CONTEMPORARY ONE WORD SEVERAL WORLDS

samedi 2 novembre 2024

The rebel painter who ushered in a new era of Indian art

Souce BBC by Janhavee Moole
Some artists become legends in their lifetime yet remain a mystery years after their death. Indian painter Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde, born 100 years ago on 2 November 1924, was one such master. Considered one of South Asia's greatest abstract painters, Gaitonde was part of a rebellious generation of artists who laid the foundation for a new era of Indian art in the mid-20th Century. He was deeply inspired by the techniques used by Western painters but his work remained rooted in Asian philosophy, infusing light and texture in ways that, admirers say, evokes a profound sense of calmness. His paintings were meant to be "meditations on the light and universe", says Yamini Mehta, who worked as the international head of South Asian Art at Sotheby’s. "The play of light and shadows and texture makes these paintings dynamic." In a career that spanned decades, Gaitonde never pursued fame or fortune. But his works continue to grab attention at auctions, years after his death in 2001. In 2022, an untitled oil painting by him fetched 420m rupees (nearly $5m; £3.9m), setting a new record for Indian art at that time. The bluish shades of the work reminded viewers of large expanses of the sea or sky. Gaitonde lived as a recluse for most of his life. He was deeply impacted by Japanese Zen philosophy and this meditative mindset was often reflected in his paintings. “Everything starts from silence. The silence of the canvas. The silence of the painting knife. The painter starts by absorbing all these silences… Your entire being is working together with the brush, the painting knife, the canvas to absorb that silence and create,” he told journalist Pritish Nandy in a rare interview in 1991.
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jeudi 31 octobre 2024

Meet the artists: The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975 - 1988 - Barbican London


We spoke with six of the artists during their visit to the Barbican for the exhibition opening. Featuring Anita Dube, Sudhir Patwardhan, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Sheela Gowda, Sunil Gupta and Nalini Malani.

Art Exhibition In Delhi: Celebrating 100 Years Of Four Icons Of Modern Indian Art

Source Times Now by Ishita Roy
In a dazzling tribute to four pioneers of modern Indian art—F.N. Souza, K.G. Subramanyan, V.S. Gaitonde, and Ram Kumar—an extraordinary retrospective titled 'Creating the Century: Four Iconic Artists' was inaugurated on October 29, 2024, at the Triveni Kala Sangam. Curated by renowned art historian Yashodhara Dalmia, the exhibition marks the centenary of these artistic legends, whose distinct yet interconnected journeys helped define India's artistic identity in the 20th century. "A happy coincident", is what the Raza Foundation's managing trustee Ashok Vajpeyi calls the exhibition honouring the four pioneers of modern Indian art, all born in 1924. Curated by art historian Yashodhara Dalmia, 'Creating the Century: Four Iconic Artists' marks the centenary of FN Souza, KG Subramanyan, VS Gaitonde, and Ram Kumar.
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jeudi 24 octobre 2024

Debashish Paul presents narratives of queer repression and resurgent hope at Emami Art

Source Stir World by Manu Sharma
Emami Art, a space for contemporary art in Kolkata, India, is currently presenting A Thousand Years of Dreaming, a solo exhibition by Debashish Paul, an Indian artist from Nadia district in West Bengal. The show is on view from September 6 - October 26, 2024, and is curated by Mario D’Souza, director (programs) at Kochi Biennale and co-artistic director and curator, HH Art Spaces. The exhibition centres around the short film Hazaro Saalon ka Sapna (2024), which translates to the exhibition’s title, and includes various costumes, mixed media works and sculptures that appear in or are inspired by the work. A Thousand Years of Dreaming is Paul’s first solo show at the gallery and offers a jarring and surreal look at the repression and hope that typify the romantic and sexual lives of queer Indian men. STIR visited the show at Emami Art, where it caught up with Paul for an interview that sheds light on his articulation of queerness, and how he positions his work vis à vis the queer art being created in the West.
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samedi 12 octobre 2024

Durga Puja pandals | When Kolkata rivals the Venice Biennale

Source The Hindu by Sharan Apparao
Every year, during Durga Puja, nearly three crore people visit Kolkata’s pandals — up for just five days. But now, the evolving nature of public art during this season is catching the attention of the art cognoscenti, rivalling any of the big art shows around the world. Over the last decade, more and more contemporary artists have been involved in conceptualising, designing, and orchestrating massive installations that have gone far beyond conventional pujo pandals. An explosion of creativity post-COVID has only boosted this vernacular vocabulary. As a novice pandal-hopper, I was recently part of a small preview group, which included art aficionados Lekha Poddar (of Devi Art Foundation), Saloni Doshi (founder, Space 118), artists Sakshi Gupta and Suhasini Kejriwal, and a few diplomats — invited by my artist friend Sayntan Maitra. Over three evenings, we visited intricately-crafted pavilions, met the artists, artisans and technicians behind the installations, and even caught a show by itinerant puppeteers in the intimacy of a private courtyard.
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A century on, Begum Rokeya’s feminist science fiction is still inspiring Indian artists

