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Power of imagery Exhibition
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An exhibition of paintings titled ‘Quiet flows the Don…and Mayyazhi too’ is on at Russian Cultural Centre till April 23
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Photo:S.Gopakumar
Russian connection Nedumudi Venu, who inaugurated the exhibition, takes a look at the works displayed as part of the collection ‘Quiet flows the Don…and Mayyazhi too’
The exhibition of paintings titled ‘Quiet flows the Don…and Mayyazhi too’ at Russian Cultural Centre is one with a difference; it is a collection of characters and scenes from Russian novels painted by a group of artists – A.
Raveendran, Sadhu Aliyur, Suresh Peralassery, Govindan Kannapuram, Madhu Madapally, Ponmani Thomas, Pradeep Chokli, Joy Chacko, Selvan Meloor, A.V. Venugopal, Sathyanath, K. Sasikumar, Vasavan Payattam, Varghese Kalathil, Jeevan Chi, Poniam Chandran and Eby N. Joseph.
And so, if you have Maxim Gorky’s Pelagueya Vlasova from ‘The Mother,’ being a favourite subject amongst most of the artistes, you also have characters from Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov’s ‘And Quiet Flows the Don’ making its appearances on canvas.
Done in acrylics, the paintings capture the essence of the characters through the power of imagery. For instance Sadhu Aliyur’s ‘Gorky’s Mother’ has what is presumably a young Pavel Vlassov discussing a book. Could it be a book on social democracy, and is he discussing this ideology with his mother, one wonders?
Open-ended questions
Suresh Peralassery’s ‘Maxim Gorky’s Mother’ has the mother scattering pages from a book. Is she trying to spread the ideology through her gestures? It is all open-ended questions for the viewers.
Leo Tolstoy’s ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’ by Madhu Madappally depicts Pakhom lying six feet under. Despite his greed for land being the reason for his death, his soul is running as if still in the race for more land.
The author’s ‘Anna Karenina’ seems to have inspired Ponmani, the sole woman artiste at the exhibition. The artist has painted a dismantled toy train. The train seems to symbolize how the train brings a life and then puts it out as quickly.
Sholokhov’s ‘And Quiet Flows the Don’ by Sathyanath has a couple (one wonders if it is Gregor and Aksinia) against a countryside.
Fyoder Dostoevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’ by Pradeep Chokli has a cross against what seems to be prison bars. Vasaven who seems to have gone through the biography on Dostoevsky leaves an impressionable Dostoevsky who has been thrown out into the winter cold by his landlady for his failure to pay the rent.
These works of art were created at an art camp at Mahe. After a brief orientation about the age and the kind of lifestyle that was prevalent then, the artistes drew the images of what captured their mind in splashes of colour.
The exhibition which has been conducted in connection with the year of Russia in India celebration, ends April 23. The exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
LIZA GEORGE
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
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