Where I Work: Ratheesh T.

Source India Art Fair
I always make art at night, it’s the best time for me. I start at 11pm and continue working until 5am! On some days, I don’t work at all. I do normal things, like eat, watch television, laze around, go for long walks, and chat with friends. I’m still always thinking about work, though. I take time away from the canvas to develop thoughts and ideas by observing life around me. Painting is just a way to understand these thoughts and share them with the world. I live alone and don’t follow a strict routine. My main problem is that my lifestyle makes it hard to spend time with others. I like to think of myself as a lone bear, remote from society. I do not plan my life. So talking about where I see myself going has always been difficult. I don’t know what the future holds for me at all!
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Adjaye Associates To Design Kiran Nadar New Cultural Centre In New Delhi India

Source Harper's Bazaar Arabia by Ayesha Sohail Shehmir Shaikh
Inspired by the geometry of mountains and trees, Adjaye Associates was selected for their Veil of Triangles concept, described as “dancing and timeless” by the jury. Adjaye has previously designed the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture building in Washington, D.C, claiming the Stirling Prize jury award in 2018 for excellence in architecture. “As a practice we are elated and honoured to win this competition,” said Adjaye. “I first came to India many years ago and immediately felt a profound connection with the life and energy. The new building will foster public interest in contemporary art, culture and creative partnerships, and enable Kiran Nadar Museum of Art to continue their pursuit of engaging younger audiences and future generations with one of the finest and most diverse collections of Indian Modern and contemporary art.”
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How an institute can become a public platform for art and artists

Source Financial Express by Faizal Khan
Early 2001, a theatre company from Germany landed in Delhi to stage Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. Written while he was in Chicago after fleeing from Hitler, Brecht had replaced the Nazi leader with Chicago’s mafia don Al Capone in the 1941 play to warn the world about the danger of fascism. After witnessing two world wars in the previous century, it was a fitting thought by the Max Mueller Bhavan, the well-respected German cultural institution in Delhi, to herald the new century with a Brechtian idea. But nature had other plans. A devastating earthquake struck Gujarat on January 26, 2001, casting a pall of gloom over the whole of India. Though bringing a Brecht play to India involved months of planning and mind boggling logistics like a planeload of paraphernalia, the Max Mueller Bhavan donated all gate collections to the earthquake relief fund. Nearly two decades later, the institute is ready to rewrite its role making a cultural institution more relevant today than ever before as the Max Mueller Bhavans in Delhi and Kolkata celebrate the 60th anniversary this year.
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Francis Newton Souza — The ‘enfant terrible’ of Modern Indian Art

Source Christie's by Nishad Avari
For the first six years in Europe, his first wife Maria was the sole breadwinner for the family, while Souza struggled to support himself financially with his art through the occasional exhibition and commission, and through his journalism. As well as being a talented painter, Souza was a remarkable writer, publishing his semi-autobiographical essay in the book Words and Lines in July 1959. The year 1954 saw Souza on the brink of defeat. By 1955, however, the tide had turned. He penned his autobiographical essay, Nirvana of a Maggot, which was published by his friend, the poet and influential editor Stephen Spender, in Encounter magazine; exhibited three paintings at the recently opened Institute of Contemporary Arts alongside works by Francis Bacon and Henry Moore, among others; and painted many of his most iconic works, such as Birth, which currently holds the world auction record for the artist at $4,085,000. It was also the year of Souza’s first solo exhibition at Victor Musgrave’s Gallery One, which together with New Vision Centre, Signals and Indica, played an important role in defining London as a centre for radical artistic expression. Souza’s show was a triumph — he won patrons as well as acclaim from key art critics of the time, including Edwin Mullins and David Sylvester, who likened the expressionistic nature of his art to that of Graham Sutherland and Francis Bacon. It’s not surprising that there were affinities between Souza and Bacon, particularly in their depictions of the grotesque, observes Avari: ‘They shared models, such as Henrietta Moraes, and would hang out together at the Colony Club in Soho.’ By the end of the year Souza was considered among the most exciting painters in the city. Almost a decade of success and patronage followed.
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New York: Christie’s is all set to celebrate 25 years of art curation

Source Architectural Digest by Uma Nair
Market studies clearly show that for two decades Christie’s has commanded 70% of the market share for South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art in 2018. Eight of the top ten auction prices in the category have been achieved at Christie’s. Results in sale reflect that between 1994 and 2005, Christie’s sold approximately $20 million of South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art, while between 2005 and 2018 sales in the category surpassed $400 million. Selling rates in New York achieved over 90% by lot in March 2019, and a year earlier the New York sale established the highest price for the category when Tapovan by abstract master Syed Haider Raza sold for $4.45 million.
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Antilia, la folie de Mukesh Ambani

Source Les Echos par Tristan Gaston-Breton
Les six premiers étages peuvent abriter 200 voitures, dont les 168 véhicules de collection appartenant au maître des lieux. Un atelier de réparation - avec ses mécaniciens - et une station-service ont même été prévus. Quatre autres étages sont entièrement occupés par des jardins suspendus et un encore par un hôpital privé équipé du matériel le plus récent. Le bâtiment abrite également quatre piscines - dont une olympique -, un spa et un centre de « fitness » dernière génération, une salle à manger copiée sur celle d'un grand hôtel new-yorkais, une salle de réception et de bal, une dizaine de salons, un théâtre de 50 places, une salle de cinéma avec écran géant, un temple privé, et trois héliports aménagés sur le toit !
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See Inside India’s Opulent New Sculpture Park in a 19th-Century Palace

Source Artsy by Alina Cohen
About four miles from the center of Jaipur, in northwest India, Nahargarh Fort rises from the scrub-studded hills. Madhavendra Palace peers out from inside the stone fortress walls, its 19th century architecture rhyming with the ornate, pastel architecture for which the city is famous—30 minutes away, the Hawa Mahal, an apricot-hued, layer cake of a building attracts tourists and photographers year round. In December 2017, Madhavendra Palace itself became a major destination when it opened as India’s first contemporary sculpture park.
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From Gandhi to the UN: Indian artist weaves story of destruction and rebirth in Hong Kong show

Source South China Morning Post by Enid Tsui
They will see themselves becoming one of the crowd. There are a number of large paintings filled with many small figures and animals. Indian art history, especially Mughal miniatures, seep into his work just as his parents, friends and former teachers do, he says. He often paints the figures and animals in a grid-like, orderly arrangement but something always disrupts the surface tranquillity. This is true of Come Give Us A Speech (2008) – a series of panels that show all kinds of people and a few deities sitting in plastic chairs – where plumes of black smoke cover parts of the painting. That work is accompanied by Gathering is Evil (2007), in which the only figure is a large, black skeleton against a background of empty, ghostly chairs.
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Art Exhibition: Canopy for Conservation

Source Outlook India by Nayanika Mukherjee
The deity Baradeo sits on a lotus leaf, when the idea of Creation dawns on him. He looks around, but water spreads till the edge of the horizon. He rubs his chest with pensive intent, and fashions a crow from the grime. It flies far in search of clay to further Creation, until tiredly landing atop a stump. But this is no tree—it is the claw of a mystical crab, who reveals where all the clay has gone. A giant earthworm in the nether world collects and feasts on it. The crab pulls him out of this damp abode, and forces the worm to spit out the clay. The crow quickly grabs it, and flies home. With a spiderweb woven atop the watery expanse, Baradeo fashions the Earth’s creatures from this clay. If Indian creation myths are your cup of tea, Gond legends are a quirky starting point for the inquisitive. As one of our largest and oldest tribes, their folklore is intricate and imaginative.
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