Periods, Cultures, Styles > British Raj
British Raj
This period marked the end of the British East India Company and the official start of British imperial rule (known as British Raj) in 1858. With increased British presence and political control on the subcontinent, new artistic forms and practices emerged. Government-run art and design schools that drew upon European curricula were increasingly popular in the second half of the nineteenth century, training students in techniques of linear perspective and the use of oil paints. This period also includes the rise of anti-colonial nationalists movements and the work of avant-garde modernists whose artistic affiliations and interactions include those in Bombay, Calcutta, and Lahore as well as in Paris, London, and New York.
Works of Art
Artists

El Anatsui, Old Man’s Cloth, 2011, bottle caps, material, material (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)