Source Scroll In by Kamayani Sharma
n a 2021 article for The Caravan, Devangana Kalita, a member of the women’s collective Pinjra Tod jailed in relation to the 2020 Delhi riots under a draconian law, shared her drawing featuring women swimming among fish with their fists raised sto the sun in a gesture of political resistance. The work was inspired by the illustrations of artist Durgabai Vyam, in the Pradhan Gond style, for a story called Sultana’s Dream: “We had a reading session of the story in our barrack one night,” writes Kalita in a letter published in the article. “It felt special, warm and familiar…” What was this old tale that inspired and heartened Kalita, an activist who is part of a movement seeking to liberate women from patriarchal fetters like curfews, confinement and surveillance in the name of safety and security? How does it appear to have become reactivated in contemporary Indian visual culture? And what does this reactivation tell us about the times we live in, seemingly distant from the historical moment of the story’s origin?
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vendredi 11 octobre 2024

"I am a child of the Indian Ocean" - Shiraz Bayjoo on his practice and politics

Source Stir World by Chintan Girish Modi
Shiraz Bayjoo, an artist who was born in the Mauritian capital Port Louis and has called London home for over two decades, unpacks histories of colonialism with a rare tenderness that seeks accountability without being overwhelmed by rage. With his training as a student at the University of Arts Institute, Cardiff, and as a young artist-in-residence working with charities for the homeless, he developed a visual language and a research-based practice championing the marginalised. Whether he is grinding pigments for paintings or rummaging through colonial records in dusty archives, there is a strong awareness of the movements and interconnectedness of people, flora and fauna, languages and seasons. He is keen to speak of the violence of the past in a manner that helps us understand, not sensationalise, and walk together in the direction of healing.
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samedi 28 septembre 2024

The Imaginary Institution of India Art 1975–1998 The Barbican London

Source The Barbican
Featuring artwork by over 30 Indian artists, this major exhibition is bookended by two transformative events in India’s history: Indira Gandhi’s declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 and the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998. The fraught period between these years was marked by social upheaval, economic collapse, and rapid urbanisation. Within this turbulence, ordinary life continued, and artists made work that distilled historically significant episodes as well as intimate moments and shared experiences. Across a range of media, the vivid, urgent works on show – about friendship, love, desire, family, religion, violence, caste, community, protest – are deeply personal documents from a period of tremendous change. This is the first institutional exhibition to cover these definitive years, with many works never before seen in the UK.
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vendredi 27 septembre 2024

Three iconic female Indian artists, born pre-independence, tell us how they broke into a male-dominated art landscape

Source Vogue India by Gautami Reddy
The four women—now venerated artists in their seventies and eighties—started their careers together in the 1970s during a period of intense change in India. Indira Gandhi had just declared a national emergency; a sharp spike in population had been reported; inflation was at a record high and student protests were breaking out all over the country. Despite this turmoil, or perhaps because of it, a new wave of feminist film, theatre and music emerged. Galvanised by this revolutionary spirit, Malani, Sheikh, Parekh and Singh spent the next decade breaking into India’s male-dominated art landscape. They commemorated their efforts with a series of all-women travelling exhibitions titled Through The Looking Glass in 1989.
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vendredi 20 septembre 2024

India Art Fair expands into Mumbai

Source Artforum
The India Art Fair, held annually since 2008 in New Delhi, has announced the launch next year of a novel iteration taking place in Mumbai. Focusing on art and design from South Asia, the new India Art Fair Contemporary will host between fifty and seventy Indian and international exhibitors at the city’s Jio World Garden from November 13 to November 16. The fair will additionally promote cross-disciplinary collaborations between art and design and will point up Mumbai’s history as a global port by featuring work from South Asia, Africa, and South America. The fair, like its New Delhi predecessor, is owned and operated by Angus Montgomery Arts (AMA), which runs regional art fairs including Hong Kong’s Art Central, Shanghai’s Photofairs, Taipei Dangdai, Sydney Contemporary, Singapore’s Art SG, and Yokohama’s Tokyo Gendai.

