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)

SG Vasudev book launch, Rang Photography workshop, Blow Horn Show, and more..

NEWS

Photography Workshop at Delhi Photo Festival by Rang

(Rang -Photography Workshop)

India Habitat Centre, New Delhi presents a photography workshop conducted by Rang, a Delhi-based artist community, will emphasise on the 'how' of photography. The workshop also includes a guided tour of the Delhi Photo Festival 2013 and a session of Open Library, where photography books will be shared and discussed.

The workshop is for age groups 12-18 years only.

For registration please write to info@ficart.org or call 011 4613550

The workshop is to be held on 2nd of October 2013 between 2:30 -6:30 pm.

Photography workshop for Women

Queensway Park, Chennai, presents a one-day photography workshop organized by Women Entrepreneurs India (WEI) exclusively for women. 

The worshop is designed for all women photography enthusiasts to take part in and is facilitated by an eminent photography expert from Bangalore, Joshua Remigius. 

This is an excellent opportunity for women to learn the nuances of photography. 

Registration is open to interested candidates. 

The workshop will be held on 21st September 2013.

Blow Horn

(Work by Puja Bahri)

Chawla Art Gallery, New Delhi presents a solo show of paintings by upcoming artist Puja Bahri. The show titled, ‘Blow Horn’ displays her multimedia Installations and video works. 

Her repertoire includes paintings, video art, and sculpture in a semi realistic style and a mix of abstraction and figuration. Working in series and a mix and match of media, her art adorns a vibrant look. 

The show is on view till the 30th of September 2013.

Takei Bole Ami

(Photograph on display)

Experimental Art Gallery, New Delhi presents a solo show of art works by artist Samit Das.

The sow titled, ‘Takei bole Ami/ You are said to be me’ is a graphical representation of legendary poet and writer, Rabindranath Tagore’s depictions of the conflict of his own existence. 

The show displays photographs and texts as part of addressing and interpretation of this conflict. 

The show is on view from the 15th of September to the 24th of September 2013.

(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)

FEATURE

Dual celebration

An exhibition showcases veteran artist S.G. Vasudev’s works while his coffee table book offers a glimpse of his life

(Shakespeare by SG Vasudev)

Nearly five decades ago, S.G. Vasudev began his artistic journey in the city, graduating from the Government College of Fine Arts, and becoming an essential part of the Madras Movement.

Recently, the city hosted a dual celebration of the artist — both an exhibition and the launch of a book on his work and his life. And it has been a special celebration, because though he might live in Bangalore now, for Vasudev, Chennai is where it all started.

“As an artist, my life began in Chennai,” he says. “I studied at the college under K.C.S. Paniker, and later joined him and my colleagues in founding the Cholamandal Artists’ Village. The Madras art movement moulded me.”

A nostalgic trip

Not surprisingly, then, the launch of his coffee table book Vriksha: The Art And Times Of S.G. Vasudev at The Park was an emotional affair. The evening, which also featured the screening of The Open Frame, a documentary on his life by Chetan Shah, was “superb”, he says. “So many of my fellow artists, friends, and admirers were there. I felt so nostalgic!”

The book contains write-ups on Vasudev by cultural critics and commentators, including Girish Karnad, B.V.K. Shastry, Y.N. Krishnamurthy, H.A. Anil Kumar, Sadanand Menon, and a transcript of an in-depth interview of the artist by Latha Mani, not to mention beautiful images of his creations over the years.

“I’ve been thinking about putting together a book on my work for a long time, but began working on it seriously two years ago,” he comments. “I was inspired by books written by art historians and critics, but I also felt that the artist’s own voice should come through.”

Art connoisseurs in the city will have a chance to experience his artistic vision first hand through Theatre Of Life, his on-going exhibition at the Forum Art Gallery (it ends September 30). Featuring his works from 1997 to 2012, the collection is vintage Vasudev, with its rich use of earth tones — golden yellows, greens, burnished browns and reds, gorgeous texturing and subtle use of symbols.

The series of paintings is inspired by the artist’s own connections with the world of theatre, film and literature, and focusses as much on the act of storytelling as it does on the act of viewership. In some, it is the entertainer on the stage or screen who is predominant, in others, it is the members of the crowd, the multitudes in the act of consuming media who stand out.

