The champion of Indian art

Source Livemint by Avantika Bhuyan
A new film chronicles Kekoo Gandhy’s role as a central figure on the contemporary art scene. In the 1940s, the showroom of Chemould Frames on Princess Street in Mumbai—a frame-manufacturing business run by a young Kekoo Gandhy—would be abuzz with exchanges on art. European Jewish immigrants such as Walter Langhammer, an Austrian artist—who had come to India to flee the Nazis—would drop in for a chat. This spurred Gandhy’s interest in art and he went on to establish Gallery Chemould, India’s first commercial art gallery, with his wife, Khorshed, in 1963. Gandhy, in the course of time, hosted exhibitions by Bhupen Khakhar, Tyeb Mehta, S. H. Raza, Vivan Sundaram, Nalini Malani, and Atul Dodiya, who are now at the forefront of contemporary art.
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After a Boom and a Bust, the South Asian Art Market Is Finally Maturing

Source Artsy by Payal Uttam
The coronavirus outbreak may be keeping art collectors away from cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore, but it didn’t affect footfall at the India Art Fair (IAF) in New Delhi earlier this month. “I’m sure if people came here they would be very surprised,” said Indonesian collector Tom Tandio while standing in a bustling fair aisle. “A lot of international collectors have the wrong perception about contemporary South Asian art. They think it’s very traditional, but it’s not.” “There has been a big change this year,” said Jagdip Jagpal, the director of IAF, stressing growing international interest in the region. “People come across works by South Asian artists in Europe and the United States, which has piqued their curiosity, so they came to Delhi. There’s really been an impact.” “The art fair is a huge benchmark for how the market is looking,” said Kishore Singh, who heads exhibitions and publications at Delhi Art Gallery. “Today, you can feel a new energy.”
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CPI(M)'s red flag continues to fly in Maharashtra's Talasari

Source Deccan Herald
The twin Thane-Palghar districts have the glorious legacy of the Warli Adivasi Revolt against landlordism that began 75 years ago, in 1945, under the banner of the Communist Party and the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS). "The legendary leaders of this... > read more

Portrait of the Artist

Source The Indian Express by Parul
“I regret I was not able to archive the contributions of Manjit Bawa, Sohan Qadri, KG Subramanyan and Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh. The smaller towns and rural areas do not have resources or facilities for the study of fine arts, so what do the students do and where do they get the information. Here, we are focussing on archiving the entire spectrum. We have also started documenting artists from Punjab, in Punjabi language, and I believe every state should do this. We must create in our own language and our own thoughts and not on borrowed idioms. The younger generation must be aware of its own art history, starting from folk, classical, modern and then to world art and we hope this documentation will support their passion,” adds Manna.
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How designer Riten Mozumdar shaped modern Indian aesthetics and sensibilities

Source The Indian Express by Benita Fernando
In artist Monika Correa’s sari collection, there was one with block-prints that instantly recalled Rome. It was made using a block designed by Riten Mozumdar, a close friend of Monika and her late husband, architect Charles Correa, in 1961. Mozumdar had seen the Palazzo della Civilta Italiana, also called the Square Colosseum, in Rome, and recreated its rows of arches on a block. With this design, that he called Rome by Night, Mozumdar captured an essence of Roman architecture and distilled the city’s history into a geometric pattern. Mozumdar designed several more saris, and even a kimono, for Correa, using block-printing and calligraphy, long before other Indian artists made it fashionable to paint textiles. Geometric block-print patterns were unheard of in India before that. Correa says, “Riten was the first person to revitalise block-printing post-Independence. There were others but they were traditional, doing the same thing over and over again. Riten was experimenting.” The garment, the block, the maker and the wearer come together in “Imprint”, an ongoing mini retrospective of Mozumdar’s work at Chatterjee & Lal in Mumbai. The exhibition pays homage to this relatively understudied designer, who blurred the lines between art, craft and design.
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Block Museum Of Art At Northwestern University Continues ‘Year Of Global Modernisms’ Exhibition Series

Source Forbes by Chadd Scott
A broader interpretation of Modern art has only recently begun taking hold with museums introducing artists of color, women and artists operating outside of the traditional art capitols into the 100 year story of Modern art they’re telling. The most prominent example of this new direction occurred last fall with New York’s Museum of Modern Art taking advantage of a complete renovation to vastly expand its presentation of works from African-Americans, women and artists around the globe. Similarly, the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Chicago launched its “Year of Global Modernisms” in 2019. This series of exhibits explores the under-recognized innovation and risk-taking in art beyond Europe and North America during the mid-20th century, expanding Western perspectives of Modern art. With nearly 700 artworks, 114 on view in this show, the Abby Weed Grey Collection represents the largest institutional assemblage of modern Iranian and Turkish art outside of Iran and Turkey as well as the most important collection of modern Indian art in an American university museum.
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‘Most people know when I’m bidding’ — Kiran Nadar has big plans for Indian art

