The Progressive Artists’ Group, usually shortened to PAG, is the closest thing Indian modern art has to a founding myth. Six young painters in Bombay, months after the country became independent, decided that Indian art should stop looking backwards at academic tradition and colonial taste, and start speaking in a voice of its own. They only worked together as a formal group for a few years, yet almost every conversation about modern Indian art still begins with them.
This guide explains who the Progressive Artists’ Group were, why they formed, what happened to them, and why their influence still shows up in the work of contemporary artists such as Vikash Kalra.
What was the Progressive Artists’ Group?
The Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group was an artists’ collective founded in 1947 in what is now Mumbai. It was formed in the weeks and months after Independence and Partition, at a moment when many artists felt that a new nation needed a new visual language. The group is usually credited to F.N. Souza, who pulled together a small circle of like-minded painters from the city’s art schools and studios.
Their aim was not to share a single style. In fact the members painted very differently, from the raw, expressionist heads of Souza to the lyrical landscapes and later abstractions of S.H. Raza. What united them was a refusal to be told what Indian art should look like, whether by the conservative art establishment or by the lingering habits of the British-run art schools.
The six founders of the Progressive Artists’ Group
The six founding members were:
- F.N. Souza, the restless, combative spirit credited with the idea of the group, known for distorted heads, nudes and cityscapes.
- S.H. Raza, a landscape painter who moved from expressionist scenes toward abstraction and, later, the geometry of the bindu.
- M.F. Husain, who began by painting cinema hoardings and became one of the most recognisable painters in the country.
- K.H. Ara, among the first modern Indian painters to take the female nude and the still life seriously as subjects.
- H.A. Gade, a landscape painter who pushed his subjects patiently toward abstraction.
- S.K. Bakre, a painter and sculptor, and the sixth voice of the original group.
Several more artists were drawn into the group’s orbit in the years that followed, including V.S. Gaitonde, Krishen Khanna, Akbar Padamsee and Tyeb Mehta. Together they made Bombay the centre of a new, outward-looking Indian modernism.
Why the Progressive Artists’ Group broke from tradition
Before 1947, much of the official art world in India leaned on two safe options: academic realism taught in colonial art schools, and a revivalist style that looked back to an idealised past. Both felt out of step with a country that had just gone through independence, Partition and enormous upheaval.
The Progressives drew on two sources at once. They looked closely at European modernism, including cubism, expressionism and post-impressionism. They also looked at Indian folk and miniature traditions, and at what was around them in the city. The result was not imitation of either. It was an attempt to show that an Indian artist could stand inside the modern world without apologising for it.
They also took matters into their own hands. When the existing circuit would not show their work, they organised their own exhibitions and set up their own way of choosing what went on the wall. That do-it-yourself attitude is as much a part of their legacy as any painting.
What happened to the group
The Progressive Artists’ Group did not last long as a formal body. Its exhibitions were concentrated in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and from about 1949 several founders began leaving India. Souza went to London, Raza to Paris, and over time the group wound down, with most accounts placing its end in the mid-1950s.
Scattering did not weaken the idea. Each of the founders went on to build a major career, and several became international names. The group became a reference point rather than an institution, and the label “Progressive” now describes a whole generation’s way of working as much as one roster of members.
The legacy of the Progressive Artists’ Group
Three things from the PAG still matter to artists and collectors today:
- Freedom of style. There was no house look. Expressionism, abstraction and figuration sat side by side, which gave later artists permission to find their own language.
- Art as a serious modern conversation. The group treated Indian art as part of world art, not a regional curiosity.
- Artists taking control. By organising shows, writing manifestos and building audiences, they showed that artists could shape their own market and reputation.
Vikash Kalra and the Progressive inheritance
You can see this inheritance in contemporary Indian artists who work across mediums and refuse to settle into a single signature look. Vikash Kalra is a New Delhi artist whose practice moves between painting, drawing and sculpture, from portrait heads and landscapes to bronze and steel figures. His recent solo show at the Artix 5.0 hotel art fair was described on this journal as carrying the influence of Indian modernism while staying distinctly his own. You can read more in our pieces Vikash Kalra at Artix: A Solo Journey Across Paint, Bronze, and Steel and Vikash Kalra: One Voice, Five Mediums.
The connections to the Progressives are specific. Kalra’s painted heads are built from dragged, layered paint and care more about expression than likeness, a thread this journal has traced back to the aggressive, expressionist heads of Souza in Souza’s contemporary touch. His drawings, which we set beside a painting by Husain in Analyzing Art with different artworks, share the Progressives’ love of simplified, charged line. He is not a member of any movement, but he is a good example of the kind of independent, material-curious artist the PAG helped make possible.
Frequently asked questions
When was the Progressive Artists’ Group founded?
It was founded in 1947 in Bombay (now Mumbai), shortly after India’s independence.
Who were the founding members of the Progressive Artists’ Group?
F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza, M.F. Husain, K.H. Ara, H.A. Gade and S.K. Bakre. Souza is generally credited with the idea of forming the group.
Why was the Progressive Artists’ Group important?
It helped define modern Indian art by rejecting both academic and revivalist styles, welcoming many different approaches, and organising its own exhibitions at a time when the established art world was not supportive.
How does the Progressive Artists’ Group connect to contemporary artists like Vikash Kalra?
Contemporary artists such as Vikash Kalra inherit the group’s belief that an Indian artist can work freely across styles and materials. Kalra’s expressive painted heads, drawings and bronze and steel sculptures sit within the wider tradition of Indian modernism that the Progressives opened up.
Keep exploring: read our profiles of each founder in the Progressive Artists’ Group section of the journal.