Appealing motifs

(From Theatre of Life by SG Vasudev)

Other works bear traces of his earlier series — the nourishing, life-giving Tree Of Life, the introspective faces and eyes of the Humanscape series, and the vast, undulating green-browns of the Earthscape series. And still others introduce appealing new motifs such as the elephant in a rustic, rigorously textured setting reminiscent of cave art.

“I work on series. I leave one series when it comes to its logical conclusion, and go on to the next,” says Vasudev. “At the same time one can see the connections between them all. After all, I am what I am!”

At 72, the artist has no desire to slow down. Art is his passion, and the inspiration keeps coming. “I have so many ideas and I want to keep working on them,” he says. “There is no end.”

( Report by Divya Kumar for The Hindu)

Featuring Emergence of Taipei in world art scene, A sublimation of landscape and more..

FEATURE

Emergence of Taipei in the World Art Scene 

The sudden and consistent emergence of Taipei as a new art destination after other conventional Asian Art venues, proclaims a new era.   

(Taipei Arts Museum)

One of the most important aspects of Taipei Art Scene is definitely the internationally acclaimed “Taipei Biennale”, which undoubtedly gave Taipei a new identity in the global art market.  Taipei Biennale 2012 was held at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館) which is undoubtedly one of best exhibition centres in Asia; apart from this, another vital place to promote Taiwanese Art is certainly the Museum of Contemporary Art (台北當代藝術館; MoCA); it was built in 1921, during the Japanese rule in Taiwan but decades later it was re-opened in May 2001 as the Museum of Contemporary Art, as the first museum in Taiwan to be committed entirely to contemporary art. These exhibition centres  as the pride of Taiwan, are primarily backed by the government or other related organisations.     

(Public Art in Taipei)

Over the last few decades Taiwan Government has immensely invested in Taiwan’s art market, especially in Taipei, to boost it and also to strengthen it to grapple the world art arena. Currently Taipei is a proud home of around 8 top Art Institutes of this country; some of them are- Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA), National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA; Famous Academy Award winner director Ang Lee is an alumnus of this institute), Graduate Institute of Fine-Arts (National Taiwan Normal University), College of Arts (Fu Jen Catholic University) and College of Arts & Design (Huafan University). Most of these institutes and fine-arts departments (under renowned Universities) emerged very recently as a direct result of the growing concern for art practice in Taiwan. These art academies equipped with adroit professors educated in USA or in Europe provide world class degrees like BFA, MFA, and MA in Fine-Arts programmes in various disciplines. Not only in conventional disciplines like Painting (however there is divisions in Oil Painting and Traditional Chinese Painting specialisation , Sculpture, Print-Making, Art History/Art curation and Applied Arts but also new specialisation such as - Mixed media/Installation Art, Photography Art, Art Education, Art Management, Industrial Designing, Digital/multimedia Arts, Visual Culture, Visual Communication, Animation/Game designing etc are introduced in recent years to match the measures of world art education standards. In recent years, these institutes observing a steady growth in the number of international degree seekers from various parts of the globe. 

(Public Art in Taipei)

Although, this essay only focuses on Taipei alone as the capital city of Taiwan, and it’s neither including the art academies near Taipei nor in other cities in Taiwan, but there are several other important Art academies in various part of this country who also deserve the same. The graduates of these art academies have immense ascendency over the Taiwan’s domestic art market and onwards with this they are also expanding their presence over the world art scene. Apart from yielding artists and art historians/art critiques, they also play a vital role in endorsing arts by the means of exhibition and curation. Most of these institutes are furnished with advanced exhibition centres and/or museums.       

Although Taiwan is a sovereign Asian country, is often mistaken as a part of China. In this time of globalization, a small country like Taiwan, who was recently, faced the lowest fertility rate in the entire world, efficaciously demonstrated that with perpetual expansion in fine-arts sector can be enumerated as gratifying for the whole nation. Being one of the largest countries in Asia, Indian art could take a few considerable pointers from its successful Taiwanese neighbour.

(by Ritwij Bhowmik)

NEWS

A sublimation of landscape

( A work by Priyanka Govil)

Art Konsult art gallery, New Delhi presents a solo show of selected works of upcoming artist Priyanka Govil. 

