Sailoz Mookherjea

Sailoz Mookherjea (1907 – 1960) was without doubt a product of École de Paris although he responded to this only when it had relevance to the Indian context. Mookherjea maintained, if Matisse could reproduce the delicacy and elegance of Indian art in his works, (despite its French ethos) then an Indian artist should be able to reproduce the French élan in his work, despite its Indian ethos.

Sailoz Mookherjea was inspired by Indian folk art and the Kangra miniatures. He has many characteristics of the Bengal Revivalist School and 19th century romanticism. His paintings have a clear subject matter, but his scenes of reality were touched with a new poetry and a lyrical quality. Though based on elements of the real world, Sailoz Mookherjea was essentially a visionary. His main medium was oil painting. He was a great colourist as form interested him relatively less and he was always attracted to flat coloured shapes.

The paintings seen here are of his more mature phase. The work is more confident, spontaneous and again lyrical. The paintings are full of light and movement. Sailoz has to be considered one of the major figures in modern Indian art.