Prez felicitates Madhubani artist Baua Devi with Padma Shri

Source City Today
President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday conferred the prestigious Padma Shri award to noted Madhubani artist Baua Devi at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier on April 12, 2015 presented a Madhubani painting to the Lord Mayor of Hannover, a Madhubani painting depicting various stages of life, association with nature, as also the interconnected nature of life on earth to Lord Mayor Hannover. Speaking to her at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Thursday, the Prime Minister mentioned that painting and presented Baua Devi a copy of the photo of that gift ceremony at Hannover.
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Curtains fall on 'People's Biennale'

Source The Times of India
KOCHI: Anita Dube, one of India's most provocative and versatile contemporary artists, was announced as the curator for the fourth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB). The announcement of the first woman curator for the Biennale was made during the closing ceremony of KMB 2016 by the chief guest of the event, culture minister AK Balan. "I am delighted that the jurors thought I can deliver. It is early days yet and my thoughts will no doubt undergo several changes going forward, but I view this as an opportunity to do something special," said Dube, who was present at the function.
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IN PHOTOS: Kochi-Muziris Biennale, One of India’s Biggest Art Shows, Is a Feast for All Senses

Source The Bettter India by Sohini Dey
Founded by the Kochi-Biennale Foundation in collaboration with the Kerala Government, the four-month-long exhibition is spread across venues in Fort Kochi, Ernakulam and other parts of Muziris. The primary venues of the exhibition are Fort Kochi landmarks like Aspinwall House, Cabral Yard, Pepper House and Ernakulam’s Durbar Hall. But the exhibition extends beyond regular gallery spaces, with artworks showcased in old, abandoned warehouses, heritage buildings, cafes and public spaces. In addition to the main venues, a number of collateral shows and events are organised in venues across Fort Kochi, turning the area into a massive one-of-its-kind exhibition space. The artworks on display encompass a variety of forms and genre, from paintings and sculptures to video installations and live performances.
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New consortium seeks to promote Indian art in New York and beyond

Source The Art Newspaper by Victoria Stapley-Brown
The ICF is considering opening its own brick-and-mortar space down the road—and may develop its own collection. But for now, it is partnering with existing organisations. In December, the non-profit teamed up with the Museum of the Moving Image in New York to present an Indian film festival. Looking ahead, Weingeist feels particularly strongly about expanding the programme beyond New York in light of recent violence against Indians living in the US and Americans of Indian descent, including a Sikh man shot near Seattle this month and the murder of an Indian man in Kansas in February. And while Modern and contemporary Indian art has recently gained new exposure in the in the US—the Met Breuer presented the first US survey of the artist Nasreen Mohamedi last year—many people at the consortium’s launch, held at Sotheby’s on 7 March, “didn’t know that Modern and contemporary Indian art existed”, Weingeist says. Other cultural influences from India, such as music, food and textiles, are familiar in the US. “It’s about time that visual art became part of that.”
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Meet the Big Boss of the India's art scene

Source Hindustan Times by Riddhi Doshi
In his new 5,000 sqft studio in Mumbai – something of a miracle in a city with matchbox-sized apartments – 53-year-old Krishnamachari is overseeing renovations that had been interrupted five years ago in 2012, when he founded and curated the first Kochi-Muziris Biennale. An internationally recognised art event, the 2012 Kochi-Muziris Biennale hosted the works of 89 artists from 23 different countries, and had four lakh visitors. The second edition in 2014 attracted more than five lakh visitors, as many as the six-month long Venice Biennale does. And the ongoing third edition has had five lakh visitors so far. It was because of the success and growing reputation of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale that Bose was asked in November 2015 to curate Yinchuan’s first biennale. And just a short eight months later, the event opened to huge success on September 12, 2016, with the works of 73 artists, including India’s Sudarshan Shetty, Japan’s Yoko Ono and the UK’s Anish Kapoor.
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Muziris Biennale – A counterpoise to the Demonetization Crisis