Source Christie's by E Jane Dickson
Art should not be locked away,’ says Kiran Nadar, and one imagines vaults the world over springing open at her words. It is clear, within moments of meeting her, that this is a woman who gets things done. ‘It’s true,’ she says, smiling warmly. ‘I am very determined. Building a collection requires a certain focus, and I am very focused on making art part of everyday living in India.’ In only a decade, Nadar has built, from scratch, the first private museum of modern and contemporary art in India, and already the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in New Delhi has the clout of a national institution. More than 6,000 pieces describe the arc of Indian and South Asian art, from late 19th-century masters such as Raja Ravi Varma, through the modern explosion of the Bombay Progressives, to conceptual, confrontational works by emerging artists.
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Footbridge of Memories

Source The Indian Express by Pallavi Chattopadhyay
Honi, a “miracle maker” in Talmud, a Jewish religious text, is waking back from sleep after 70 years in French contemporary artist Gerard Garouste’s mammoth painting Warsaw Bridge and the She-Asses, on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in Delhi. In the background is the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest Jewish ghetto in Germany-occupied Poland that housed nearly 4,80,000 Jews at one point of time, before sending them to gas chambers and mass killing centres. The canvas speaks volumes to the viewer, as it has a number of captured donkeys hoarded together under a foot over bridge on Chlodna Street, which became a tragic image from World War II and a powerful depiction of the Holocaust.
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KNMA Delhi and STG Moscow present exhibition of contemporary Indian art in Russia

Source India Blooms
The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), The State Tretyakov Gallery (STG) and Indo-Russian Cultural Foundation have joined together to bring for the very first time an exhibition featuring more than sixty cross-generational Indian artists, including leading internationally acclaimed figures alongside emerging, younger generation artists. The exhibition is being curated by Roobina Karode, Director and Chief Curator of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi with Fiana Balakhovskaya and Sergey Fofanov from the Tretyakov Gallery, under leadership of Zelfira Tregulova. The exhibition will feature works by artists including Nalini Malani, Vivan Sundaram, Bhupen Khakhar, Anish Kapoor, Amar Kanwar, G. Ravinder Reddy, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Anita Dube, Shilpa Gupta, Dayanita Singh and Jitish Kallat, among others. An associated programme will be held alongside the exhibition which will feature illustrated talks on the history and development of the Indian art scene since India’s Independence in 1947.
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Rural rhythms

Source The Pioneer by Uma Nair
When I began, my early works were influenced by cubism as well as lighthearted and colourful pop art kind of imagery. It was inspired by traditional Indian folk designs. It was in 1966 that I returned to MSU Baroda with a thorough knowledge of the intaglio process that I had gained at the Pratt Institute at Brooklyn, New York. I found intaglio exciting. The thought that so many prints could be made was a sense of commonality I believed in because I didn’t like the idea of elitist art. This caused friends such as Jeram Patel, Bhupen Khakhar and Gulam Mohammed Sheikh to follow the same process. At the Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda, we were soon known as “The Baroda School” of Indian art.
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STAYIN’ ALIVE

Source Artforum by Meera Menezes
“WHEN I EAT, I EAT MY OWN DEATH,” proclaimed a pile of bright green stickers, injecting a gloomy note into what otherwise promised to be a livelyopening. However dour, artist Atul Bhalla’s warning was not going to keep me from India International Centre’s famed samosas and a cup of hot tea on a cold winter’s day. Curated by Arshiya Lokhandwala, the site-specific exhibition bore the sanguine title “We Are Still Alive: Strategies in Surviving the Anthropocene.” I spotted the statuesque Shalini Passi, collector and founder of MASH (My Art Shalini, a digital platform that sponsored the project), chatting with Nature Morte’s Peter Nagy before she posed for shutterbugs under Asim Waqif’s crumpled car installation, Collapse analysis: Mayapuri, 2019, which hung from a tree. I then decided to trail Lokhandwala as she shepherded art patrons Tarana Sawhney, Radhika Chopra, and Anupam Poddar around Arunkumar H.G.’sTimeline of Backwash 1, 2020, and Ravi Agarwal’s installation Evening has come with Sangam Dialogue (sound piece), 2016. While Arunkumar’s faux trees set up a lively conversation with their real counterparts on the lawn, Agarwal’s beached boat seemed out of place—perhaps that was the intent.
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Indian bizarre: an art show with a vitality all of its own

