Snapshots of 19th century Bengal in paintings of Kalighat

New Delhi:

The 19th century paintings of Kalighat in West Bengal mirrored a phase of socio-political transition when the feudal Bengali gentry was opening up to European influences under pressure from the East India Company.

Now, 100 'Kalighat paintings' from the 1870-1930 period, taken from London's Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum, are being shown in Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad and New Delhi. The exhibition also has 15 new patachitra (scroll) paintings from the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata.

The show, a collaboration between V&A Museum, ministry of culture and Bonita Trust, opened at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi Tuesday.

'The changing socio-economic situation of 19th century Calcutta inspired the imagination of the artists. The new mill paper -- which was invented a few years earlier -- allowed the artists to move their brush easily on paper,' said Sangita Gairola, secretary, ministry of culture.

Divided into six segments, the paintings depict 'Gods and Goddesses', 'Scenes from Life of Krishna & Epics', 'Social Commentaries', 'British and European Influences', 'Named Artists at the End of 19th Century' and 'Contemporary Kalighat Paintings'.

Symbols such as the 'rohu' fish, cats, prawns, women in kitchen, wrestlers, birds, animals, European sahibs, native workers, deities, babus, their modern wives and mistresses are common to the iconography.

The main event around which the art evolved was an 1873 scandal known as the 'Tarakeshwar affair' where a Brahmin priest was found having an affair with a housewife, an art critic said.

The 19th century Bengali babus -- dividing time between their wives in the city and their mistresses in the suburbs -- had suddenly discovered the joys of European luxuries such as ballroom dancing, riding in open carriages, English language and liberal literature.

The hybrid society of extra-marital liaisons, idyllic decadence and increased patronage of the arts led to the birth of Kalighat scroll paintings by migrant groups of painters in areas around the Kalighat temple in Calcutta. They painted on paper in water or natural colours.

Many of these paintings found their way to museums abroad after 1930, when the last of the Kalighat patua (painters) died. The tradition ended for almost 50 years till it began to revive in the villages of Midnapore, with a contemporary flavour.

Bureaucrat exhibits her new collection of paintings

New Delhi:

The season of spring heralds a break from the drab winter ushering in the multicolour hues of flowers in bloom, mellifluous music, pleasant weather and the promise of new beginnings. All this and more are depicted in Colors of Spring, a new exhibition of paintings by Nirmala Pillai, a bureaucrat in the Department of Telecommunication, whose recent works of art are being shown at the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Gallery (AIFACS) here. Dancer Shovana Narayan inaugurated the exhibition that began on April 1 and is scheduled to continue till April 7. Painting for me is a great stress buster. I am always looking for new subjects and themes and complete my paintings after my day at office, says Nirmala. At her recent exhibition, visitors are greeted with a painting of a woman framed in an intricate wood frame, perhaps a self portrait at the entrance to the gallery. While inside the over 35 paintings, mostly acrylic on canvas and a few line drawings are reminiscent of spring and to further evoke the mood of the season, the artist has placed colored butterflies, apparently flitting about on artworks. Bright sunflower heads, a solitary woman looking out of the window at nighttime, another lone woman admiring herself in a vanity mirror, clear streams and lush fields, amaltas and jasmine flowers, are some of the themes of the exhibition.

Stonework jewelery embellishes one canvas while another sports cows, goats and other plastic animals grazing on grass. It is nice to know that creativity is coming through in so many ways. Nirmala is a poet, a writer and a painter. Her paintings have used so many mediums like bamboo, silver foil and plywood, it is really creative that the same person is doing many creative things, said Shovana Narayan. Raised in Mumbai, Nirmala, who hails from Kerala, is a postgraduate in English Literature from Mumbai University and later topped a journalism course. Ultimately she found her calling in a career as a civil servant. Nirmala, a self-taught artist says she has been painting ever since as a child and her first painting exhibition was held at the India International Centre here in 1993 followed by others. She has exhibited at the Prince of Wales museum in June last year and previously exhibited at galleries in Chennai, Mumbai, Ernakulam etc. Her first solo exhibition was held at the Lalit Kala Regional Centre in Chennai Apart from art, Nirmala is also a poet and author. She has published two books of poems and her stories have been published in magazines, anthologies and Internet magazines. I have finished my third collection of poems and also a novel am scouting around for a publisher now, says the multifaceted artist.

