Between the Lines, S L Parasher Collection, The Petite Pretty show and more..

NEWS

Between The Lines -  Indian Printmaking

( A print on display by Somnath Hore)

National Gallery of Modern Art,(NGMA) Mumbai, presents the traveling exhibition , ‘Between The Lines -  Identity, Place and Power’, The exhibition displays selections from American artist, Waswo X.Waswo’s collection of Indian prints. The show is curated by art historian and curator Lina Vincent Sunish.

The show displays prints made with a variety of printing techniques like lithographs, woodcuts and serigraphs. The show also documents the complete history of Indian printmaking traversing a span of about 100 years.Some of the prints date back to 1917 to the contemporary ones from 2012. There are about 152 works, by 79 artists which are merely a part of over 200 works from the collection.

The show is to preview on the 31st of July 2013, and will be inaugurated by eminent artist Atul Dodiya and Pheroza Godrej.

Special out reach programs associated with the show include, a talk by the Collector, Waswo X Waswo titled, ‘ Collecting Prints’ on the 1st of August at 6:00 pm and a panel discussion ‘Printmaking Today: Stories from young artists’ with Subrat Behera, Moutushi, Venugopal VG, Soghra Khurasani, Sachin Naik and Tanujaa Rane on the 28th of August 2013.

The show will be on view till the 31st of August 2013.

Flavours of Art

KalaRasa Art Space, Bangalore presents a unique inaugural show of young artists’ art works. A whopping 71  young artists are participating in this show organized by Kala Rasa - Flavors of Art. 

KalaRasa – Flavors of Art, is that platform which has embraces every aspect of the artistic world that stirs the soul in more levels than one. It is a welcoming opportunity for sculptors, curators, budding artists and renowned ones, literature lovers as well as fashion enthusiasts. 

The show, one of its kind to be held in the art space for the first time brings talented artists from all over the country and presents their works, alongside established and renowned artists works. The show is curated by Harish Kumar Sejekan.

The show will be on view on the 18th of August, from 10:00 am to 8:30 pm.

Art For A Cause

People’s Art Group and Sanskruti School of Fine Art, collaborate under the able guidance of artist Ashok Bhowmick, present a show specifically aimed at raising funds for the Uttarakhand disaster victims and their families.

The show displays paintings rendered in oils and acrylic on canvas and sized alike, 18” x 18”, and all priced alike at Rs.2000/- only.

This exhibition is organized in AIFACS, Delhi and is being represented by senior and young practicing artists from Ujjain, Dewas, Ratlam, Kota, Ahmednagar, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Kharagpur, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi.

This exhibition, apart from its basic purpose of making a humble contribution to the cause, also commits itself to the role of Peoples’ Art Group to make art accessible and affordable to everybody.

The show is on view from the 10th of August to the 11th August 2013 at the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi.

The Petite Pretty show

( A work on display at the show)

Chawla Art Gallery Delhi, presents a group show of talented artists in a show titled, ‘The Petite Pretty’. The title is so used fort he size restrictions of each of the paintings on view, 3 x 3 ft.

The show displays works of artists Abhinav Chowbey, whose interest has been evident in the sphere of performing arts since childhood. Arijoy Bhattacharya, draws from diverse influences ranging from post-modern philosophy to Indian metaphysical traditions. Asit Kumar Patnaik, is a national scholar and a MFA topper from BHU and has received several provincial and national awards, the latest being a grand felicitation from the Government College of Art and Crafts.

To add these to the line of artists are renowned contemporaries Bharat Bhushan Singh, Chintan Upadhyay, Maya Burman, Ramesh Gorjala, Satish Gujral, Shipra Bhattacharya and Suhas Roy, amongst others. 

The show is on view till the 20th of August 2013.

( News reports by Sushma Sabnis)

FEATURE

Delineating Pain

The works of S.L. Parasher, an iconic muralist, painter and sculptor, find a permanent home in the city, reports Shailaja Tripathi

(Walls that talk: Inside the gallery devoted solely to S.L. Parasher's works.)

The city has an addition to its list of galleries. This one is exclusively meant for S.L. Parasher, considered one of India’s most significant painters and sculptors. His children simply wanted to create a space for the huge collection he left behind.

Though his art is scattered across museums, galleries, art institutions and private collectors across the world, at his South Extension home — where he lived after moving to Delhi from Shimla, lay a large assortment of works packed in trunks.

“They were in addition to the works which were out in the open in our house. We were living with them and continue to live with them,” says Bela Sethi, Parasher’s daughter who along with her siblings decided to give a permanent space to his art. “Actually, it was our youngest sister Prajana Paramita Parasher, who took the initiative. She is an artist herself and is the one who has curated the collection displayed here. But the idea was to create a space where we could hang his paintings,” says his son Raju Parasher.

(Works on display)

Open to public, the Parasher family is keen that more and more students visit the space dedicated to the educationist. He was the founder principal of School of Arts, Shimla, and the vice-principal of Mayo College of Art, Lahore, when Partition, the tragedy which inspired several art works of his, happened. Apart from a large chunk of these, the collection on display has works from his days in Shimla depicting vignettes of rural life, sculptures like ‘Thirst’, ‘Lonely Piligrim’, ‘Goddess of death’ — his last sculpture done in terracotta just a few days before his death — and Ganesha, again in terracotta.The sketches and line drawings of Parasher capture the agony of those caught in the tragedy.

Born in Gujranwala in Pakistan in 1904, Parasher, like so many others, was uprooted from his place of birth and moved along with other refugees to India.

He became the Camp Commander at Baldev Nagar Refugee Camp, where he witnessed loss at close quarters. Painting in the camp, he produced sketches and drawing that captured the torment of refugees. Works like a group of women huddled together sharing misery with their mouths open in shock, grieving men, head of a refugee woman, bearing stark expressions occupy the section dedicated to his work on Partition. “He had a large oeuvre. He made sculptures in every material — terracotta, bronze, wood. And then, there are so many phases in his artistic career like landscapes, spirituality,” says Sethi. The family intends to replace the displayed set of works with another set, thus rotating the works.

(Works on display)

“There are so many still left to be framed and archived,” says the son of the artist who never really actively exhibited while he was alive.

One of his major shows was a retrospective held at the India Habitat Centre in 2004, on his 100th birthday, much after his death, followed by an exhibition of his Partition sketches in London and Berlin.

S.L.Parasher’s mural adorns the walls of Nirman Bhawan and Kidwai Bhawan in Delhi.

( Report and Photography by Shailaja Tripathi for The Hindu)