Source Voyager's World by Anju Anna Alex
The art scenario in India has changed over the last decade, thanks to the exclusive attempt by the founders of the festival. Indian general public were not familiar with national exhibitions, let alone an International one! But this is what the founders have taken as a challenge, that is, to educate the Indian public about biennale. The Biennale is a perfect example of what wonders a public and private partnership can do! The common folk of Kerala are included and are actively involved with this festival. The makers of the event believe, if the third edition of the international event pulls off well, the economic status of the region will improve, and will also create a mark in the international setting. Though the critics don't believe Kochi is the right place for such a global event, the founders felt Kochi should be the starting point! The biennale has created a sense of fraternity, liberalism and freedom amongst individuals, groups and communities, and has also helped to build deep connections amidst them. Therefore, it is not just the good art and economic contribution that one should look at! The event evokes a sense of ownership in a person, and one just doesn't have any reason to miss it. Do visit it!
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Christie's downsizes, cancels auction

Source Mumbai Mirror by Reema Gehi
For four years, the Christie’s annual December sale in south Mumbai was earmarked as a must-attend event in the cultural calendar. Hence the news that the international auction house has decided to discontinue its annual feature has left the Indian art world – most of whom are at the Art Dubai fair currently – hugely surprised. It has also come to light that quite a few employees have been let go from Christie’s India offices, as the auction house is downsizing globally. According to a recent report published in The Art Newspaper, “Christie’s is planning to close its second London saleroom in South Kensington by the end of this year, it announced last week. The shake-up is part of a review of the company’s operations, which are increasingly focused on Asia and online sales.”
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A unique look at the interconnected lives of India's best-known artists

Source Mid-Day by Benita Fernando
The exhibit consists of a wall of frames and three vitrines, all of which play a game of tag with each other. At the right hand side edge, a photo of Gieve Patel finds a visual hyperlink to Sudhir Patwardhan; somewhere towards left of centre, noted critic Geeta Kapur is seen in her many avatars, passionately questioning the Lalit Kala Akademi or conversing with Mulk Raj Anand about a show on Amrita Sher-Gil, whose nephew Vivan Sundaram, Kapur is married to. And about Sundaram's Kasauli workshops at the top of the exhibit…well, you get the point. A collage of endless references, the many tabs that you open on your browser - that's That photo we never got. Adding to this collection are snatches of conversations and writings, all printed in Courier New font on green legal paper. If it's a little hard to read, Gupta says that's the effect she wants to achieve - teasing visitors to move in closer to view the specifics, and take a step back to get the big picture.
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Stuck in time & space: A photography exhibition that brings out old narratives

Source Sunday Guardian by Bhumika Popli
For Chaudhury, the challenge was to show the fragility of memory. “How to photograph memory was the question I was repetitively asking myself. “Consider a book written some 200 year ago and nobody is reading it anymore then there is certain kind of memory that is fading in various ways: forgetting the author and eaten away by rats. He further adds, “One can say that a book really becomes a tangible way of exploring the flashback and library turns to a museum where book is an artifact representing the memory.” In the City, a Library, is just an initiation, for there are plans in the pipeline, long-term plans. As Pinto says, “Yes, there is the Shelf of Limitless Desire, a video project. There is an audio exercise in library memories. There are lots of plans, constrained by time, and money.”
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Half the lots at Indian art auction remain unsold

Source Mid-Day by Benita Fernando
The typically buzzing saleroom of Saffronart was clouded over last evening by reticent bidders, and speculations over the thin market for miniatures. One of India's leading auction houses, Saffronart held its sale of classical Indian art, which comprised sculptures and miniatures, yesterday. Out of the 81 lots that were to go under the hammer, 46 - that's more than half the number - didn't meet their reserve prices and were unsold. A double whammy of the lukewarm market for miniatures (a similar outcome was seen at the Christie's Mumbai auction in December 2016) and the high estimates of the sculptures is suspected to be behind the disappointing sales, alongside the continuing demonetisation effect.
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FOCUS Photography Festival Mumbai

