The Hindu : New Delhi News : Showcasing women of substance

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Showcasing women of substance

Madhur Tankha

On Display: Calendar art of 1970 (left) and oleograph print depicting Godess Ambika of Ravi Varma Press (right) being showcased at Travancore Art Gallery in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI: Focusing on women’s empowerment is a six-day special exhibition on popular art like lithographs, oleographs, photographs, cinema posters and prints that opened at Travancore Art Gallery here on Friday.

An important highlight of “Kya Baat Hai” are special cinema posters in black and white and colour that depict ordinary women as well as yesteryears’ actors like Nirupa Roy, Shama, Nargis and Meera Kumari besides the current crop of actors like Nandita Das and Shabana Azmi.

The exhibition is showcasing posters of Satyajit Ray’s internationally-acclaimed film “Pather Panchali”, the late actor Nargis’s much talked about film “Mother India” and a poster of the Nandita Das starrer “Bawandar”. Lobby cards of Guru Dutt and Meera Kumari’s film “Sahib, Bibi and Ghulam” and Bimal Roy’s “Do Bhiga Zameen” are also vying for attention.

Calendar art, oleograph print depicting Goddess Ambika of Ravi Varma Press, original calendar art depicting a woman with utensil and a photograph of the Begum of Rampur are also on display at the exhibition.

“Kya Baat Hai” has been inspired by Sri Nikhil Sarkar’s book “Keya Both Meye” that dwells on powerful women of substance.

Curated by Siddharth Tagore, the exhibition is the third in a series under the same title. The previous two were mounted at Art Konsult in 1998 and 2001.

According to Siddharth, the transformation in print culture these days has to be understood through cultural alterations as mediated by cable television and the digitalisation of cinema and the printing industry.

“The livelihood of traditional manufacturers of cinema posters and popular prints are threatened by digitally produced posters and hoardings as well as the restrictions on large cut-outs at political rallies. Ironically, these very vintage prints and hand-painted cinema posters have become expensive and highly desired collectibles to be exhibited at galleries and sold in up-market art auctions,” adds the curator.

Stating that the history of print culture in South Asia can broadly be traced to the late 19th Century, Siddharth says the establishment of colonial art schools in major cities of India produced a number of local artists and patrons who were extremely enthusiastic about neo-classical painting and sculpture. “This interest was not restricted to elite connoisseurs and art school trained artists. Artists and sculptors, operating beyond the art schools, restructured traditional themes enabled by the changing technologies and a new visual awareness. The development of new technologies of reproduction along with changing aesthetics considerably redefined the visual culture of the subcontinent,” he adds.

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