Art News: An Eclectic Collection

The eleventh annual show at Galerie Sara Arakkal, Bangalore has some interesting works on display.

In Bangalore, the annual show by Galerie Sara Arakkal has attained a ritualistic flavour and is held sometime between August and September every year. It has become a meeting point of artists of all ages and from across the length and breadth of the country. In its eleventh edition this year, the exhibition once again brings together contemporary artists from Bangalore and elsewhere to showcase their works.

Some of the artists whose works are included in the show are Adimoolam K M, Anjoli Ela Menon, Azis T M, Bharathi Sagar, C F John, Gopinath S, Gurudas Shenoy, Jasu Rawal, Mridul Chandra, Md. Rizwan, Rekha Rao, Shanthamani M, Shirley Mathew, Seema Kohli, S G Vasudev, Venugopal V G and Yusuf Arakkal. This year Galerie Sara Arakkal has introduced four new artists Aishwaryan K, Lokesh B H, Nedunchelian and Thirumala Thirupathi.

 
There are some very good works on show and the pricing is also on the affordable side. On the whole, this exhibition is interesting because it brings together such diverse artists together on a single platform, but the lack of a curatorial intervention is quite evident.

One feels that there is huge potential to turn it into a major forum in Southern India for showcasing some of the finest art from a select group of artists. And, one hopes that this is taken into account when planning for next year’s annual event.

 The show will continue daily at Galerie Sara Arakkal till 31st October 2014

Let me know if you visit the show. And, which works did you like?

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Raja Ravi Varma’s Oleographs: Glimpses from the Past

Raja Ravi Varma's oleographs offer insights into a significant cultural phase of the late 19th century India

An exhibition of rare oleographs by Raja Ravi Varma opens tomorrow (Oct 16) in Bangalore. Titled Emotions; Relations; Reflections, these select oleographs from the Ravi Varma Press belong to the private collection of Sachin Kaluskar from Vadodara.

The exhibition has also been curated by Sachin who has adopted a thematic approach in categorising them. Sachin started collecting oleographs purely by chance when a print of ‘Saraswati’ turned out to bear a mark from the Ravi Varma press. His curiosity piqued, Sachin researched on Ravi Varma’s oleographs and was fascinated by what he read. He then went on to collect these prints from friends, royal families in Saurashtra and even temples. He has now been collecting oleographs for the last eight years and has amassed a large collection, parts of which he has exhibited in various places.

According to Sachin, Ravi Varma’s paintings depict multiple emotions such as devotion, love, pain, anguish, innocence and power, amongst others. This exhibition of oleographs too portrays gods and goddesses in a human form, and are depicted experiencing myriad emotions - in effect every oleograph has a unique story to narrate.

Ravi Varma (1848 –1906) born in Kilimanoor, present day Kerala was a prolific painter who depicted scenes from the epics and mythology, and also painted portraits of royal families. He was the first Indian artist to depict cultural themes through European painting techniques and was also one of the first artists to use oil as a medium of painting. His paintings of gods and goddesses and vignettes from mythological tales are well recognized and reproduced even today.

Ravi Varma’s oleographs also called chromolithographs were instrumental in taking art to the masses. Oleography (oleo means oil) in essence is a process of reproducing an oil painting on paper to match the exact colours and brushstrokes with the objective of making it look like an oil painting. The technique was pioneered in the 1830s by an Englishman George Boxter but came into wide commercial use only in the 1860s. Oleography was the most popular method of colour reproduction until the end of the 19th century, when more efficient techniques rendered it obsolete.

It is believed that Ravi Varma started the lithographic printing press on the advice of Dewan Madav Rao in Mumbai in 1894 and it was managed by his brother, Raja Varma. The printing press was procured from Germany and the technicians to operate the press were also from Europe. The oleographs were mostly of Hindu dieties and depict scenes from the Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Puranas. The oleographs were very popular and continued to be printed even after Ravi Varma's death in 1906*.

136 oleographs will be presented in this exhibition and a few of them show the effects of ageing on them, which is no surprise given that they are almost 100 years old. Damyanti, Maneka and Vishvamitra, Nal Damyanti Vanvas and Radha Vilas are some of the prints which will be on display here.

The exhibition is on view at Phoenix Market City from October 16-22, 2014.

*Wikipedia 

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Art for Festive Occasions

Art is a wonderful way to add colour, style and statement to our surroundings

Festivals are an ideal time for family and friends to get together and celebrate the occasion and to take the opportunity to reiterate lifelong bonds. Deepawali which is celebrated across the country with great enthusiasm and joy is a festival which mandates spring cleaning and decorating home interiors on an extensive scale. It offers immense possibilities to unleash your creativity and decorate interiors innovatively.

Art is a wonderful way to add colour, style and statement to our surroundings. Colours and moods are interlinked and it is a well-known fact that bright vibrant colours which symbolize energy and vigor are uplifting and help in creating a spirit of celebration. Also, colours that are used symbolically in our tradition and culture as part of rituals and ceremonies, such as ochre, vermilion and rust should be used generously to reaffirm the festive spirit. This would be a good time to choose paintings which reflect not only these colours but are also celebratory in nature.

Conventionally, paintings are the most popular form of artworks that are displayed in homes and it is common to have a large painting placed over a central seating area and it works well in most interior spaces. During the festive season it would be a good idea to display paintings which focus on traditional and ethnic themes. These can be put up as a set or singly if they are large.

