The 17th International Congress on Art Deco®, held on 24 October 2025 in Paris, invited papers from all over the world to discuss the evolution of Art Deco from the 1925 Exposition and its impact internationally. Our Founder Trustee Atul Kumar, selected by a scientific committee, presented the paper “The Influence of European Artists on India’s Emerging Modernity”.
In a wave of artistic and cultural renaissance, European artists and designers were invited by Indian royalty to paint a modern India. Working through a variety of mediums, these artists synthesised Art Deco, modernist, and traditional Indian styles into a new design language that shaped the 20th century. Indian princely families, such as the Holkars of Indore, played a key role in importing avant-garde expressions of art and architecture. Bombay, as a port city, served as an entry point for these influences, showcasing this distinctively Indian vocabulary of modernism in churches, cinemas and even royal homes. Figures like Walter Langhammer and Rudolf von Leyden mentored Indian artists, contributing to the formation of the Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG), which gave rise to Indian modernism. This presentation led to a prolific dialogue around the diverse cohort of European artists in the early 20th century, India’s lesser known entry in the global annals of the Art Deco style.
This video has been reposted with the permission of the Paris Art Deco Society.