FotoFest Biennial 2018: a closer look at contemporary India

Source Architectural Digest by Avantika Bhuyan
The first and longest running international photographic arts festival in the United States, FotoFest 2018 has announced the theme of its upcoming edition as “India: Contemporary Photography and New Media Art”. “This is the first time that India is being looked at so closely at the FotoFest,” says Steven Evans, executive director, FotoFest International, who is currently in India, along with Sunil Gupta, lead curator of the 2018 edition, to meet artists across the country and look at their work. “This in an exciting juncture for India and its artists, as globalization and technology has enabled more people to become artists,” he says. The FotoFest Biennial will take place between March 10 and April 22, 2018 in Houston, Texas.
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Classical Indian Art Has Been In The Shadows For Too Long

Source Huffington Post by Hugo Weihe
Indian art, its tradition reaching back 5000 years, has been acclaimed around the world for centuries. Classical Indian art brims with the power of narrative and the emotive qualities of colour, form and concept. Sculptures embody the grace and movement of dance. Court scenes and the poetry of ancient texts come alive in the rich colours and composition of miniatures. Many leading modern Indian artists, including M F Husain, S H Raza and Manjit Bawa, developed their own vocabularies by studying miniatures, manuscripts and sculptures. Yet, the market for Indian art within the country is dominated by a demand for the modernists. This makes the need for building a market for heritage in the country all the more urgent.
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WHAT YOU SEE WHEN YOU SEE: DRAWING FROM THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE

Source Bangalore Mirror by Suresh Jayaram
The folk in contemporary Indian art survives in frequently bewildering heterogeneity. In 1960s, Jagdish Swaminathan abandoned his career as a journalist and became a professional painter. In August 1962, he founded Group 1890. The name was derived from the address where the first meeting took place. Group 1890 had no regional or aesthetic affiliations and did not promote any particular type of painting. Rejecting ‘vulgar naturalism’, the ‘pastoral idealism’ of the Bengal School and the ‘hybrid mannerism’ of European modernism, it urged artists to draw inspiration from the natural world and interpret it into symbolic and abstracted forms; to see phenomena in their ‘virginal state’.“Swaminathan’s artistic ambition was to establish a continuum between folk, tribal, and urban contemporary art. Questioning the notion that Modernism developed from an encounter with the West, he sought to redefine contemporary practice by taking into account the philosophical underpinnings of Indian Art. A truly Indian art could only develop, he felt, by overcoming the divide between art and craft,”’ says Amrita Jhaveri.
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Redefining the Indian art mart

Source The Hindu by Georgina Maddox
Gaurav Bhatia likes to wear a vermillion scarf with his designer suits, usually Caraceni or Kiton. He has that little bit of the eccentric to him which sets him apart from most corporates. His love for art and culture was nurtured from a very young age, thanks to his mother. He was 13 when he bought his first antique bookcase and soon became the perfect connoisseur, with a nose for Champagne (Krug being a favourite) and fine art. Bhatia, 41, is now settling well into his role as the new Managing Director, Sotheby’s India — one of the oldest auction houses in the world.
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His Muse Is Metaphysics:The Art of Jitish Kallat

Source The Chicago Maroon by Samuela Mouzaoir
Epilogue, a beautiful labyrinth of photos, features the roughly 22,000 different moons that Kallat’s father would have seen during his lifetime, replacing them with traditional Indian roti bread. The effect was a touching tribute to Indian life and culture. Kallat’s latest project is a highway roundabout in Germany made of road signs, bent into mobius strips and arranged into a towering flower-like structure. The signs—with directions to everywhere yet nowhere—serve as both the promise of a new path and as a reminder of the infinite size of the universe.
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