Obituary - Jasu Bhai Naik - An Unsung Veteran passes away..

OBITUARY

Jasu Bhai Naik- An Unsung Veteran Passes Away

(Artist Jasu Bhai Naik)

Jasu Bhai Naik is no more. Like many art teachers who silently prepare many important artists of the future, in many remote corners of our country, Jasu Bhai Naik too was not known to the world. But in South Gujarat everyone knew him, not only as an artist but also a Gandhian and social reformer. He was the guiding spirit of the BA Mehta Kala Mahavidyalaya, Amalsad. Many young artists studied under him, a few of them went for further studies in big city art colleges and became successful. Many of them stayed back in South Gujarat itself which is rich in many industries. Surat and Vapi are the closest industrial towns in South Gujarat and diamond cutting is one of the important industries. So many young artists who get trained in the BA Mehta College join these industries as designers and craftsmen. But they all carry the legacy of Jasu Bhai Naik who even after retiring from service remained the hub of the South Gujarat art and cultural activities till his death on 17^th March 2014, on Holi day. He must have been nearly hundred years old as for a person like him after a certain stage, age becomes irrelevant. He had been suffering from throat cancer for quite some time. But with simple life and positive attitude, and above all his zest for social reforms, he continued to live a comparatively pain free life.

Though I do not belong to Gujarat, I have some emotional connections with South Gujarat as it was there I had first witnessed how art was taught and practiced in small town art colleges. The person who took me there was artist Somu Desai, an alumnus of BA Mehta Kala Mahavidyalaya. I met Somu in 2007 and the next year itself I visited him at Pardi, near Vapi, and he took me to his college. From there he took me to Jasu Bhai Naik’s house and Somu had insisted that it was imperative to meet the man who had given some status to the artists in South Gujarat who otherwise were considered to be just artisans and craftsmen. He received us with a grandfather’s enthusiasm and love. I could feel the Gandhian spirit in his demeanour and dress. His smile was benevolent. He spoke in Hindi and in broken English. And when he really wanted to express himself he spoke in Gujarati and Somu translated for me. 

Jasu Bhai Naik was an old school artist. He learnt his techniques in the British Academic style which was promoted by the J.J.School of Art in Mumbai. Most of the central western and central Indian art colleges followed the J.J.School syllabus and the accent was given on developing academic skill. Jasu Bhai Naik was trained in this school of thought but instead becoming a portrait artist or becoming a part of the growing industries in and around his town, Jasu Bhai decided to be a social activist. He promoted art and culture amongst people and was instrumental in establishing art programs in many schools in the Amalsad area. He was one of the founding fathers of the BA Mehta Kala Mahavidyalaya. He took the initiative to conduct art workshops and exhibitions of the local artists. Though, BA Mehta College was not a full-fledged graduate college, he inspired many of his students to go to other art institutions to get higher education. In a true Gandhian way, he inspired the young artists to develop sustainable models of living so that they could pursue their art with freedom and dignity.

Somu Desai remembers that Jasu Bhai Naik understood the value of art and he felt the necessity for small town artists establishing their independent career. When Somu Desai, after graduating from the BA Mehta College, decided to shift to Mumbai to earn as a designer, Jasu Bhai Naik’s advice was to get back to art once he found enough money to do so. Somu says that he always remembered his master’s words. After working in the field of textile designing for a few years, Somu shifted his base to Baroda and started learning things from the young graduates from the Fine Arts Faculty. He at once became a mentor to many and a learner from many. And like his master, he inspired many other young art graduates from BA Mehta College to go to Baroda or elsewhere to study and practice art. Somu says that his inspiration comes from Jasu Bhai Naik. Another artist, Akshay Naik, who heads the Applied Art Department of the BA Mehta College, also believes that Jasu Bhai Naik was a unique personality who inspired a lot of artists in South Gujarat. Jasu Bhai Naik lives on in the minds of the artists from South Gujarat. 

JohnyML

NEWS

Rhythm of Life

(Work by Vinay Bagde)

Gallery Pradarshak, Mumbai presents a solo show of artist Vinay Bagde. The show is titled, ‘Rhythm of Life’ and displays some of the acrylic on canvas works of the young artist from  Latur. The vibrantly coloured works display the influence the artist has felt by the rural surroundings and tribal life of the Lamani tribe. 

Rendered mostly in figuratives, the works displaymen and women of the tribe actively trying to be part fo an urban setting, be it as construction workers or as day labourers deviating from their original occupation of tending cattle.

The works are on view from 18th March to 29th March 2014.

Gitanjali and Sea Inside

India International Centre, New Delhi presents a solo show titled, ‘Gitanjali and Sea Inside: Parallel Journeys’. The show will display art works by artist Nibedita Sen. The show is a reflective study presentation with an array of prose, verses, paintings and installations. 