Nagpur Cultural Centre doing yeoman's service for artists

Nagpur:

Central government's initiative for upliftment of artists has not only made them available a platform to reach out to the world but also benefited the fraternity over a period of time. The South Central Zone Cultural Centre (SCZCC) is one of the seven such centers set up by the Ministry of Culture to revive dying art forms, help artisans, musicians and dancers, other centers being at Patiala, Udaipur, Nagpur, Thanjore, Kolkata, Allahabad and Dimapur. A large number of performing artists, painters, folk dancers, sculptors and craftsmen have been benefited over a period of time with their bonding with the SCZCC here which is catering to four states--Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The city-based SCZCC came into existence on October 2, 1986 and has been organizing folk dance festivals, workshops, theatre shows, classical music and dances programs among other activities. The centre is engaged in preservation, promotion, dissemination, development of Lalit Kala in general and folk and tribal arts in particular, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) and SCZCC Director Ravinder Kumar Singhal said. The SCZCC spread over about four acres houses an art gallery, a research and documentation cell, an amphitheatre and a sales emporium, Singh, who is a 1996 batch IPS officer, told PTI. He said the cultural boulevard has organized workshops and camps for traditional tribal and folk artists besides for the budding talents and contemporary artists. Stone, wood and metal are the major sources for artisans who make living by making sculptures and designing murals from waste materials. Among major festivals held regularly by SCZCC are Kabir Mahotsava, Sindhu Darshan, Kargil Victory day, Lok Rang, Republic Day folk dance, Bundeli Mahotsav, Shilpgram Utsav and workshops on painting and terracotta. Maharashtra and Karnataka had contributed Rs one crore each towards setting up of the SCZCC, Chattisgarh Rs two lakh and Rs 50 lakh each by Madhya Pradesh and Andha Pradesh. SCZCC had permanently set up a shilp gram at Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh in 1997 which provides facilities to visiting craftsmen in the form of well-equipped work sheds, designed according to the ambiance needed for a particular craft production, Singhal said. The SCZCC is mulling over to organise a festival on the lines of Mumbai's famous cultural extravaganza, Kalaghoda Festival' in near future, he added.

Legendary painter Ganesh Pyne conferred Lifetime Award

Kolkata:

In an acknowledgement of his illustrious painting career, spanning over a period of four decades, legendary painter Ganesh Pyne was conferred the lifetime achievement award by the Indian Chamber of Commerce this year.

Dwelling on his association with the 75-year old reticent, soft-spoken artiste, eminent theatre personality Rudraprasad Sengupta recalled how Pyne virtually began shunning the shows of Sengupta's Nandikar theatre group in recent years to avoid being called on stage.

So I have promised I will henceforth allow him his own private space and not call to the stage from the audience seat. But please don't stop attending our drama shows, you are a theatre patron, we need your guidance and vision, the noted theatre personality fondly said.

You have that impregnable approach, you cannot be touched, you are one of those man of few words whose works speak for themselves,  Sengupta commented as Pyne looked on after acknowledging the honour from the ICC President Srivardhan Goenka.

 A visibly moved Pyne in a brief speech said he felt humbled by all those accolades and was receiving the honour with all humility.

Later to a question Pyne told PTI it was in the fitness of things that such honours should come at a later stage of his career.

Also I have never thought about awards in my life, Pyne whose works are displayed in all leading galleries in the country besides places like Sotheby's and Christie's, said.

To a question if some of the present generation artistes were courting name and fame at a very early age, Pyne said the time has changed, values have changed, and so be it.

Refusing to rate his most favorite work, Pyne said I have to draw my best painting in future.

Industrialist and former chambers President Sanjib Goenka said the association was itself honored by 'honoring' a personality like Pyne, one of those individuals the state and the country looked up to for their austere approach and artistic prowess.

 The award comprised a citation, a trophy and Rs 2.50 lakh in cash was given to Pyne last evening.