mardi 17 septembre 2024

We don’t know Sosa Joseph’s girls

Source Stir World by Maanav Jalan
A naked woman lays prostrate across the diagonal of a large canvas by Kerala-born artist Sosa Joseph. The work, Śarada (2023-24), painted with Joseph’s characteristic fluidity and a more sensual palette is among the 14 on view across two floors at David Zwirner gallery in London, in her first European solo exhibition Pennungal: Lives of women and girls. In a talk at the gallery, Joseph explains that the title of the show, Pennungal, is a “not so respectful, dismissive way of addressing women in Malayalam,” her mother tongue, and a word that depending on the tone can connote something like, "oh women, useless creatures”.
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mardi 10 septembre 2024

A pioneer of performance art in India reflects on her decades-long journey

Source Scroll In by Kamayani Sharma
Today, every major Indian art event, be it a biennial or a fair, features performance artworks in its programme. But despite the form’s contemporary boom, its history in India is still inchoate. As art historian Rakhee Balaram says in a 2022 essay, “The genesis of performance art in India, including the histories of the 1980s, has yet to be written…” One person who is all too familiar with this history is Ratnabali Kant, a pioneer of performance art and, as art historian Partha Mitter points out, the first Indian artist to synthesise performance and installation.
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samedi 7 septembre 2024

100 years after his birth, Francis Newton Souza’s art is seeing the resurgence it deserves

Source Christie's
Francis Newton Souza’s story is marked by rebellion and determination. Souza, who was born in Goa, India in 1924, was expelled from school twice as a youth before ultimately deciding to become an artist. Opting to join the company of other radical artists and revolutionaries, he joined India’s Communist party in 1947 and co-founded the Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG). However, Souza quickly grew frustrated with the lack of patronage and aesthetic identity in India. Looking for acceptance, he left his native country in 1949 bound for London. For nearly two decades, Souza would remain in the English capital. It was during those years that, through challenge and hardship, the artist would define his career and cement his legacy as one of India’s most celebrated modern painters. In honour of the artist’s centenary, Christie’s is proud to present Francis Newton Souza: The London Years, Masterworks from the Collection of Navin Kumar, on view in our New York gallery from 13–18 September. Chronicling his time in London, the exhibition features 26 artworks from the groundbreaking years Souza spent in Europe.
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mardi 27 août 2024

Artist Jyoti Bhatt wins Balkrishna Doshi: Guru Ratna Award 2024

Source Stir World
The sophomore honoree of the Balkrishna Doshi: Guru Ratna Award is Professor Jyoti Bhatt, accorded the prestigious award in recognition of his exceptional contributions to visual arts and fine arts education. "It is with great reverence and admiration that we recognise Shri Jyoti Bhatt for his untiring commitment to furthering arts education, his quest for meaning and empathic self-awareness as an artist," Vastu Shilpa Foundation announces. Bhatt, a Padma Shri awardee, is a distinguished artist and revered educator who has had a transformative impact on the art world through his innovative practice and philosophical approach to art education.
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samedi 24 août 2024

Godawari Dutta: The Model Woman Of Mithila Painting

Source Outlook by Arvind das
Godawari Dutta (1930-2024), the renowned Mithila artist, was among the galaxy of fine artists that Mithila has produced in the past sixty years. With her death, an important chapter of this traditional art form comes to a close, but her legacy lives on. Dutta was born in Bahadurpur village in Darbhanga district. Her mother Subhadra Devi, herself a well-known artist, was her guru. She told me: “My mother’s paintings, and those of Padma Shri awardee Jagdamba Devi of Jitwarpur, had a ‘folk touch’ in them. With the advent of modern education, there has been a change in both the subject matter and style.” She said: “No wedding ceremony can be completed in Mithila without painting.” In the 1960s, Madhubani paintings transitioned from wall paintings to paper, making them easier to buy and sell. Thanks to pioneer artists such as Jagdamba Devi, Sita Devi, Ganga Devi, Mahasundari Devi, Godawari Dutta and Baua Devi, very soon, it caught the attention of art connoisseurs across the world.
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mercredi 21 août 2024

These typography artists are introducing vernacular fonts to their creations

Source Hapers Bazaar India by Barry Rodgers
India’s linguistic landscape is a testament to its rich cultural heritage, boasting a myriad of languages, each adorned with a unique script that reflects centuries of tradition and evolution. From the flowing curves of Devanagari to the intricate loops of Tamil, these scripts not only convey language but also embody a visual narrative deeply rooted in history and culture. The diversity of Indian scripts serves as a wellspring of inspiration for artists and designers, offering a canvas where tradition meets innovation in a harmonious blend of aesthetics. India has been witnessing a revival of typography artists who are bringing an alternate perspective to Indian scripts, and melding linguistic influences to birth unique and distinct types.
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vendredi 19 juillet 2024

