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Back to drawing

This year the art scene saw a return of the drawing with serious art galleries exhibiting them.

A drawing by Akbar Padamsee.

With an upsurge in the art market, long unacknowledged drawings of the artists are finding a mention in well-known art galleries. Not only has it started generating some interest among art lovers but also neo-art lovers are trying to appreciate it by learning about the same.

Drawing, the first step towards the growth in the artists' life, was traditionally de-valued for it was considered a part of the process of learning that is not worth an exhibition. This, despite the fact that many senior artists like Bhupen Khakkar, Souza, Jogen Chowdhry and many others kept on drawing despite becoming big names in the art scenario, focussing on other media as oil and acrylic, mainly. Two art galleries that cashed in on the boom in the art market, while also acknowledging the artists' efforts in drawing and that exhibited their works recently are Espace and Vadehra. While Espace Gallery put up the recently concluded show of drawing works titled Lyric Lines by senior artists like Akbar Padamsee, Amitava, Arpita Singh, Bhupen Khakhar, Souza, Ganesh Pyne, Himmat Shah, M.F. Husain, Jeram Patel, Jogen Chowdhury, Krishen Khanna, Laxman Gaud, Nagji Patel, Nilima Sheikh and Paramjit Singh, Vadehra mounted Shadow Lines. On till September 18, this group exhibition of drawings features 28 young and old artists ,like Tyeb Mehta, Hussain, Ram Kumar, Anjolie Ela Menon, Sudhir Patwardhan, K.G. Subramanyan, Valsan Koorma Kolleri, Mithu Sen, Jaganath Panda, Sheila Makhijani, Hema Upadhyay, Manish Parekh, Rajnish Kaur, Gargi Raina, Debnath Basu and many more.

New ideas

The 100 drawings in Vadehra were an interesting comparative study of old and new artists. The senior artists' drawings showed a constancy and consistency in their works, marked by some new ideas. The drawings of the new artists were marked by a kind of informality, immediacy, vulnerability and fragmentation. They don't have the ideas but have the suggestion of an idea. "And this is a deliberate attempt by the new artists, a completely self-conscious effort that is because of the age they are living in," remarks Vidya Sivadas, representative of the Vadehra gallery.

It does seem that drawing is back with a bang.

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