Priyanka’s works explore the world around her through her paintings of landscapes.  The difference between any landscape painter and Priyanka’s work is that the artist uses landscapes more as a tool or a language than as a subject of focus itself. For her the landscape can morph into any number of things manmade or naturally occurring. 

The show features her concern of the environment, and natural elements and how humankind continues to intervene with them. Her works explore various textures and a subdued palette at times, to put forth a metaphor of the subject being evaluated and stories being told.

The show previews on 11th September 2013 at 6:30 pm and will be on view till the 30th of September 2013.


Traditional in Contemporary

(Work by Rameshwar Singh)

Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata, presents a show of recent paintings by artist Rameshwar Singh. The Jaipur born senior , renowned artist displays some of his recent works in the show, exploring art, culture, history, anthropology and contemporary life through his figurative works.

Intermingling fables and dream memories, the artist presents a collection of works which border on traditional folk art and repetitive symbols. Incorporating calligraphic textures and tattoo art in is work, makes the works unique.

The show is on view till the 17th of September 2013.

Exploring Duality 

( work by Tanuj Bhramar)

The Metropolitan Hotel, New Delhi presents in its art space, the solo show of art works by new age contemporary artist, Tanuj Bhramar.

The show is titled, ‘Exploring Duality Through Mythology & History’. The exhibition aims to explore some famous mythological and historical figures in their most intimate moments in life.
The style Tanuj uses is mostly expressionistic and figurative styles with vibrant colours and  bold application of textural effects. 

The show is on view till the 11th of September 2013.

Zynna Spotlight Show

(works by Rashmi Jain)

Zynna Art Gallery,Gurgaon, presents the solo show of art works by artist Rashmi Jain, as a part of the Zynna Spotlight Show. On display in this specially assigned space in the gallery, are select paintings by this renowned, internationally acclaimed artist. 

Traversing over a variety of styles and subjects, Rashmi Jain brings a collection of her works done over a period of time, of her exploration of art.

For further information call on: +91 8800361361

The show is on view till the 16th of September 2013.

(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)

Review - An Aesthetic of Urban Grunge, A journey through Asia, and more..

REVIEW

An Aesthetic of Urban Grunge


There is an eventuality of nature that binds the living and non living entities with a single thread. The truth of death and decay. The Japanese call it the ‘Wabi Sabi’ nature of things. Wabi Sabi refers to the aesthetic beauty in the natural transience of anything from its birth, optimal existence to its death. Photographer and pediatrician Amrish Vaidya tries to capture this rare elusive moment where life subtly morphs into non-life and presents his ‘Frames of Reference’.

For pediatric surgeon, Amrish Vaidya, the transient nature of human life, constantly at cross roads, battling for survival, is a common visual. His lessons are learnt in the harsh realities of pain and actual death. Nothing gets more ‘real’ than that. There are a few ways in which people deal with it especially on a day to day basis, one is with absolute indifference, and the other, to dare to see the poetry in it. Amrish chooses the latter. 

Armed with a camera, he captures his surroundings with a need to find a sub layer of  impending decay. His photography show on at the Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai is proof of the triumph of the humane aesthetic. Amrish unearths beauty much like a miner drilling out oil from the belly of the earth, through the eons of putrefaction. His works are a testament to this delicate and sensitive outlook to nature. Extracting beauty from the ugly is not an easy task as the mind often plays tricks. 

Having a successful career in medicine, Amrish followed his natural inclination to photography over 15-20 years ago. Since then, every vacation is a concerted effort to capture those nuances and rare markers of life on the brink of decay. The absolute abstraction of textures of peeling walls, and structures, aging wood patterns, village walls and fences, dark spots left behind by water seepages, rock textures worn out by elements, the resilience of old houses, all this continues to inspire him. 

Living in Mumbai, the momentariness of urban living and degeneration, rusting of strong metal, bricks coming loose from a foundation of a structure, all point to the ephemeral state of human living. The perspectives of the surgeon’s precise eyes are seen in the way he captures the seemingly harsh and primal side of the city he lives in. There is an obvious rawness to the facet of his works and in this is embedded an underlying quiet serene aesthetic. Wiping the gloss off, in true clinical sense, he urges the viewer to experience,  more than just ‘see’ the beauty.

