Modern Indian Painting: From the de Boer Collection

by Giles Tillotson

Modern Indian Painting presents a survey of Indian painting from the late nineteenth century to the present day, covering major movements including the Bengal School, the Progressive Artists Group and developments since Independence. Focusing on the private collection of Jane and Kito de Boer - remarkable for its broad range and scope - the book clearly delineates major developments over a long period of time, while explaining and illustrating them with previously unpublished examples by many major artists. Numbering around 1,000 works, the de Boer collection (currently in London and Dubai) is one of the largest and most significant collections of modern Indian painting in private hands. The book is based on fresh research by leading authorities in the field, who have studied the collection at first hand. The expertise of each contributor is grounded in their previous publications, but here they go beyond established positions, while addressing new material. The book is thus essential to the specialist while at the same time presenting a broad introduction to the field for the benefit of the general reader.

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 25, 2019

About the author

Giles Tillotson is a writer and lecturer on Indian architecture, art and history. A prolific author, he also works in museum and academic management, in higher education and research, in publishing and in travel.

With family roots in Dorset in the UK, he was educated at Trinity College Cambridge, where he read Philosophy, History of Art and Oriental Studies. On completing his PhD, he was elected a Research Fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge (1986-90). He then taught for fourteen years at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he became Reader in History of Art, and Chair of Art & Archaeology. He is also a Fellow (and former Director) of the Royal Asiatic Society, London.

His areas of special expertise include: the history and architecture of the Rajput courts of Rajasthan, and of the Mughal cities of Delhi and Agra; Indian architecture in the period of British rule and after Independence; and landscape painting in India. He first visited India in 1979 and returned frequently before settling in the country in 2004. He now lives in Gurgaon near Delhi. He is married to the architect and designer Vibhuti Sachdev.

In recent years he has given lectures and informal talks to individual travellers and to visiting groups from institutions including the Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Yale alumni, Yale School of Architecture, Princeton University, YPO and CEO.