Amar Gallery celebrating surrealist Dora Maar

Source Meer by Patricia Gomes
Amar Singh is a British-Indian art gallery owner, art dealer, film producer, female rights advocate, LGBQT+ ally, and philanthropist. Amar is an activist who has been instrumental in fighting against LGBQT+ conversion therapy in India, and he has campaigned for the legislation of same-sex relationships in India. Amar’s art inspirations include Helen Frankenthaler, Dora Maar, Jean Cocteau, Lynne Mapp Drexler, Grace Harrigan, Perle Fine, Judith Godwin, Lawrence Calcagno, Alice Baber, Howard Tangye—most of these trailblazing artists he has shown at his first London gallery in Islington.
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jeudi 18 juillet 2024

Gulam Mohammed Sheikh talks to Bazaar India about figurative art, his evolution as an artist, his influences, and more.

Source Haper's Bazzar India by by Jishnu Bandyopadhyay
For more than six decades, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh has been a weaver of worlds. Not on a loom, but on canvas, and with words as fine as threads. He is a painter, a poet, and a writer who sees time not as a linear path, but as a shimmering fabric where past, present, and future intertwine. Bazaar India sits down with the 87-year-old for a conversation at his exhibition at Mumbai’s Chemould Prescott Road, titled Kaarawaan and Other Works, organised in association with Delhi-based Vadehra Art Gallery.
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lundi 17 juin 2024

The 7 best museums in Mumbai

Source Conde nast Traveller by Prachi Joshi
The bustling megapolis of Mumbai may be known as the financial capital of the country, but it’s also a treasure trove of history, culture, and art. Its museums not only preserve the rich legacy of the region but also provide a vibrant platform for artistic expression. From ancient history to contemporary art to the wondrous world of cinema, there’s something for every kind of museum geek. An added bonus is the remarkable architecture of these museums, many of which are housed in historical buildings. For the discerning culture vulture, here are the 7 best museums in Mumbai.
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20 art galleries in Mumbai that should be on your radar

Source Architectural Digest by Neerja Deodhar
As birthplace and backdrop, Mumbai and its vast sea have witnessed a number of art movements and talents that went on to shape the national conversation. An artistic legacy that began in the 1940s with the Progressive Artists’ Group—featuring MF Husain and FN Souza—continues to thrive, nearly a century on: While initiatives like Art & Wonderment have introduced curious outsiders to the city’s art scene, 2023 saw the debut edition of a homegrown fair for seasoned patrons and collectors. Art galleries in Mumbai have played a key part in this journey. Consider the Jehangir Art Gallery, established in 1952, where the first camaraderies and controversies brewed—across exhibition halls and the iconic Samovar cafe. The last decade has seen the rise of young, experimental spaces and efforts to take the city’s art scene to the suburbs, far beyond its traditional precincts. Here’s a definitive list of 20 art galleries in Mumbai that deserve a place on your map.
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dimanche 26 mai 2024

From one enfant terrible to another: Decoding the mystery of FN Souza’s sketch of a Russian composer

Source Scroll In by Luis Dias
Stravinsky, especially after the scandalous 1913 Paris premiere of his revolutionary ballet Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) was labelled the “enfant terrible” of classical music of his time. The famous auction house Christie’s called Souza the “enfant terrible” of Modern Indian art. The enduring formative impression of Roman Catholicism in Souza’s Goan childhood on his art is well-documented. Yashodhara Dalmia, in the chapter A Passion for the Human Figure: Francis Newton Souza of the above-mentioned book The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, quotes him extensively on the subject. Although Stravinsky drifted away in his adult years from the Russian Orthodox Church he had been born into, his homesickness while in Europe drew him back to the faith, “a portable piece of Russia”. An especially moving ceremony at the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua in 1926 while on a concert tour made him formally rejoin the Church. A slew of sacred compositions followed, most famously his Symphony of Psalms for chorus and orchestra (1930, rev 1948) and Canticum Sacrum for tenor, baritone, chorus and orchestra (1955). Souza and Stravinsky also had inspirational subject matter (in addition to Christianity, of course) that overlapped. Oedipus Rex, based on Sophocles’ tragedy, was a Stravinsky opera-oratorio (1927). The inspiration for Souza’s 1961 depiction of the tragic king was (as he himself explained) his own irrational feeling of guilt that his father died soon after his birth, and the disturbing revelation of surreptitiously watching his mother bathe through a hole he bored in the door. Imagine what Freud (Sigmund, not Lucian) would have made of that! It certainly puts his obsession with the female anatomy in perspective.
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dimanche 19 mai 2024