Amrish’s work also often serves as a ‘reminder’ of something as it used to be. In a way his images take the viewer on a walk into the backyard of memory. What once was, or what could it have been, are questions which arise in the inquisitive mind. Much like looking at an older generation of film stars called on stage to be awarded a life time achievement award, with the screen displaying a collage of images of all the movies they have acted in, played a part in. Most of Amrish’s images portray objects which have also played major parts in their own lives. Be it a gate that protects the insides of an estate or a window placed high on the wall with rusting iron barricade, they all played a part, a role, perhaps an important one.

‘Frames of Reference’ attempts to realign the human eye and mind to the less interesting, aging and discarded objects, thereby reminding one of the undefeated momentum of life itself.
‘Frames of Reference’ is on till the end of September 2013 at the Sakshi gallery, Mumbai.

( by Sushma Sabnis)

NEWS

Michael Kenna -  A journey through Asia

( Photography work byMichael Kenna)

Tasveer, Bangalore, presents ‘Michael Kenna - A Journey Through Asia’  a photography exhibition by prolific landscape photographer Michael Kenna. 

The exhibition presents 48 black and white photographs, made from 2006 to 2013, that takes the viewer on a journey across the landscapes of India, Thailand, Vietnam, China, South Korea and Japan. 

This is Tasveer's first exhibition of the season in partnership with Vacheron Constantin.

The show is on view till the 30th of October 2013.

Marks and Markers

( Work by Samindranath Majumdar)

Gallerie Ganesha, New Delhi, presents an exhibition of paintings by artist Samindranath Majumdar, in a show titled ,‘Marks and Markers’.

The speciality of the primarily abstract artworks on display is that the artist prefers to work in layers. Be it layers of pigment and layers of experience it may be read as an attempt to make sense of the variant ways in which the cues of memory mark and unmark the evolving self, resulting in both erasure and overwriting. 

Memory encapsulates time, gives it specificity and therefore, a shape, thus initiating the artist's journey of reinterpretation.

The show is on view till the 12th of September 2013.

Harvest 2013 - Art in Testing Times

(A work on display)

Stainless Art Gallery, New Delhi presents a mammoth group show of 60 young and upcoming artists from the country. The show is titled, ‘Harvest- 2013 - Art in Testing Times’. The show has been curated by Payal Kapoor of Arushi Arts, Delhi.

The show displays the best talents in the country today. With the market upheavals and uncertain scenario, the show aims to focus on the stabilizing the art market by offering a variety of works for potential buyers and investors in art.

The works on display address various urban and rural issues, with a sprinkling of the right amount of romanticism. 

The show is on view till the 11th of September 2013.

The Collection

(work by K K Hebbar)

Galerie De Arts, Bangalore, presents an exhibition of a group of very well established  artists from the country. The works are on display in a show titled, ‘The Collection’. 
The collection displays traditional and contemporary art works, in a variety of figurative styles, realistic.

The participating artists are Shirley Mathew, Badrinarayan, KK Hebbar, Arpana Caur, Laxma Goud, Paritosh Sen, Leela Tyagi and Ramesh Terdal.

The show is on view till the 14th of September 2013.

(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)

EDITORIAL - Crowfall: A Magic Carpet to Life, and more..

EDITORIAL 

Crowfall: A Magic Carpet to Life

( Crowfall by Shanta Gokhale)

I am not able to forget Sindhutai Joshi. Her relationship with Dr.Bhaskar remains an enigma to me. Were there any undertones of erotic desires in that relationship? Or was it a gesture of her rebellion? She waited for seven years for her absconding husband who had bequeathed all his properties and wealth in her name and she endlessly waited for her children Ashesh, an artist and Anima, a cultured widow to visit her at least once in a while. ‘Crowfall’ written by the eminent writer and journalist, Shanta Gokhale is not the story of Sindhutai alone. It is the story of a lot of people whom we know, very closely, I should add. ‘Tya Varshi’ (In that Year) is now ‘Crowfall’. Originally written in Marathi, Gokhale has herself translated this pivotal novel. At the outset itself I would say, with this one novel, Gokhale reaches the galaxy of our eminent writers like Asha Poorna Devi, Mahashweta Devi, Kamala Das and so on. And again, I reiterate the fact that the best novels in the world (and in India too) are written in local languages.

