemporary art to privilege the contemporary while bypassing the modern.
Contributor