Retrospective on M F Husain at Dubai art fair

New Delhi:  

Art from India, including a special retrospective on M F Husain, is set to be showcased at the sixth edition of the Art Dubai beginning this month. Four Indian galleries and two international galleries specialising in Indian Art will be participating in the biggest known fair on the international art circuit from the Menasa (Middle East-North Africa-South Asia) region. Modernist painter M F Husain who died last year is being remembered through a retrospective by the Grosvenor Vadehra gallery at the four-day fair beginning March 21. We thought of doing a retrospective of Husain a great artist who is highly regarded in the region. He had been attending past editions of the fair and we thought it would be a fitting tribute to him, Conor Macklin, director, Grosvenor Vadehra Art Gallery told PTI over phone from London. Apart from the late master's paintings, the gallery is also scheduled to screen a short documentary Through the Eyes of a Painter made by Husain in 1967.  The 18-minute film set in Rajasthan and featuring Husain himself in some shots had won a Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival. New York and London based Aicon Gallery is the other international gallery showing Indian Art at Dubai Art Fair. Galleries from India include Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai), Experimenter (Kolkata), Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke (Mumbai) and Seven Art Limited (New Delhi). Art Dubai began with five Indian galleries represented in the fair; we now have six, but in the intervening years, Indian artists have gone global. They are now second only to those from the Middle East, in terms of representation in the fair, and exhibited on the stands of galleries from Brussels, Paris, London, and Dubai, among other cities, Antonia Carver, Director, Art Dubai told PTI over email.  She adds, Art Dubai has acted as one platform that connects the international art world with South Asian arts professionals and enthusiasts from the NRI community at large to collectors, artists and gallerists making the short hop from Delhi or Bombay. We are proud of this role, and see it as part of the DNA of Art Dubai. Indian artists also figure highly with other galleries, such as Jitish Kallat with the major Austrian gallery Krinzinger, or Bharti Kher with Perrotin. The work exhibited ranges from a retrospective on Husain to upcoming star Adip Dutta with Experimenter. According to market watchers, the Middle East is very important in art market terms  not only in that many of the region's artists have risen internationally over the past decade, while many other diasporic artists are well- represented in the European/American market, but also that Middle Eastern collectors are increasingly impactful across different art markets, not only their own. Dubai's role as a hub has been extraordinary from a handful of galleries in the early 2000s to now hosting over 40 galleries, many of international standing, being the base for auction houses in the Menasa region, and home to the region's biggest fair. Galleries have survived and even thrived through the global economic crisis, and another 5 spaces are due to open this March, to coincide with Art Dubai, says Antonio Carver.

A total of 74 galleries from 32 countries will show work by over 500 artists at the fair. This year they have 65 museums groups from Lima in Peru to Singapore to Beijing, as well as London, Paris and New York signed up to attend the fair say organisers. Seven Art Gallery from India which is participating in the fair for the first time is showing works of a single artist. We are showing a solo artist Suhasini Kejriwal. We have been participating in the art fairs in Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris and other and we wanted to complete the Asian circuit with the Dubai Art Fair, says Aparajita Jain, Director, Seven Art Limited Gallery.

UK's White Cube opens HK gallery as Asia art booms

Hong Kong:

Britain's White Cube gallery, known as an early champion of provocative British artists Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, launched its Hong Kong branch today, becoming the latest Western gallery to open an Asian outpost in pursuit of China's booming art market. White Cube was unveiling a 557-square-metre space in a new building in Hong Kong's central business district. With the opening of its first branch outside Britain, White Cube follows in the footsteps of other British as well as French and American galleries that have set up shop in Hong Kong in recent years. As their home markets plateau, they're pinning hopes for future growth on Asia, particularly China, where a strong economy has been minting millionaires at a rapid clip. Obviously there's a new generation of collector that is emerging in China, said Graham Steele, White Cube's Asia director. But he added that Taiwan and South Korea are also major markets for contemporary art, while Japan, India, Indonesia and Australia have significant pockets of collectors. China was the world's biggest fine art market in 2011 for the second year in a row, accounting for 41.4 per cent of global sales of paintings, sculptures, installations, photography and drawings worth USD 4.8 billion, according to market information provider Artprice. On a day-by-day basis, there's more Chinese collectors coming to London, coming to Miami and Switzerland coming to the international art fairs -- in groups, individually, with artists, with other collectors, with curators, said Steele. There's an amazing level of interest. The arrival of White Cube in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous region of China, underlines the sophistication and increasing influence of the region's art collectors. Founded in 1993, White Cube has had a long association with Hirst and Emin, the most prominent of a group known as the Young British Artists that emerged in the 1990s. Hirst, one of the world's wealthiest artists, is notorious for installations that feature sharks and other dead animals suspended in formaldehyde and human skulls encrusted in diamonds. One of Emin's most famous works is a recreation of her disheveled bed complete with soiled clothing and empty vodka bottles. 

Radha Krishna

Radha Krishna by Bapu... 36"X30"... Designed on Glass by Prasad with Stained Glass Painting.