In addition, there are several other options apart from just traditional ones which can also be used to create a unique and different look. Displaying art in the form of accessories is also a wonderful way to enhance your surroundings. For instance, having paintings or sketches on functional and utilitarian accessories such has chairs, cushion covers, coasters, coffee mugs, decorative wooden boxes and so on not only make these functional items colourful but also very dramatic. A single large piece of furniture such as a chair or a table can be hand painted by a professional artist to turn it into a conversation piece. This may be slightly expensive but if you look around you should be able to find an upcoming artist or a student who can do this in a more affordable manner. And, in case you are artistically inclined you could always try painting it yourself, but do experiment on a smaller and less expensive piece first. For a larger number of collectable items, a screen-printed option which has been done professionally works much better.

These days, it is common to have a wall as an accent by painting it in another colour and by using textures to enhance its mundane appearance, instead you can have a wall accentuated by having it painted by an artist. Here you can either have a contemporary look or opt for an ethnic or traditional finish by getting it painted by a folk artist. An abstract sketch or a colorful mosaic will look fabulous in a contemporary décor, while Madhubani, Pithora, Worli or any other folk or tribal art can make a huge difference to the ambience. Both these options are worth exploring and are sure to make your décor stand out.

Festivals are also a great time to display traditional figurines, antique paintings and other artifacts which are either hand painted or customized. The important thing is to be creative in your display and choose artifacts with care to ensure a festive air prevails.

Images courtesy Bipasha Sen Gupta, Mahirwan Mamtani, Sanghita Das and Aham Bhumika

This article was published earlier in The Times of India-Property, Bangalore

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Studio Visit: Milind Nayak

Studio visits offer fresh insights into the process of art making.

This week’s post is an informal update on my visit to artist Milind Nayak’s studio. Milind, who is recovering remarkably well from a recent health scare, is back at his easel and doing what he does best - paint these amazing landscapes! Right now, he’s working on a new series, where he explores the ‘ripple’ effect, both literally and metaphorically. But, more on that some other time. Some of the large canvasses are truly spectacular and I look forward to seeing them on gallery walls soon.

We talked about various things as we looked at his early works – some from the 1970s, when he was closely associated with the veteran artist GS Shenoy, who is no more. It’s always fascinating to revisit old works and see the kind of influences that existed at the time, and then to observe how the evolution occurs, and changes in form, colours and textures take place organically over the years.

Studio visits are always exciting and give greater awareness about an artist’s work, not only is one listening to the artist’s words and his/her interpretations, but one also gets insights into the process of art production.

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Art News: Multiple Visages - Narratives of Existence

INVITATION | ANANYA DRISHYA | BHARATI SAGAR & MRIDUL CHANDRA | MODERATED BY NALINI MALAVIYA | 27 SEPTEMBER, 6PM | VENKATAPPA ART GALLERY

 

Multiple Visages: Narratives of Existence

In the depth of my soul there is
A wordless song - a song that lives
In the seed of my heart

- Khalil Gibran

A million slivers of life exist around us - in the numerous stories that await discovery.  Stories of joy, celebration, sorrow and grief. Of ordinary people and their daily lives. Stories that resonate and stay with us and which alter our reality as we reflect and assimilate. Reinvented and retold, these emerge as wordless songs on canvas narrating multiple visages of life, and existence. Bharati Sagar and Mridul Chandra draw inspiration from everyday life and capture these vignettes in their paintings. 

About

Bharati Sagar learnt Commercial Art by correspondence from the British Institute, Mumbai at the tender age of 13 and then studied fine arts at The Fine Arts and Architecture College, Hydrabad. She also learnt Ceramics at The Lalit Kala Academy –Kolkata. She is well versed in landscape painting especially seascapes, has dabbled in
abstract art though she is better known for her sensitive portrayal of women and children.
Bharati has had solo shows and participated in several group shows in metros in India and abroad for more than 3 decades. Her most recent shows were in New York - 2012 and 2014 at a group show, where two of her works were projected on the buildings around Time Square-NY. In 2013, 10 of her paintings were projected on big screens at a gallery in Miami. 

Mridul Chandra graduated from the JJ School of Art (Mumbai) in 1978. She worked with the Sharat Das Consortium (architects for Indraprastha Stadium, Delhi Asiad 1982) and designed furniture and interiors for the stadium. She pursued graphics for a while, before getting into fine arts on a full time basis and has taught I.B. Art to the students of Canadian International School, Bangalore.
She derives inspiration for her works from travel, allowing her to juxtapose various scenes in a figurative format with textured backgrounds. The scenes narrate the reality of what she observes during her travels: migrant worker, laundry man, chai shop, teeming cities and towns – the pageant of the human being in an urban context, thus communicating her insights. Portraiture is her favourite medium and her compositions have a sense of celebration and renewal. 

Nalini Malaviya is a Bangalore based art consultant, writer and blogger. She has been writing for the media since 2003, and has been an art columnist for Financial Times (Delhi and Bangalore) and Bangalore Mirror. She has contributed to Times of India, Femina and several other publications including art magazines and catalogs. An occasional fiction writer, Nalini has published short stories as part of various anthologies. She also curates shows and conducts workshops for artists. 

Nalini runs www.artsceneindia.com, a popular blog cum Ezine featuring art news, events and articles. The website functions as an artist resource and also promotes artists. Currently, she is working on creating an eBook from her published articles.