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Sunday, Apr 17, 2011
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New Delhi

A slice of the best of Indian art

Madhur Tankha

Artistic impression: This painting by Krishen Khanna is part of the two-month-long exhibition which is opening at Delhi Art Gallery.

NEW DELHI: A two-month-long exhibition of 75 artistic impressions by a who's who of the Indian art firmament of the 20 {+t} {+h} Century will be mounted at Delhi Art Gallery's Hauz Khas Village premises here beginning this coming Monday.

The format of “Manifestations 20 {+t} {+h} Century Indian Art V” consists of a single work of each chosen artist which is carefully examined within the unique experiences of his or her artistic journey. What is exciting is the freedom of the organisers to select artworks without constraints of chronology, style or subject.

Displaying such a humongous body of works, the art works have been painstakingly collected over the years by the organisers.

The selected pieces of art manifest tremendous energy and communicate the temper of the times. The show includes works that cut across geographical boundaries, mediums and materials to represent a slice of the best in the Indian modern art. Besides some massive-sized canvases, there are sculptures.

Rameshwar Broota's series of primates – baboons, monkeys, gorillas – chronicle the foibles of society and those in the corridors of power. His exhibited work was done after the Emergency and a new government was sworn in. “I have shown human beings – politicians, bureaucrats, police officers and higher up in the powers that be -- as apes. What I have tried to convey is that people who ran the administration in the 1970s did not have an incorruptible track record. It was a satire to highlight the situation prevailing in the country then. Though men and women in civil services and other departments of government deal with important files and finances that are urgently needed in developmental works, their animal instincts are more in evidence than their humane qualities,” says he.

Krishen Khanna is synonymous with exploring the mundane and realistic world. He picks relative shades and engages with forms to reveal emotion through his pictorial language.

He created “The First Operation” with reference to Charak Samhita as a matter of cultural patriotism that connects his obsession with the past magnificence of medical practice. The entire arrangement engages with the rendering of human form and its expression is Khanna's signature style.

“My father, a historian, wrote a book that was later published by the National Book Trust. While he was in the process of writing it, he wanted me to do some illustrations. While researching I came to know about Charak Samhita. Later, through an architect, I was commissioned to do a picture for Glaxo in Bombay. It was then that I did this picture. It was put up in Glaxo's building in Bombay and when new occupants took over the place, my work was left behind. It went to someone else before a gallery bought it.”

Amitava Das' four-piece work titled “Sky, Earth, Sea, Figure” was created in 1990s. Rippled with tides of thick translucent paint, he intensifies the evocative power of the most elemental theme through the tenets of painting itself.

Explaining his work, Amitava says: “It is a kind of metaphysical work that connects Earth with a human figure and elements of nature. In art there is no direct meaning or statement. One has to extract a meaning or experience something. In this work too there is no statement. A work grows with the viewer. I may mean something but an art lover might perceive it differently. Art work must reflect an artist's time and space.”

Other artists whose works are on display include M.F. Husain, Jamini Roy, S. H. Raza, F. N. Souza, Sohan Qadri, Ganesh Pyne, Satish Gujral, Vivan Sundaram and Jogen Chowdhury.

The exhibition will be open from Monday to Saturday and on Sundays by appointment only.

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