NGMA photography shows, Rare Bhupen Khakhar at Sotheby's Auction, and more..

NEWS

Women photographers at NGMA

(A photograph by Sooni Taraporevala)

National Gallery of Modern Art,(NGMA) New Delhi, presents two shows of two eminent women photographers of India, Sooni Taraporevala and Ketaki Sheth.

Sooni Taraporevala’s show is titled, ‘ Through a Lens, By a mirror, The Parsis’ (1977 -2013) showcases a collection of photographs documenting the intimate lives of the Parsi community since 1977 till date. The collection includes, portraits, landscapes and an eclectic mix of photographs.

Ketaki Sheth’s show is titled, ‘A Certain Grace The Sidi: Indians of African Descent’ and displays photographic collection of portraits documenting the lives of the Sidi community, who are originally from Africa. 

The shows are to be inaugurated by eminent artist Raghu Rai on the 16th of Spetember 2013 a 5 :00 pm.  

The shows are on view till the 3rd of November 2013.

Bhupen Khakhar work at Sotheby’s

(American Survey Officer by Bhupen Khakhar)

Sotheby’s New York will be presenting Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art as part of their Asia Week series of auctions and events. This sale is led by the work ‘American Survey Officer’ (1969), an early rare canvas of renowned artist Bhupen Khakhar. This canvas comes from a Private MidWestern Collection and is estimated to be around $180/220,000.

The work is represents a critical moment in Khakhar’s career as he developed a local and idiosyncratic language for Pop art in India and has never before appeared at an auction. The auction will also feature seminal paintings by some of India’s eminent modern artists including Ram Kumar and Francis Newton Souza along with a carefully curated selection of works by important modern artists not often seen at auction.

This is the first Indian art sale in New York after the landmark Amaya Collection. The auction is to happen on 18th of September 2013.

Innovating Traditions

Earth Art Gallery, Hyderabad presents a show titled, ‘Innovating Traditions’, showcasing artworks from workshops conducted at Earth Art Gallery. 

Craftsmen from the Nakashi, Kalamkari, Potters communities interacted with Fine Art Professionals, practicing in modern art and contemporary art forms with the idea of empowering them with modern aesthetics. 

There was an active exchange of art theories, usage of differing mediums that resulted in artworks that suit modern tastes, still keeping the sensibility of craft alive.

The show is on view till the 19th of September 2013.


In Other Rooms

( work on display at the show)

Art Alive Gallery, New Delhi presents a solo show of art works by artist Tara Sabharwal. The show is titled, In Other Rooms’ and displays the recent works of the artist.

Tara Sabharwal is a painter and printmaker. She traverses various metaphoric spaces through her works which are explorative and can be intense at times. The spaces in her mind and spaces around her deeply enrich her artistic expressions. 

The show is on view from the 20th of September to the 10th of October 2013.


(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)

FEATURE

Waxing eloquent

Manjiri Joshi’s exhibition of encaustic art, made of beeswax, opens up a new world of colours and textures

( An encaustic work by Manjiri Joshi)

Lines of colours zig-zag, intersect, melt and fuse. Sometimes they move smoothly to create discernible worlds, at other times, they are more orderly, becoming landscapes.

But the world of Manjiri Joshi’s encaustic art, in her latest exhibition “Magical Melts” on at Renaissance Gallerie, is a world of contained possibilities.

“Melted wax most easily lends itself to abstracts or landscapes because it has a mind of its own. At the same time, the more you play with the abstracts, more emerges,” says Manjiri, whose encaustic art draws from an ancient Greek technique of painting with pigmented beeswax using heat through irons, hot air, or gas torches.

The heat is used to manipulate melted wax, which creates different textures as the wax hardens.

“Each colour has a different melting point, which creates different textures on the medium and the wax itself creates different textures on different media, like canvas, wood, and paper,” explains Manjiri.

“The basic technique is that hot wax is transferred to the medium and manoeuvred, sometimes using hot air until patterns emerge. Then I add the details, using hot air, to create a sense of form. Each medium has a different method.”

Manjiri applies this technique to spontaneously create a series of abstract paintings and landscapes.

She works with pigmented wax to create pure abstracts (as in “Foggy Apparitions”), which are simply a play of line and vivid colour, and plays with lines to create forms that sometime come together to suggest the idea of landscapes as in “The Sea World” or “The Other Planet”.

These include partly-abstract works such as “Philosophical Tree” where the wax folds and flows to create lyrical form, and therefore imagery.

Sometimes the artist manipulates the wax to create typical landscapes such as “Illuminated” or “Solitude”.

She also mixes oil paints with soft wax, which she then paints onto the canvas, in works such as “Churning”, a landscape depicting an inky blue sky that seems to suggest the break of dawn.

“Magical Melts” will be on view at the Renaissance Gallerie, Cunningham Road, until September 14. For details, contact 22202232.

(Report by Harshini Vakkalanka for The Hindu)