A Spectacular Cross Section of Contemporary Indian Art

Source Hyperallergic by Sarah Rose Sharp
Visions from India presents ghost towns, purgatorial waiting rooms, mythically impassable gates, skeleton dogs, unopened lunchboxes, literal no-mans lands. This seems, at heart, contradictory to a country known for its sounds, its smells, its churning biomass. The preoccupation seems to be with that of environment, material culture, and waste — and to be sure, these are issues as specific to India as they are universal. The works are irreproachable, and the Pizzuti’s collection is nothing if not cohesive — not to mention, offering a rare show that equally represents male and female artists. So the visions of India offered by the Pizzuti Collection is by no means negative, but it is perhaps a bit oddly quiet, oddly spare, presenting a profound contrast to the more common associations of the place from which it draws inspiration.
> read more

Smells Like Home

Source The Indian Express by Vandana Kalra
There are more than 20 of them on the wall — rough sketches of homes that people have left behind. While some focus on the interiors, others give an outside view of the green valley and the chinar trees in the backdrop. Artist Priyanka Choudhary is quick to explain that her collection comprises drawings made by Kashmiri migrants in Delhi, drawn from their recollections of their homes. The works are part of the exhibition “A Proposition, A Playground, A House”, where the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art has invited artists to respond to an abandoned house in south Delhi’s Pamposh Enclave that has been vacant for years. Choudhary’s exhibit Pahunch Ghar: to reach home, has an accompanying video in which the migrants describe their drawings.
> read more

Indian Popular Visual Culture: The Conquest of the World as Picture

Source Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum
The exhibition offers a critical viewing of the role played by popular Indian imagery of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the construction of cultural, social and national identities. Nineteenth century India witnessed several major cultural and technological transformations – the pedagogy of the colonial art school; exposure to European pictures circulating in the Indian market; the advent of the techniques of engraving, lithography and oleography; the emergence of photography and the proscenium stage – that led to the growth of a new popular imagery.
> read more

Frank Cohen's contemporary collection gets set for sale Down Under

Source The Telegraph by Colin Gleadell
British collector, Frank Cohen, or “the Saatchi of the North” as he hates to be called, is always up for something unexpected, and his next move is no exception. This week, a sampling of 80 works from his contemporary art collection goes on view at a 30,000 square foot film studio in Fulham, west London, prior to going to auction in September - not with Sotheby’s or Christie’s in London or New York, but 10,550 miles away with relative newcomers, Mossgreen, in Sydney, Australia. The publicity doesn’t mention Cohen’s name (“a British collector who wishes to remain anonymous”, says Mossgreen), but there is no mistaking where it has come from. Most of the works, by a mixture of Chinese, Korean, Indian, European and American artists, have been exhibited at Cohen’s Initial Access gallery in Wolverhampton, or in venues such as the Royal Academy, or his briefly active Dairy Arts Centre in London. Mossgreen, needless to say, is delighted.
> read more

Hype of the 'mad genius': Pop culture romanticism of mental health and contemporary art

Source The News Minute by Prateek Sharma
Contemporary art in India too has a cloud of mental illness floating above its roof. It’s only recently that a lot of actors, or celebrities as we like to address them, publicly addressed their battle with mental illness. But in the realms of powerful overcoming stories and somewhat faulty campaigns, we overlook artists who are devoted on the grassroot, while also confined in the ghastliness of depression, OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder), bipolar and anxiety disorders, and the like. “It’s a complicated relationship. My mental illness shaped itself around my skills as a painter. It affects me to an extent where I know how a particular sketch is going to turn out and I have to stop right there and start another. Drawing does help because it keeps away the mood swings but it has to be constant, as soon as I stop, it all comes back,” says Maanas, a painter and visual artist based out of Chennai who was diagnosed with manic-depressive three years ago.
> read more

Form and function

Source The Hindu
Two online auctions that bring together old and new traditions of Indian art and design ‘The Design Sale’ and ‘Living Traditions, Folk and Tribal Art’ will be held April 18-19 and 19-20 respectively in Mumbai, Saffronart has announced. The sales present functional objects highlighting their craftsmanship, beauty and historical significance. About ‘Living Traditions, Folk and Tribal Art’, Hugo Weihe, CEO of Saffronart said: “Objects such as masks and breastplates form an important part of rituals and ceremonies [and] continue to inspire modern and contemporary artists in India and around the world.” The Design Sale includes a substantial collection of Art Deco furniture of the 1920s and 30s first showcased in India by influential royal families, trade merchants and well travelled entrepreneurs who had seen it in Europe.
> read more