The artist has tried to trace a parallel between the word images of Tagore and her own visual metaphors, which she feels are the reflections evolving from a similar amalgamation of inward and outward journeys.

The show is on view till 29th March 2014.

Portraits & Scenes de Vie

(Work by Pichaya Manet)

Alliance Francaise de Madras, is displaying some of the original paintings of artist Pichaya Manet. Reminiscent of the early 20th century Fauvists, his paintings are an intensity of colour and exaggeration of form. The show is titled, ‘ Portraits & Scenes de Vie’.

The artist is not afraid to interpret what he sees with a spontaneous freedom that stems from his passion for dance. A modern vision is juxtaposed with the traditional, while an innate sense for rhythm remains the key to each piece.

The show is on view till 19th March 2014.

Courtesan

( Work on display)

Apparao Galleries, Chennai presents a spectacular group show of art works by eminent contemporary and upcoming artists. The show is titled, ‘Courtesan’. The word courtesan evokes vision of sensual women who were aware of the effect of their sexuality and its power over people, unafraid and strong. In a time marked by hedonism, refinement, extravagance, intrigue and beauty. The courtesans used their weapons for survival in such a society.

The show aims to bring to life these forgotten women and their ways of life by celebrating beauty, wit, sex, refinement and elegance.

The show is on till 5th April 2014.

(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)

A Tree in my backyard, The Nanyang Spirit, India Song and more..

NEWS

A Time to Dream

Apparao Galleries, presents a show titled, ‘A Time to Dream’ at the Sandy’s, Chennai. the show focuses on the works of two artists,  Farhan Mujib and Pradeep Nerurkar, inviting the viewer to ponder on the concept and power of dreams. 

Dreams have been the precursors and answers to many a problems, also as inspirations to artists, writers, philosophers and thinkers for centuries. The show encourages the viewer to delve deep within themselves and find out what their dreams have presented to them individually.

The show is on view from 13th March to 14th May 2014.

India Song

( Work byKaren Knorr)

Piramal Gallery of National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai presents British photographer Karen Knorr’s four-year-long Deutsche Börse Photography Prize nominated ‘India Song’ at the new Tasveer show. It features images from Rajput traditions, taking inspiration from the cultural and wildlife heritage of India besides fables from Panchatantra, and references to orientalist appropriations of Indian culture, as well as the personification of animals seen in folklore. 

Most images are a collage of stunning architecture across Rajasthan, Delhi and Hampi, photographed, which is scanned and digitally combined with photographs of animals. Knorr transfixes the viewer with her surreal views, peppering her work with considerations of caste, femininity and how they relate to the animal world.

The show is on view till 19th March 2014.

The Nanyang Spirit

( Work on display)

Art Spice Gallery, at the Metropolitan Hotel, New Delhi presents a show titled, ‘The Nanyang Spirit’. The twenty two Singaporean artists, each with a unique style of painting, are all representatives of the ‘Nanyang’ spirit. 

Having grown up in Singapore during the developmental period, some of these artists have experienced the tensions between tradition and modernity, enabling them to incorporate these elements into their painting styles. Such is the essence of the ‘Nanyang’ spirit. In these ‘Nanyang’ artists express their personal unique painting styles in their artworks, often through a blend of multiple stylistic techniques of the East and West, resulting in a varied body of works unified by their focus on Southeast Asian subjects.

The show is on view from 12th March to 21st March 2014.

A Tree from my backyard

( Work by Arunanshu Chowdhury)

Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai presents a solo show of art works by artist Arunanshu Chowdhury.

The show titled, ‘A Tree from my backyard’ features the works by the artist which focus on the amalgamation of cultures, people and where the idea of origin is lost in this give and take.
Depicting the intersection of diversity from a global scenario, the artist blends and presents small scale works and large scale ones as well. this incessant influencing, tends to dilute the original and there is a shift in the equilibrium. 
Trying to visualise the lost traditional with the popular and the so called new, the artist bridges the gap with his works and thoughts of time and movement.

The show previews on 14th March and is on view till 27th March 2014.

(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)

FEATURE

Krishen Khanna On Painting At Night, Drawing With His Eyes Closed And The Modern Cannibal

(Artist Krishen Khanna)

“To this day it makes me wonder how a small lead point peeping out of a pencil can yield so much,” writes Krishen Khanna in his handwritten concept note accompanying his ongoing solo show A Celebration of Lines at Sakshi Gallery. In Khanna’s case, the yield is a body of drawings and canvases dating back over 40 years, encompassing his minimalist experiments with Japanese woodcuts and his gory vignettes of ghoulish cannibals, and harking back to a childhood spent in Lahore and being witness to the violence of Partition. The 88-year-old Khanna, who quit a career in banking and joined the Progressive Artists’ Group at the behest of M. F. Husain, his friend and fellow painter, spoke to us from Gurgaon about painting at night, drawing with his eyes closed and sleeping at the early hour of 11pm. Edited excerpts:

In your concept note you say, “Sometimes I even close my eyes and let the point roam”. Is there a work in the show that started from that point?
No, I don’t think so. I’ve used this methodology many times in the past as well. It doesn’t become evident though, it gets scrubbed out, I go over it and use what I need. It’s a combination of the unconscious and the conscious mind.