You may wonder why I write about this book (I don’t call it a review because a review cannot do any justice to such a wonderful novel) and my answer is this: This is about us, the artists and art workers. Like many of our cultural writers who turn themselves into novelists at some point of time in their creative lives, Shanta Gokhale has an insider’s view on the art scene as she has been a cultural journalist for many decades. But an insider’s view can produce novels that looms around somewhere between poetic utterance and caricaturing. But Crowfall is a grand poetic utterance. We have a few novels on our art scene published in the last few years like ‘Artist, Undone’ by Sanjay Kumar, ‘Faking it’ by Amrita Chowdhury and so on. With due respect to these writers I should say, Shanta Gokhale stands several steps above in literary excellence.

(Writer, journalist Shanta Gokhale)

We have ‘Lust for Life’ by Irving Stone and ‘Raja Ravi Varma’ by Ranjit Desai. While they remain centered around the iconic characters, Crowfall makes contemporary artists and people around them icons. But the greatest icons in this novel are the mother-daughter duo, Sindhutai and Anima. Crowfall is like snowfall. They see crows falling one after another from the sky as someone does target practice on them. The crowfall is like an ill omen, which Aba’s tempura carries with it at a later stage in the novel. And the novel starts in a riot ridden Mumbai.

On that fateful day Anima loses Siddharth, her chosen man, to rioters. He was butchered by the fundamentalists. Anima recovers from her shock slowly but decides to remain single for the rest of the life. But there are no foretold conclusions in life. The novel could have one, had the writer wanted Anima to find a mate in a lonely Parsi artist, Ferose Banatwala, whose works are attacked by the fundamentalists in the presence of Anima; two accidents that she is destined to witness. She remains a witness; a witness to the life of the anarchic woman-eating Haridas, Sharada, the singer, Shekhar, her husband, Janaki Patil, the young journalist who later marries a reluctant Ashesh.

Ashesh marries Janaki on the day Tsunami hits the shores of India. Just before that Sindhutai had given consent to demolish her husband’s ‘Gandhi Mandir’ to make a ‘Rama Mandir’ as envisioned by Dr.Bhaskar who works amongst the tribals with a Hindutva agenda. The novelist brings in the changing socio-political and religious scape of our country through the lives of the characters of Crowfall. They all become victims of these changes in one or the other way, but the real victim, Anima overcomes her victimhood in the process, the way her mother redeems her position by bestowing her bequeathed properties upon Dr.Bhaskar to realize his Hindutva agenda. But Shanta Gokhale never places them in the centre as if they were the only protagonists. Like the characters in a Warli painting (as most of them look similar but hold defined roles) the characters in the novel too are spread out in the story with a sense of equality. Interestingly the dispossessed Warlis play an important role in the novel; again in their subtle execution. They praise their lords, they work as domestic helps but they retain their identity. Girji even foretells her death in a painting unusually executed on the wall of Haridas’ drawing room. 

( Shanta Gokhale with Producer-Director Govind Nihalani)

Contemporary novels that deal with contemporary events often fall into the trap of ‘familiarity’. The reader tends to find out the archetypes or the reference/d identities from real life. That becomes the game of reading that eventually loses the crux of literary excellence. Here, in Crowfall, Shanta Gokhale saves the reader from this alluring game for she sprinkles her narrative with a fair amount of familiar people as they are. We could call it as ‘guest appearance’; Sudhir Patwardhan and Shanta Patwardhan make such appearances quite often as addressees of certain letters written by the characters in the novel. Though caricaturing is a technique lauded even by Sheridan, pure caricaturing could kill the human drama within a novel. Shanta Gokhale does caricaturing while she deals with the art impresario Sumitraben and the aspirant artist Prakash Jhadav, who becomes a ‘spiritual painter’. 

