Refers to the modern art movement that emerged in the 1960s at Madras, the present-day Chennai in South India. Within a larger context of post-independence search for identity, the Madras School of Arts and Crafts played a pivotal role in this regional art movement. Led by the School’s principal K.C.S. Paniker and teacher S.Dhanapal, the Madras Art Movement sought to rethink strategies for deploying traditional regional art forms while maintaining modern sensibility and expressions. The artist-teachers along with students creatively interacted with the vernacular art of the region. The city Madras became an artistic center attracting artists from the southern states of India, where artists drew inspiration from the cultural traditions of their native regions, such as folk and tribal culture, and interpreted them with techniques and tools that were modern.
