Christ

Before I left India, I was able to draw artists towards me because I was successful. Artists like Raza, Husain, Ara, saw that I had a new sort of dynamism and an originality, and I saw equally, uniqueness in their work and we were drawn towards each other and formed the Progressive Artists Group which set the stamp of the aesthetics of modern Indian art. When Dr Mulk Raj Anand, Ph.D, one of the original Progressive writers, opened the first exhibition of PAG at the Bombay Art Society Salon on July 7, 1949, a new era of Indian art was born.
(Interview with Dr. A.S. Raman, 11 August 1986)

After the bout in Paris I went to London. (I'd been married in Bombay to a girl from Goa who was half Portuguese. She had brought the first painting I ever sold in my first one-man show in 1945. Later I courted her and married her in 1947. Her name is Maria Figueredo, and she now runs an art gallery in London. She still owns that first painting of mine among several others.) My wife had arrived, and soon she became pregnant. My daughter was born in May 1951. I also joined the Central School of Art in London, but I kept on going to Paris frequently where I had group exhibitions with Raza and Padamsee, as well as one man shows. I had my first one man show in London in 1955, at Gallery One. The art situation in London was pretty dull and my first one man show created a sensation. Long reviews and all the paintings sold out.
(Written interview with Varsha)