But caricaturing is a trap not just about creating characters; a novelist could fall into the trap of this even when he/she narrates certain artistic forms like dance, theatre, music or painting. What one does generally is to delve into stereotyping of events or incidents. But Shanta Gokhale as a devoted classical music listener/scholar, a cultural writer/critic and a well known columnist writes about music recitals, musical forms and painting with a heightened form of sensitivity. She knows the ragas that she writes about. She knows the intricacies of rendering of sound and colors. She knows the history of gharanas and schools of painting. Not even once a reader would feel that he/she is not listening but reading. When Shanta Gokhale writes about Sharada breaking rules of a recital, or Janaki learns to find her true voice from the pit of her stomach, or Ashesh painting his ‘black series’, or Feroze does his ‘Annihilation’ or even Haridas makes his flamboyant moves to people, especially to women, she goes into subtle details that look like coming from the actual event than an imagined one.

( Writer Shanta Gokhale)

However, realism or naturalism is not the aim of the writer. She uses a contemporary style of narrative with jump cuts, dissolves and flashbacks. The language she uses in translation (as she compliments Jerry Pinto for all help), from original Marathi to English, is even more original than the original Marathi. Even when Ashesh discusses the difference between the ‘la’ in Kaala and ‘ck’ in black, one may find how the author convincingly describes it without ‘explaining’ it, adhering to the original to the core.

This Crowfall ends with a night of revelry in Matheran; somewhat making you remember Fellini’s ‘La Dolce Vita’. There is no absurdity in the scene as we see it in the movie. The newly married Ashesh and Janaki are there with Shekhar and Sharada, Haridas and Feroze. Of course the enigmatic Anima too is there. Sharada decides to sing, but not a song from any gharana. She sings a Tansen bhajan as sung by many people even uninitiated into classical music. It is Sharada’s subtle gesture of challenging the ‘traditions of gurus’. That night is a night of all changes. Will Anima change her perspective about life? Will she look at Feroze differently? We do not know. May be Shanta Gokhale does not know either. Suddenly the lights go off. But the song lights up the darkness in Matheran.

I say this is a must read for all the artists or even those who pretend to be artists. It is a must read for all cultural activists. It is a magic carpet and you could travel to life by this. Next time, when I am in Mumbai, I am going to meet Shanta Gokhale, if she permits. I want to touch her feet. 

JohnyML 

NEWS

Kambala Photography

(A work from the show)

Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore presents a solo show of artworks by photography artist Sudha Basavaraj. The show titled, ‘Kambala’ is an exhibition of a collection of the photographs.

the Kambala is a traditional sport with a history of over 1000 years, involving racing of buffaloes. This sport is native to the Tulunad region in Karnataka, near Udupi, South India.
The festival is held in the months of December and April and has been a part of the patronage of kings and wealthy landowners for decades.

Traditionally the sport was a means of celebration of season changes and entertainment, of villagers though over the years it has become more an event for attracting tourists.

The show of photographs previews on the 14th of September 2013 and will be on view till the 21st of September 2013.

Mirthful Mastery

(A work by Pramod Apet)

Rainbow Art Gallery, Hyderabad, presents a solo show of art works by artist Pramod Apet in a show titled, ‘Mirthful Mastery’. The show displays figurative and semi realistic works of the artist rendered in oil and acrylic on canvas.

The show displays the unique style of the artist’s depiction of human forms which have an almost romantic and lighthearted air about them. Most of the works are inspired by stories and mythological characters and are lyrical in their appearance.
The show is curated by Colours Art Gallery.

The show is on view from the 11th of September 2013 to the 17th of September 2013.

Fountain of Life

Apparao Galleries, Chennai, present a show of unique artworks titled, ‘Fountains of Life The Rain Room and The Sand Storm’. The show features on the environment and the social issues related to the environment.

The show displays art works rendered in mixed media by a group of artists in various styles of expression portraying their concern for the environmental degradation.

The show is on till the 30th of September 2013.

Perception Reflection

Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai presents a group show titled, ‘Perception Reflection’. The show displays works of five upcoming artists in a variety of styles and using various mediums. 
Most of the works on display are paintings on display are rendered in oil and acrylic on canvas. The installation works and new media works in bottle caps and fabric works wrapped around canvases also are on display. There are also prints on display. Most of the works are an internal monologue of the artist with respect to religion, life and social issues.

The participating artists are Chiman Dangi, Neerak Patel, Bhupat Dudi, Meena Baya, Deepika Mali. The artists hail from Udaipur, Jodhpur and Vadodara.

The show is on view till the 9th of September 2013 at Gallery No 3 of Jehangir art gallery.

(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)