NEWS

The Museum Collection -IV - At Art Bull

(painting by George Keyt)

Art Bull art gallery and auction house presents a group show of works by contemporary masters and great masters of yesteryears. The show is aptly titled, ‘The Museum Collection - IV’  and previews on the 10th of May 2013,  6 30 pm onwards.

The Museum Collection - IV, displays works of  artists like, A Ramachandran, Abanindranath Tagore, Arpita Singh, Chintamoni Kar, F N Souza, Gaganendranath Tagore, George Keyt, Gopal Ghose, Hemendranath Mazumdar, J Swaminathan, Jamini Roy, K H Ara, K S Radha krishnan, Kalighat Paintings, Kshitindranath Mazumdar, M F Hussain, Nandalal Bose, Nasreen Mohamedi, Nikhil Biswas, R Balasumbramanian, Rajesh Kumar Sharma, Satish Gujral, Satish Sinha, S H Raza, Somnath Hore, Sudhir Khastagir,  Sunil Das, Waswo X Waswo.

The show is on view till the 8th of June 2013.

Unpacking Global - AAA Program for Art Basel in Hong Kong

Asia Art Archive presents a series of panel discussions titled 'Unpacking Global' to enquire into the different ideas of 'global' work. In this three years project, AAA will examine one element of 'global' art and its modes of circulation, display, and enquiry. In 2013, AAA starts with the notion of 'form,' exploring the impact that the 'global' has on artistic practice, in conversation with artists from around the world. The AAA Burger Collection Keynote Lecture, will this year feature the Delhi-based critic, curator, and scholar Geeta Kapur. The program starts on 23rd of May and will go on till the 25th of May 2013 and is as follows:


Panel Discussion | Abstraction on Thursday 23 May 5:30–7:30pm
Venue: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
Speakers: Byron Kim New York | Seher Shah New York | Wang Guangle Beijing
Moderator: Joan Kee Assistant Professor, History of Art, University of Michigan

Panel Discussion | The Document onFriday 24 May 5–6:30pm
Venue: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
Speakers: Abbas Kiarostami Tehran | Linda Lai Hong Kong | Shooshie Sulaiman Kuala Lumpur
Moderator: Hammad Nasar Head of Research and Programmes, Asia Art Archive

AAA Burger Collection Keynote Lecture: Geeta Kapur | Citizen Artist: Forms of Address on Saturday 25 May 5:30–7:30pm
Venue: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
Vivan Sundaram: Artist, Activist/Curator on Friday 24 May 11am–noon
Venue: A Space, Asia Art Archive, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong 

The Public Art Grant 2013 - FICA invites applications

The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA), New Delhi, calls for applications for its Public Art Grant.  FICA seeks to generate interest in public art projects  among people and aims to help bring communities closer for a better urban environment. The grant also aims to engage artists in a more socio-political way with the help of their art and get public involvement in such ventures.

The applicants have been given a free hand as to the mediums they choose to work in for the applications for the grant. FICA welcomes proposals which reach out to the community through contemporary visual language and in helping to build civic pride. The grant is aimed at supporting art projects located in the public realm in India. The winning proposal will be selected by a distinguished panel of judges.

The recipient of the grant will receive a sum of Rs. 3 lakhs for the project for a period of one year (01 January – 31 December 2014). Upon completion of the project the artist will be required to submit a project report along with complete documentation, and make a final presentation at a public forum.

The deadline for the application for the Public Art Grant is 31st of July 2013. For any queries or information call +91 11 46103550/51

(News Reports by Sushma Sabnis) 

PROFILE

Fantasy and Realism -  Anindita Chakraborty

Anindita Chakraborty travels astrally through her works. One could easily be reminded of a heroine trapped in the beguiling verses of Kalidasa or Shakespeare, or the women traveling through timelessness in Millais’ and Waterhouse’s paintings. Timeless, is the word that comes to mind when one views Anindita’s paintings.

For this Hyderabad based young artist, ‘the Self’ inspires as much as her outer and her inner worlds. When one looks at her autobiographical portraits, made with references to great master paintings,  the self stands out distinctly as a reminder of the present, in the painting which is exquisitely culled out from some forgotten past.

(painting by Anindita Chakraborty)

Anindita’s adheres to the photorealistic style of painting and her works often create a fantasy world which the viewer can waft through. The protagonists in most of her paintings are herself as she  proudly says, ‘I paint myself because, I am the person I know better than anybody’.

Anindita has a BFA degree from Tripura University and a MFA degree from Hyderabad Central University. The artist has a few quirks if one may call them so, she collects feathers and sea shells, and has an obsession with costumes and hair.  This has led her to use these inspirations in very innovative ways in her works.

