The Modern Picturesque presents a selection of 20th century paintings that bring specifically Indian perspectives to bear on an aesthetic idea that was first articulated in late 18th century England and grew popular across Europe in the decades that followed. The concept of the picturesque stakes out a middle ground between the beautiful — constituted by order and symmetry — and the sublime, which partakes of vastness and power engendering fear and awe. Picturesque landscapes are attractive to the eye while possessing a certain roughness, irregularity and dynamism. India was a favourite subject for European painters of the picturesque, who filled exhibition halls and albums with evocatively dilapidated monuments and alluringly costumed natives. The artists in The Modern Picturesque include well-known names as well as unrecognized voices rescued from obscurity by a gallery whose programme is devoted to archival investigation and historical retrieval. Born between 1908 and 1925, these artists matured at a time of tension between European influences and indigenous styles. Their compositions draw from both traditions, as also from neighbouring civilisations like Iran and China, transforming ideas of the picturesque in the process. Where European depictions are impelled by a taste for the exotic, Indian artists, working from within the culture, surround striking architectural forms with the throb and hum of daily life. The Modern Picturesque: An Indian Gaze is curated by Girish Shahane