You have a lovely work of an old lady called “Bye Bye Miss Amery”. Who was she?
She was an old Brit who lived in Lahore. She used to teach English and was employed by my father to teach my mother English. My mother was very young, my father was considerably older and more educated. She was a regular in the house, and used to come three times a week to teach English. She (Miss Amery) was a big, fat, old lady, she melded into the sofa she was sitting in, so you couldn’t very well distinguish where her clothes ended and the sofa began. She was an amusing woman and very proper.

There are a series of drawings of ghoulish cannibals, one shown plucking the eyeball of another. What inspired these works?
Well, current situations, where people are eating people, that was about three years ago. Periodically I venture into this kind of horrific drawing which nobody is going to buy, but that doesn’t matter. These are metaphorical drawings of what is going on today in many ways. There’s a depletion of love, and increase in the variety of hate.

( Selection of a Target)

Could you tell us a little more about the work of the man peeping out from a tree (see image, at left)?

This was apropos of the assassination of Saunders, who everyone said was shot by Bhagat Singh. Of course it was a whole lot of people who did it. [In this work] there’s this chap in the tree, he’s photographing the cavalcade which used to past underneath my window. I saw this fellow, and I asked the chap looking after me, who is this fellow and he said he’s just bird watching. Later on it dawned on me, he wasn’t watching birds, he was looking for a target. This was in Lahore.

How do you spend your day?
I do get up early to start painting, the evenings I spend doing drawings. I go to bed relatively early, around 11pm. I used to go to bed much later than I do now. All these drawings were done more or less in the evenings. I used to read a lot. The thing is I read a lot of poetry. I still remember a lot of poetry, and the poetry I remember I don’t need to read, I verbalise it to myself. The various images from the poems, things I’ve seen, they all meld and work together in an image, which I then might be interested in painting and drawing.

Do you still paint at night as you used to do with M. F. Husain?
We used to have night sessions in a little studio. I’d be painting, he’d break off and say, ‘You carry on painting, I have to say my prayers’. I was painting, and he was saying his prayers in this tiny little studio. Those were very happy times. Night is a wonderful time to work, no disturbance, no telephones. Of course I was much younger then.

(Report sourced from Mumbai Boss)

OBITUARY - Prafulla Dahanukar (1934 - 2014) Of Immortality through Art..

OBITUARY 

Prafulla Dahanukar (1934-2014) - Of Immortality through Art

When one tries to retrace the footsteps of a senior artist who has passed away, one is left facing the hollow transition from the world of the ‘is’ substituted rapidly with the world of the ‘was’. Veteran artist, Prafulla Dahanukar was claimed by history on 1st of March 2014. The void she left behind in the art scene, is comparable only to the irreconcilable chasm felt between the ‘is’ and the ‘was’, observes Sushma Sabnis.

( Artist Prafulla Dahanukar)

‘Prafulla Tai’, as she was lovingly addressed by many who knew her, was renowned for her intense, meditative and soulful abstract paintings. Naturally beginning with the figurative language she moved towards portrayals of landscapes, eventually breaking away from all classifying agencies, to paint ‘Freedom’ in her works. Her attempt was to paint peace through her art works. Her works acted as windows which opened up to vast expanses of an internal ‘space’; a womb of the Universe, where everything co-existed in harmony. She believed this space and freedom reflected the quintessential human mind. Blending the microcosmic and the macrocosmic in a singular thread of her artistic journeys, exploring line, form, colour and texture in her works, Prafulla Tai unlocked windows within the viewer’s mind. Embedded in the paintings were depths of a tranquillity, an energy and a complex interplay between finite and the infinite, reflecting the indomitable spirit of the artist. 

Her keen interest in theatre and classical music also contributed to the essence of her works. The flow and ebb, the crescendo and the tiny flecks of distinct notes reflected in her art works. Her painting series titled, Ragas (1962) are examples of the union of the moods of music with her artistic expression. Her exploration of abstractions in nature had been an influence at an early age and this manifested in her large scale works. She is also well known for her murals in ceramic, wood, fiberglass and glass mediums, which adorn some of the prominent buildings in Mumbai, Kolkata and several other cities. She had a great interest in public art and would often be seen as a keen visitor of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival held at Mumbai. Many of her paintings are in private and public collections in India and all over the world and have been part of several auctions conducted by auction houses like Sotheby’s and Osean.

