On golden jubilee, some golden works
RANA SIDDIQUI
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The Kumar Art Gallery displays some rare works to celebrate its golden jubilee.
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PAST IS PRESENT K.K. Hebbar's tribal sacred ritual ceremony displayed at Kumar Art Gallery.
Those who have been following the works of first-generation artists must have seen Ram Kumar's Benaras in blue, earth, yellow with a tinge of red. For them his `Varanasi', in only brown and grey with no other hue, may come as a surprising change. What may further surprise many is that it is not his recent make of the city but of 1961! His latest `Benaras' (2005) has lots of white and sky blue divided with lots of space. For many, extremely colourful Souza will have a shock value, Husain's all-green works and Ramachandran's sculpture are addition to the pleasant surprises that the oldest art gallery in the Capital, Kumar Gallery is presenting in the concluding show of its Golden Jubilee year.
Representational works
What makes this show of 100 works of 54 first, second and third generation artists and sculptors titled "Spirit Set Free" important is that most of these works have never been exhibited. This when they are all representational works! So K. K. Hebbar, Tyeb Mehta, K.S. Kulkarni, V.S. Gaitonde, Satish Gujral, Anjolie Ela Menon, Biren De, Krishen Khanna, G.R. Santosh, Sohan Qadri and other masters find space in this historically important show. Historically important both for the artists and the gallery as the works are both among the earliest and the latest works of the artists, which helps to know their evolution. The gallery had displayed some of the important works in retrospective shows earlier though. Akbar Padamsee's works of 1962 and then 1989, Kulkarni in 1970 and then in 1989 are just a few examples as to how the exhibition is put up.
Says Sunit Kumar Jain, one of the seven Kumar brothers who have been running the gallery and promoting artists since 1955, "These are the masterly works of the masters. Some of them have been outsourced from the earliest collections from oldest art venues, and some recently acquired, rest of course have been an integral part of the gallery." On the occasion, the gallery has also come out with a voluminous book on the participating artists. The exhibition concludes on December 30.
A must-visit show for those who think art is more than a commercial unit for investment!
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Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
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