UPHESC Assistant Professor Drawing & Painting 2025 PYQs

Concept: ‘The Persistence of Memory’ (1931, melting clocks) is by the Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dalí; it is in MoMA, New York.

1. Manet – realism/Impressionist forerunner; Monet – Impressionism (‘Impression, Sunrise’); Picasso – Cubism.

Short trick: Melting clocks = Dalí.

Concept: Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published the Founding Manifesto of Futurism in Le Figaro (Paris) on 20 Feb 1909.

1. Boccioni later co-signed the Futurist painting manifesto (1910); Joseph Stella was an American follower.

Short trick: Futurism 1909 – Marinetti – Le Figaro.

Concept: Surrealism (André Breton’s manifesto, 1924) explored dreams and the unconscious.

1. André Masson (automatic drawing), Joan Miró and Pierre Roy took part in the first Surrealist exhibition (1925).
2. Georges Braque was a co-founder of Cubism, not a Surrealist.

Short trick: Braque = Cubism (with Picasso).

Concept: A. Ramachandran often paints himself into his large mural-like canvases (e.g. lotus-pond series, ‘Yayati’) as a small observer or narrator – like the sutradhar of Indian drama.

1. The device comes from Kerala temple murals that he studied.
2. K.G. Subramanyan, Paritosh Sen and Husain do not use this recurring self-presence.

Short trick: Ramachandran = self-portrait as sutradhar in his own paintings.

Concept: Folk art is the art of the common village people, passed orally and by practice from generation to generation in rituals and festivals.

1. Rangoli, Mandana, Madhubani, Kohbar etc. are kept alive by rural women and artisans.

Short trick: Lok = village people.

Concept: Kalamezhuthu is the ritual floor-drawing of Kerala – images of Bhadrakali, Ayyappa, serpent deities drawn with five natural colour powders in temples.

1. Odisha – Pattachitra; Maharashtra – Warli; Jharkhand – Sohrai, Khovar.

Short trick: Kalam (floor picture) + ezhuthu (writing) = Kerala.

Concept: Match each regional folk art.

1. Bihar – Godana (tattoo-based painting, Mithila) (3).
2. Maharashtra – Rangoli (4).
3. Rajasthan – Mandana (2).
4. Uttar Pradesh – Chauk Poorana (1).
5. So a-3, b-4, c-2, d-1.

Short trick: Rajasthan Mandana + UP Chauk → only B has c-2, d-1.

Concept: Kohbar is the painting on the wall of the nuptial chamber (kohbar ghar) made at Hindu weddings in Bihar/U.P. – lotus, bamboo, fish, parrots, sun-moon as fertility symbols.

1. Godana – tattoo; Alpana – floor design of Bengal; Mehandi – on hands, not walls.

Short trick: Wedding wall = Kohbar.

Concept: Folk art carries the living tradition of a people.

1. Statement I: folk art reflects national identity and heritage – true.
2. Statement II: the decorated mangal kalash/ghat placed at every festival is itself a folk-art practice – true.

Short trick: Kalash, rangoli, alpana = folk art in daily ritual.

Concept: Madhya Pradesh has more than one traditional (tribal) painting tradition, and two of them are printed among the options.

1. Gond painting — Pardhan Gond artists of Mandla–Dindori, made famous by Jangarh Singh Shyam — is a traditional art of M.P. (A is correct).
2. Bhil painting — the dotted wall and ritual (Pithora) painting of the Bhils of Jhabua–Alirajpur, known through Bhuri Bai — is equally a traditional art of M.P. (C is correct).
3. Madhubani belongs to Bihar and Pata Chitra to Odisha/Bengal. As printed, both A and C are right and the question does not say "most famous" or "which one only", so it is treated as a bonus.

Short trick: M.P. tribal art = Gond (Mandla–Dindori) + Bhil (Jhabua).