The Architecture of the Void: Lines on a Postcolonial Skeleton

18 Apr - 30 May, 2026 at Gallery Dotwalk, New Delhi

What does it mean for a newly decolonised nation to draw itself into being on something as fragile as paper? In the decades after Independence and Partition, many artists in India chose the immediacy of drawing, etching and watercolour over the monumentality of oil on canvas, testing modernism in a register where doubt, hesitation and erasure could remain visible. On paper, every line is both proposition and risk; every stain can become an after-image of history.

This exhibition begins from that choice of surface as an act. Rather than treating works on paper as preliminary or minor, The Architecture of the Void understands them as a primary field where the pressures of a postcolonial world are negotiated. Here, paper functions as a sensitive membrane, absorbing the claustrophobia of new cities, the vulnerability of bodies, and the pull of mythic and cosmic imaginaries.

Bringing together works on paper by Badri Narayan, Bhupen Khakhar, Bireswar Sen, F. N. Souza, G. R. Santosh, J. Swaminathan, Jangarh Singh Shyam, Jogen Chowdhury, K. H. Ara, K K. Hebbar, Meera Mukherjee, Piraji Sagara, Prabhakar Barwe, Ram Kumar, Sadanand Bakre and Somnath Hore, the exhibition follows the trajectory of the line rather than the usual categories of school, region or chronology. Architectural grids buckle into shards; bodies are cross-hatched into sites of wound and endurance; folklore, Himalayan vistas and Neo?Tantric geometries open the page to other ways of sensing time and space.

Taken together, these works suggest that the “postcolonial skeleton” of Indian modernism may be traced not only across iconic canvases but within these quieter, more precarious sheets of paper. They are places where the void left by empire is confronted and reimagined; where artists, and now viewers, continue to sketch forms of attention, empathy and solidarity into existence, line by line.

The Architecture of the Void: Lines on a Postcolonial Skeleton What does it mean for a newly decolonised nation to draw itself into being on something as fragile as paper? In the decades after Independence and Partition, many artists in India chose the immediacy of drawing, etching and watercolour... Read More

The Architecture of the Void: Lines on a Postcolonial Skeleton

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Curator : Dotwalk Curatorial and Research Team

The Dotwalk curatorial and research team regularly engages with art community at national and international level, to find new research and curatorial avenues, update gallery portfolio and showcase curated artworks.

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Works on Display

Untitled

Watercolour and Pen on Paper

14.25 x 10.25 inches , 1999

by Badri Narayan

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Untitled

Watercolour and Pen on Paper

10.75 x 16.25 inches , 1998

by Badri Narayan

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Still-Life

Watercolour, Pen and Ink on Paper

14.5 x 14.5 inches , 1994

by Badri Narayan

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Chaddanta Jataka With Cloud, Rock, Tree and Boat

Watercolor on Paper

10.75 x 14.5 inches, 1960

by Badri Narayan

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Untitled

Pastel on Paper

7 x 10 inches , 1960

by Bhupen Khakhar

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Untitled

Watercolor on Paper

3 x 4.25 inches, 1960

by Bireswar Sen

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Untitled

Watercolor on Paper

3.4 x 4.8 inches, 1960

by Bireswar Sen

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Untitled

Watercolor on Paper

3.4 x 4.8 inches, 1960

by Bireswar Sen

Express Interest

Untitled

Watercolor on Paper

3 x 4 inches, 1960

by Bireswar Sen

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Untitled

Watercolor on Paper

3.5 x 4.5 inches, 1960

by Bireswar Sen

Express Interest

Untitled

Watercolor on Paper

3.4 x 4.8 inches, 1960

by Bireswar Sen

Express Interest

Untitled

Watercolor on Paper

3.5 x 4.5 inches, 1960

by Bireswar Sen

Express Interest

Untitled

Ink on Paper

11 x 9 inches, 1982

by F N Souza

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Untitled

Watercolor on Paper

21 x 14 inches, 1969

by G R Santosh

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Untitled

Gouache on Paper

12 x 9 inches , 1954

by G R Santosh

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Untitled

Charcoal on Rice Paper

19 x 14.5 inches, 1980

by J Swaminathan

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Untitled

Charcoal on Rice Paper

19 x 14.5 inches, 1980

by J Swaminathan

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Untitled

Ink on Paper

12.5 x 20.25 inches, 1996

by Jangarh Singh Shyam

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Wounded

Pen and Ink, pastel, water colour on paper

22 x 30 Inches

by Jogen Chowdhury

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Untitled

Acrylic on Paper

20.75 x 29.25 inches, 1960

by K H Ara

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Shikaras (Dal Lake) Kashmir

Ink and Felt Pen on Paper

10.75 x 14.75 inches, 1982

by K K Hebbar

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Pahalgam/Kashmir

Postercolour on Paper

10 x 14.25 inches , 1957

by K K Hebbar

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Untitled

Watercolor on Paper

16 x 22 inches , 1950

by Meera Mukherjee

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Untitled

Pastel on Paper

20 x 15 inches , 1968

by Piraji Sagara

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Untitled

Mixed Media on Paper

21.5 x 28.5 inches , 1967

by Prabhakar Barwe

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Untitled

Water colour on paper

23 x 36 Inches, 1983

by Ram Kumar

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Untitled

Oil Pastel on Paper

5 x 8.5 inches

by Sadanand Bakre

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Untitled

Oil Pastel on Paper

7 x 9.5 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

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Untitled

Oil Pastel on Paper

7 x 10 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

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Untitled

Oil Pastel on Paper

7 x 9.5 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

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Untitled

Oil Pastel on Paper

4.75 x 8.5 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

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Untitled

Oil Pastel on Paper

4.75 x 8.5 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

Express Interest

Untitled

Oil Pastel on Paper

5 x 8.5 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

Express Interest

Untitled

Oil Pastel on Paper

7.5 x 9.5 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

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Untitled

Pastel on Paper

9 x 7 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

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Untitled

Pastel on Paper

7 x 9 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

Express Interest

Untitled

Pastel on Paper

7.5 x 9.75 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

Express Interest

Untitled

Pastel on Paper

7.5 x 9.75 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

Express Interest

Untitled

Pastel on Paper

7.5 x 9.75 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

Express Interest

Untitled

Pastel on Paper

7.5 x 9.75 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

Express Interest

Untitled

Pastel on Paper

4.5 x 8 inches, 1950

by Sadanand Bakre

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Blacksmith

Water colour on paper

10 x 7 inches, 1960

by Somnath Hore

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Untitled

Ink on Paper

15 x 11 inches, 1978

by Somnath Hore

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