Source Brisbane Times by John McDonald
Seen one art fair, seen 'em all? Not when it’s the India Art Fair in New Delhi. Like everything else on the subcontinent the premier commercial art event is very different in character to the fairs one sees in Europe or America, or even Hong Kong. This is largely because of its proudly provincial stance. Seventy per cent of exhibitors are Indian, providing a unique survey of an art scene in which a deep respect for tradition jostles against a burgeoning cosmopolitanism. Perhaps the most daring experiment came from the Crayon Art Gallery, which showed a single painting and a matching oleograph by Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906), who pioneered the painting of the Hindu legends in a westernised style. To add a touch of theatre the picture and its echo were displayed, spot-lit, in a pitch dark room. I didn’t ask the price. Even if I had been eager to purchase such a work it’s unlikely that I would have been allowed to do so. In the 1970s the Indian government nominated nine artists as “national treasures” whose works would not be permitted to leave India. This policy, intended as a mark of respect, has probably retarded the global recognition of Indian modern art. Imagine if paintings by Monet or Matisse had never been allowed to leave France.
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Looking at 'The Other Side'

Source by Millennium Post
As part of a key Indo-French artistic exchange, a major retrospective exhibition of Gérard Garouste, one of France's leading contemporary artists - opens in the Indian capital, featuring around sixty paintings that span forty years of his artistic creation, from 1980 to 2019. The survey exhibition titled 'Gérard Garouste - The Other Side' is the biggest show of the artist's work outside Europe, and his debut in India. The exhibition is inspired by history's founding texts and combines myth and surrealist imagery. The exhibition will go on till March 29 at NGMA.
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The India Art Fair 2020 Marks Its 12th Edition With Robust Work And Steady Sales

Source Forbes by Ann Binlot
Sales at the fair were steady, and included the Murillo, which went for $350,000 at David Zwirner, which also sold works by Tillmans and Dzama. Vadehra Gallery reported sales ranging from $1,000 to $150,000, while Jhaveri Contemporary sold a work by Anwar Jalal Shemza for $50,000, and another by Monika Correa for $42,000. The 12th edition also marked the fair’s final year at the NSIC Exhibition Grounds before it moves to the new exhibition halls of the Pragati Maidan in New Delhi next year from February 18 to 21.
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Road to discovery: Jane & Kito de Boer chat about their love for art before Christie's auction

Source Indulge Express by Joy S
Living between London and Dubai, Kito De Boer and his wife, Jane Gowers, are two of the most well-known international collectors of Indian Art. They have put together a remarkable collection with a broad historical scope and a wide range of artists. The couple began collecting more than 25 years ago when they moved to New Delhi, and have continued their journey as patrons of Indian art and culture since then. Numbering over 1,000 pieces, the collection is one of the largest and most varied collections of Indian art in private hands.
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Largest collection of contemporary Indian art heads to Moscow

Source The Art Newspaper by Kabir Jhala
The largest collection of contemporary Indian art ever to leave the country is heading to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The museum will host the exhibition Extension: India (17 June- 6 September), with works by 72 artists including Dayanita Singh and Shilpa Gupta. Several Indian private museums are lending works, with the majority coming from the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), opened in New Delhi in 2010 by the collector and philanthropist Kiran Nadar.
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SOHRAI ART of Jharkhand Reaches Posh Society of Gurgaon | Kala Chaupal

Indian art’s decade on Instagram

Source Livemint by Somak Ghoshal
Priyanka Raja, co-founder of the Kolkata-based Experimenter gallery, acknowledges the boon of access that Instagram has brought into the world of Indian art. “The medium can augment the reach of artists immensely and act as a truly democratic platform," she says. From taking viewers on virtual studio visits to showing them the different stages of mounting a show, Instagram can take a wide demographic behind the scenes of the art world. “Members of the press, collectors, viewers and visitors to the city have reached out to us after seeing a post on our Instagram feed," she adds.
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How to Lounge this weekend with the new shows around India Art Fair 2020

Source Livemint
If one aim of art is to provoke us to regard the world with fresh eyes, the Devi Art Foundation’s new show fits the bill spectacularly. Curated by writer and independent publisher S. Anand, drawing on the existing holdings of the foundation and new work made by those working in the industries of Delhi’s Okhla area, Suñatā Samantā: Emptiness Equality offers a unique perspective on contemporary Indian art. Referring to the legacies of B.R. Ambedkar, the Buddha and Kabir, it challenges the binaries of pure and impure, high and low, sublime and banal—leaving the viewer questioning their biases.
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Indian Artist G Ravinder Reddy’s Groundbreaking Sculptures Of Women Shatter Western Ideals Of Beauty

Source Forbes by Ann Binlot
They’re big, bold, beautiful—and brilliant. For over four decades G Ravinder Reddy’s curvy sculptures of the female form have been key figures of India’s contemporary art scene, while the artist himself has evolved into one of South Asia’s biggest artists. The 64-year-old artist currently has an exhibition in New Delhi at Vadehra Gallery, SOMA: The Body as Elixir, a survey of his sculpture spanning from the early ‘80s to the present. In addition, the artist also has work in four booths—Palette Art Gallery, Sakshi Gallery, Emami Art and Vadehra Gallery—at the India Art Fair, which runs through February 2nd.
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