Soaring graph of Nasreen Mohamedi, abstractionist par excellence

Souce BizzBuzz News by Archana Khare-Ghose
With some superlative auction results for Indian modern and contemporary art in the first four months of this year, the art market is looking good, healthier than before, and poised for even greater innings once the next bout of auction fever strikes in September-October. There have been several great takeaways from the auctions of Indian modern and contemporary art held by AstaGuru, Christie’s, Pundole’s, Saffronart, and Sotheby’s between March and April this year. That has given opportunities to art lovers like me to discover newer talking points and analyse how works of the great masters are progressing over their previous record prices at auctions. In this column this week, I would like to share what I have learnt about the seminal abstractionist Nasreen Mohamedi, whose works are climbing the ladder of popularity at auctions, which is feeding into curiosity about her and her art in what can be called a long overdue attention that she deserved in her lifetime. The biggest hook for this write-up on Mohamedi is the fact that at the recently concluded Pundole’s Fine Art Sale on April 25 in Mumbai, her Untitled work sold for Rs 11 crore, setting the world auction record for the artist. Nasreen Mohamedi (1937-1990), a towering figure among art practitioners, first came into popular limelight when in 2015-2016, two important museums of the world, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, and the Met Breuer in New York, hosted her solo exhibition, titled ‘Nasreen Mohamedi: Waiting is a Part of Intense Living’.
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jeudi 25 avril 2024

The Ultimate Venice Biennale Collateral Events 2024

Source Artlyst by Lee Sharrock
The Rooted Nomad, presented by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, celebrates the iconic contemporary Indian artist whose itinerant spirit embraced all nuances of life. M.F. Husain (1915– 2011) was a peripatetic spirit who channelled his many experiences and journeys into an artistic practice investigating questions of mobility, migration, crossing borders and beyond fixed boundaries. The Rooted Nomad exhibition in Venice resonates with the Stranieri Uvunque theme of the 60th Biennale Arte, for Husain’s art was centred around notions on the ‘yatra’ or journey both as a crux to civilisational ethos and artistic calling as well as a metaphor for transformation. Husain first exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1954. He was one of the first artists from India to present his works in Venice.
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mercredi 24 avril 2024

Matthew Krishanu in the Studio

Source Ocula by Annabel Downes
Two young boys cling onto the limbs of a spindly banyan tree. A woman dressed in a sari sits on a sofa below a painting of Christ. A congregation of church-goers face a Christian priest in the Church of Bangladesh. Many of these moments were experienced during London-based painter Matthew Krishanu's upbringing in South Asia, and then re-experienced through his quiet and economical brush. At Camden Art Centre, Krishanu's solo exhibition, The Bough Breaks (26 April–23 June 2024), follows a string of remarkable painting shows at the London institution by artists such as Martin Wong, Mohammed Sami, and Allison Katz. Ahead of the exhibition, Ocula Advisory visited Krishanu's East London studio to discuss his latest paintings and drawings, the Joan Mitchell tree paintings pinned to his studio wall, and how he measures his own paintings' success.
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jeudi 18 avril 2024

India at Venice: no pavilion but more presence than ever before

Source The Art Newspaper by Kabir Jhala
India, the world's most populous country, once again does not have a pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the 60th edition of which opens to the public on Saturday (20 April-24 November). The country's national participation has been scarce and inconsistent: just two India pavilions have been staged in the Biennale’s 125-year history, one in 2011 and the second in 2019. Nonetheless, this year at Venice, the presence of Indian art and the industry behind it has never been greater. Adriano Pedrosa’s international exhibition, Foreigners Everywhere, includes 12 Indian artists—an all-time record, and quadruple the amount of the previous Biennale. Featured in the Global South-focused show are the contemporary artist Monika Correa and the Bangalore-based women-led collective Aravani Art Project, as well as major 20th-century figures including Amrita Sher-Gil, S.H. Raza, Bhupen Khakar and Jamini Roy. Artists belonging to the Indian diaspora—the world’s largest—will also participate in a handful of national pavilions and official collateral events. One of the three artists representing Finland this year is the Patna-born Vidha Saumya, who is showing cross-stitched digital photographs. And Eva Koťátková’s Czech and Slovak pavilion about a dead giraffe is made in collaboration with Himali Singh Soin, who is based between New Delhi and London.
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