(Work by Prafulla Dahanukar)

Her friendly nature and charm helped her build an easy rapport with people of all ages, and the support she offered to the younger generations of artists is well known. One cannot forget her reminisce and narrate anecdotes and interactions with renowned artist  MF Hussain who she admired and who she dedicated her poem to during his memorial service held at Jehangir Art Gallery in 2011. Prafulla Tai was also known for being a part of the art movement in India along with several well known founder members of the movement.  She set up her studio in Lonavala where her humanitarian side came into focus when she was involved as the main trustee of an orphanage called Bal Anandgram for thirty years.

Born in Goa, Prafulla Tai was a J J School of Art, Mumbai (1955) graduate. She was later granted a year long scholarship to pursue her studies at the Echole de Beaux Arts and Atelier 17, Paris(1961). She had been having shows of her works since 1956, and won a silver medal at the Bombay Art Society Portrait Exhibition, later on becoming the President of the Society from 1993-1998. Apart from this she had been on the committee of Jehangir Art Gallery, Lalit Kala Akademi, Goa, and also was the President of The Art Society of India and the Chairperson of the Artists' Centre, Mumbai.

(Prafulla Dahanukar at the Neerja Modi Art Camp in 2009)

When one visits the web site of this impactful artist who dedicated her life to art, one is overwhelmed by her accomplishments in the eighty years of her fruitful life. She was someone whose art career spanned over 50 years, not just as a prolific artist but also as a patron of the arts, a guide to upcoming artists and an inspiring human being. One would often find her in the galleries visiting the art shows, interacting with the artists and students, sharing valuable experiences of her art practices with them.

There is a certain unavoidable grief felt at the loss of an individual who has touched and influenced so many lives in a good way, but it would be pessimistic to say that an artist is dead. Artists can never die, because they live on through their works, their art becomes a living entity for all to become part of. In that sense each time a viewer connects with her art, Prafulla Dahanukar would come alive in the minds and hearts of the viewers, making her immortal.

Prafulla Dahanukar lives on in the memories of her husband, Dilip Dahanukar, and daughters, Gopika and Gauri and the entire art fraternity.


(All images have been acquired from the internet for illustrative purposes only)

NEWS

Chasing Mirrors

( Work on display)

Apparao Galleries, Delhi presents a group show of artists titled, ‘Chasing Mirrors -  A reflection and exploration of urban geographies’. With a focus singularly on the cities that we live in today, which are in a state of change constantly. The show addresses the coexistence of chaos and tranquillity, modernity and tradition, the materialistic and the spiritual, all popping up at every twist and turn in a city street. This colourful deterministic and indeterministic chaos is reflected in the cityscape, defining and redefining the geography of the urban space in an ever changing dynamic state of existence. This has acted as an inspirational elixir for the artists who have tried to portray it in their art works.

The participating artists are, Alexis Kersey, Dhasan, Kumar Ranjan, Mainaz Bano, Mukta Wadhwa, R M Palaniappan, Rajeev Kumar, N Ramachandran, Rohini Singh, Suchit Saini, Vidhan Kumar and Vinita Dasgupta.

The show is on view till 30th April 2014 at The Lodhi, New Delhi.

Mood

( Work by Ribaka Nikam)

Gallery Pradarshak, Mumbai presents a solo show of art works by artist Ribaka Nikam. The show is titled, ‘ Mood’ and on display are works by the artist rendered in acrylic on canvas. 

Ribaka is a painter, sculptor and a ceramist who uses all the elements to aptly portray her thoughts in art.The works are primarily figurative with narrative quality distinct to her style. Using bright hues and vibrant colours she anoints the works with a certain amount of positivity and movement. Using the child Buddha as a muse, she depicts the visages of her the muse in multiple representations. Introducing at times decorative elements and layering the visages with a narrative element, the works are replete with textural nuances made with calligraphy and other skills, uplifting the paintings.

The show is on view till 14th March 2014.

Women With Substance

Prakrit Art Gallery, Chennai is celebrating International Women’s day by commemorating Women artists from all over India and showcasing their works. A unique show will be held at the gallery, which will feature works of these women artists who have faced struggle and challenges in life to get to a respectable stage in life.

The participating artists are, Asma Menon, Arpana Kaur, Bandana Kumari, Gita, Hemlatha, Kamla Ravikumar, Mariam Castelli, Razia Tony, Rini Dhumal, Seema Kohli, Seema Ghurayya, Shipra Bhattacharya, Thejo Maye Menon.

A percentage from the sale of paintings will be donated to CanKids by these women artists and Prakrit Arts who wants to sensitize people about working for noble causes through their art.

The show commences on 10th March and is on view till 15th March 2014.

(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)