Auction features objects from Indian folk, tribal traditions

Source India
“With ‘Living Traditions, Folk and Tribal Art’ auction, we continue our efforts to establish and develop folk and tribal art as an important category at Saffronart. The lots on offer represent the depth and diversity of India’s indigenous art traditions,” Hugo Weihe, CEO of Saffronart, said. “Their significance in Indian customs goes back centuries. These traditions continue to inspire modern and contemporary artists in India and around the world, while offering collectors a chance to acquire an aspect of Indian culture that has long been overlooked,” Weighe said.
> read more

Other histories of India

Source The Hindu by Vidya Ram
Curator Mark Elliot says he was very conscious of the risk of it ending up as an exhibition by a white man focussing on stereotypical Western notions of “exotic” India. However, Elliot, who conducted his Ph.D research at the Indian Museum in Kolkata and has spent nearly two decades working with museums across India, believes the pieces on display have stories that need to be told, heard and elicited in India as much as Britain. Because the pieces emerged from the museum’s archives, often with scant information about the creators, the exhibition has had to rely much on the voices of those who brought the pieces to Britain. Elliot hopes the exhibition—which will be on show for over a year—will eventually help reveal the stories of the creators and spark discussion and debate on these communities.
> read more

Inaugural Asia Week New York Contemporary Debuts May 2-10

Source Artfix Daily
Following on the heels of Asia Week New York’s successful 10-day round of exhibitions and auction sales, which generated an outstanding $423 million, these seven esteemed galleries are mounting contemporary art exhibitions to tap into the buzz and energy from other modern and contemporary art fairs going on in Manhattan at the same time. To celebrate this new edition, each gallery will present the works of renowned Asian artists and will hold open houses on Friday evening, May 5.
> read more

7 Hauntingly Beautiful Pieces From India's Biggest Art Event, The Kochi Muziris Biennale

Source Forbes by Leeza Mangaldas
The latest edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India’s biggest art event showcasing contemporary artists from around the world, concluded last week. Given the sense of turmoil, inequity and displacement that currently dominate the global socio-political landscape, it was fitting that some of the most powerful works on display challenged the viewer to grapple with important issues. These are seven that were particularly evocative.
> read more

Ethnic joins mainstream

Source The Hindu by Chitra Balasubramaniam
It is usually presumed that traditional folk art is passed down as a hereditary skill. It is not something which is taught as a structured curriculum at an institute where certificates are handed after completion of the course. But MAI has rewritten the script. Not only that, akin to any other mainstream school of art, the founders and directors help the students sell their work, curate exhibitions, mentor them and link them to gallerists who market their work. My initiation into their activities was at an exhibition showcasing the work of their students. What had stunned me was how Peter Zirnis, curator, painstakingly took me around the entire exhibition explaining the works and more importantly giving a background of the artists. The commitment was that of a gallerist/gallery owner promoting the works of the artist. It showed a form of marketing folk art giving it the same space as mainstream art, at the same time giving individual recognition to the artist, a price appreciation to the buyer given the individualistic dimension of the art. Lina Vincent Sunish, Director of Exhibitions at the Mithila Art Institute, says, “As an art historian and curator, I have been able to encourage a few ex-students to document and present their work professionally, thereby increasing their chances of being selected by mainstream galleries.”
> read more

A Dialogue Grows around Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art

Source Blouin Art Info by Margaret Carrigan
Contemporary Aboriginal Australian art is having a moment in America. Within the last few years, several US institutions have mounted shows dedicated to the current creative practices of Aboriginal artists. Take, for instance, the Seattle Art Museum’s “Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection,” which originally opened in 2012 and is now slated to travel to multiple museums through 2018, starting with Nashville’s Frist Center for the Visual Arts in June. Or last year’s “Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia” at the Harvard Art Museum. Or “Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia,” originally organized by the Nevada Museum of Art and currently on view through May 14 at Miami’s Frost.
> read more