In one of her earlier works, titled, ‘Satyabhama Syndrome’, she sits as a model in Victorian attire and setting for a portrait being painted, in the process, the painter and the painted seem like they are observing each other in a mirror. Her hands holds her excessively long plaited tresses and she stands with a quiet expression directly gazing out at the viewer. What the viewer instantly sees is the hair. The femininity of the fall of those tresses, the look of the woman who generates such beauty and the question which haunts the viewer as to why she seems not to flaunt it but collects it gently in her arms as if to control it and keep it in check. The artist puts herself in various scenarios which appear as stark contrasts. The flamboyance and almost aristocratic ambience of the surrounding contrast with the soulful, down to earth expression of the protagonist, and that is probably the perfect balance of the work. The gaze of the sitter holds the reigns of the paintings and almost mesmerizes the viewer.

Anindita’s recent ongoing work, tentatively called The Hands series, sees her moving away from self portraiture into another realm of figurative painting. In the new series which she is working on currently at the residency program offered by Space 118, Mumbai, Anindita concentrates on the human hand, as a model and a protagonist. She believes that a human hand changes with age as much as a human face, if not more and in these micro changes are embedded decades of memories and stories to be told. She dislocates the hand as a ‘part’ of the body  and anoints it with a new identity. One that feels, touches, emotes, experiences and expresses just as a whole human being would do. Drawing inspiration from various mudras of dance and her own hands, she brings to life a newer perspective of figuration.

  

Anindita Chakraborty lives and works in Hyderabad.

(by Sushma Sabnis)

FEATURE

Driven ahead by Illogical Art

(Subodh Kerkar)

Watching a doctor painting on the sidewalk and creating art using shells on a Goa beach, passers by remarked Ab to yeh koi kaam ka nahin hain (now he’s completely lost it). But Subodh Kerkar was undeterred. The son of the late artist Chandrakant Kerkar and a doctor by profession, Subodh practised in Goa for a time before turning to art, and it is safe to say that the move paid off.

Switching to art

Today, Subodh is a world renowned installation artist, having worked on sites in India, Australia, Germany and the Middle East. He does not wait for the obvious question about why he gave up a medical career and switched to art, “With the tourism boom in Goa, there came a point when almost 80 per cent of my patients were British tourists and the most serious thing ailing them was dysentery. At that point I decided we had dealt with enough British excrement already, so I decided to take up my passion for art instead,” he says with a light-hearted chuckle.

In the city for a slide presentation and exhibition of his works, Subodh is joined by artists, painters, sculptors and the like in a small hall on the first floor of the Bharat Hotel. The venue has an old world charm, with an abundance of wood panelling and soft lights. The creative souls in attendance pay close attention as one of their own ilk displays pictures of his works on a screen and explains the logic behind them.

(Pepper Cross by Subodh Kerkar)

Subodh begins the presentation, which was organised by Orthic Creative Centre, with a tale of how he used to go for walks on the beach with his father and upon his passing, did an installation that traced the path of their many walks using over 500 pictures of him.

His inspirations are many and varied, a triangular section of beach sand right next to the waves is illuminated with light at night, depicting the way a child would draw the last rays of the sunset on the water. “This is my version of the beach, remembering a sunset ,” says Subodh, looking every bit the intellectual artist in a long dark blue kurta and jeans. He enjoys experimenting with different materials, using boats salvaged from all over the coastline for his installations and more recently, experimenting with discarded rubber tires.

When asked about his take on Kochi, he launches into an account of the history of Muziris, and how it is believed that the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar may have fled to Muziris when Egypt was attacked and spent the rest of his days here. “In fact,” he says, “there is a museum in Vienna where there exists a parchment, a contract between a Muziris trader and an Egyptian merchant for transfer of commodities. That just shows how much history and heritage this city has.”

Some of his works are derived from the Portuguese arrival in India and the resulting changes in culinary habits, religion and trade within the country, and will be displayed at Pepper House in Fort Kochi.

Installation art

Coming to the topic of installation art, Subodh believes it is still catching on in India because it is still difficult to translate it into money. “Compared to conventional paintings, installation art can be hard to monetise. The main issue is that we do not have enough museums that can buy such works, as most installations are museum pieces.”

Ask him why he moved to installation art, and his answer oozes confidence in his abilities, “Well, I used to paint, but that came easily to me, it was just mechanical. I felt the need to challenge myself!” he says.

A lot of strange choices dot Subodh Kerkar’s life. A topper at school who went on to practise medicine, then give it up for art, and then installation art. Perhaps the best way to sum up all his decisions is to use a line he used during the slide presentation, “Art, many times, is more illogical than logical.”

(by Sooraj Rajmohan. Source The Hindu Newspaper)