Category: Cover Story

The Role of The Artist in Today’s hyper Art World: A Conversation with Samar Singh Jodha – Jyoti A. Kathpalia Recently I had the good fortune of being in the presence of Reverend Tensin Palmo founder of Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Himachal Pradesh. At a recent event, she talked about Creativity and the Ego. […]

THE NORTHEAST LENS: Art Practices from The borderland – Amrita Gupta Singh One can say that conventionally for Northeast India, there are two views which Mrinal Miri states: one from the ‘outside’ as a unitary entity; the other from the ‘inside’ with its rich cultural diversity. In the contemporary context, how does this borderland get […]

ART of Ajit Seal: His Embodied Worlds – Upal Deb “I believe that art is a creative bridge between our imaginative vision and our inhabited experiences, both of which reconcile to recreate the primal human condition, and crystallize our current artistic sensibility responding to the existential dualities and paradoxes each one of us lives in […]

SHIFTING THE PARADIGM: Amalgamation of Ecology and Art in ASSAM Abhilasha Pandey The desire to give a visual form to personal feelings, communal implication, economic circumstances, spiritual dogmas, aesthetic principles and established agendas were instigated thousands of years ago. Ever since, humans have been creating art, developing numerous devices to manifest their cultures’ identities and […]

A COMPARATIVE BEGINNING Of MODERNISM IN THE ART Of ASSAM: WIth focus on SobhA Brahma Rishav Gandhar Narzary Since the initiation and development of indigenous art historical studies in Indian modern art, mostly in the post-independence scenario, the ramification of modern practices in Indian art have been streamlined to two principal sections of artists, mostly […]

Aneesh Sankarankutty’s photographs of wild elephant’s garner Sankarankutty’s photographs of the elephant have won him acclaim. The Palakkad-based photographer has captured the animal in all its varied moods Aneesh Sankarankutty has waited for hours together to photograph an elephant that never showed up, likewise he has spent up to 10 hours watching an elephant or […]

The Line of Control in Conversation with Jogen Chowdhury – Rajesh Punj How does Jogen meditate on the surface of things, in a way that human skin, the skin of a vegetable and fruit, and the surface of a stone, rock or a pebble, that there is some kind of unifying substance that extends across […]

It is the season of festivals. Durga Puja, Dusshehra , Halloween and the anticipation of Diwali, our festival of Lights. These celebrations are sort of a declaration marking the beginning of winter; this time however, the bright sun shines on vehemently through the smoke laden atmosphere and continues to keep the days warm, not quite […]

Scrutinising A Past, For The Present Interview With Avinash Karn, Contemporary Artist – Lina Vincent Abroad survey of art practices today presents the idea that the only way folk art is legitimised is through a relative positioning with urban fine art, particularly within the structure of the art market. There is an accepted hierarchy, even […]

Pratul Dash: An Artist-Conservationist Striving to Save the future – Ria Sarkar Hailing from the picturesque town of Burla in Western Odisha, Pratul Dash came to Delhi two decades ago and was caught up in the chaos of urban spaces and a fast-paced city life. Today the dust has settled on his cultural shock and […]

Re-Structuring Romanticism – No child’S Play IndIra Purkayastha ghosh’s neo romantic sculptures on contemporary childhood. Rahul Bhattacharya Contemporary India is witnessing its own tryst with modernity. Unlike in the colonial times or even in the decades post-independence, this version of modernity is powered by a technological-financial machine which is globalised, post-national and almost post-human. Of […]

A studio of their own… IndIan Women Painters and their Spaces Jyoti A Kathpalia As one visits the museums looking with wonder at the masterpieces or searching the web for great painters, the question that comes to the fore is the absence, the lack of female representation. In other words, why were there such few […]

EVERYDAY GODS G. RAVINDER REDDY INTERVIEW Rajesh Punj The sixteenth-century Italian soldier and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini asserted that ‘the art of sculpture was at least seven times greater than any other, (because) a statue of true sculpture ought to have seven points of view, which ought all to boast equal excellence.’ Such an elevation of […]

Break Down – Rashid Rana Interview Pakistani artist Rashid Rana’s interdisciplinary approach covers a multitude of mediums, that include video, photography and painting. Employing the very undoing of the photographic medium as the pivotal point from which many of his works are developed. Incredibly dynamic and purposely complex Rana engages with such an avast array […]

“THE DUTY OF AN ARTIST IS TO DRAW, PAINT, REFLECT AND FORMALIZE, WHATEVER COMES IN THE MIND” KRISHEN KHANNA INTERVIEW RITIKA LALL CHAKRAVARTTY When I’m with a brush, I tend to forget my age, it has the power of transitioning. The world has dreams, I have mine; I choose none than the happiness. One afternoon, […]

Exquisite collection of Kantha embroidery from eastern India and Indian Subcontinent was displayed at India International Centre IIC last month. The treasurable collection of Kantha show titled ‘Needle Reverence’ was curated by renowned textile historian JasleenDhamija. Kantha collection was a collective exhibition of Management of Arts Treasures of India (MATI) personal collections of Meera Mukherjee […]

Born for Art Niren Sen Gupta Interview Upasana Bhattacharya It is not every day that one gets to meet a man as illustrious as humble. It is indeed remarkable how an artist who has painted masterpieces over many decades, one of which has recently been chosen to be displayed in an international museum, remains so […]

“My life has been a broad canvas…” A Satish Gujral Interview Ritika Lall Chakravartty I was basking in the sun, surrounded by the magnetic life size sculptures, while I also walked through the layers of architectural marvel and set my eyes on the spread of colours. The essence of art was so powerful that it […]

Baluchar: A Textile Heritage Darshan Shah Baluchar has been synonymous with rich textiles bearing a lineage. Patronized by the elites, the Baluchar evolved creating its own specific genre. Its designs and motifs, its comparison to relevant art forms, the socio-economic scenario,the materials and technique used in weaving these textiles have always been an important matter […]

Subho Tagore’s Collection of Bauchari Sarees Siddhartha Tagore Subho Tagore’s My Father, Subho Tagore, was an artist, thinker, writer and poet all combined into one. He was one of the founding fathers of cubism in India and had showcased his work in numerous shows. Subho Tagore was one of the founding members of the Calcutta […]

A Unity of Opposites An Elmgreen and Dragset Interview Rajesh Punj Given the choice between success and failure, it is likely we would want to triumph every time. But the order of things, the inevitable sequence of mistakes and melodramas that shape our lives, are what motivate the Danish, Norwegian combination of Michael Elmgreen and […]

Van Gogh to Picasso: the thannhauser Legacy Guggenheim Museum, BilbaoRajesh Punj Bequeathed by the German industrialist Justin K. Thannhauser (1892 – 1976), the Guggenheim Foundation and Frank Gehry’s monument to Modern and contemporary art in Bilbao, join hands to celebrate an incredible collection of paintings, donated by an individual committed to the cause of Modernism, […]

Soft Diseases Matthew Ronay interview Rajesh Punj For years I use to talk a lot about ‘muscle memory’. There is a thing inside my body that makes me do certain kinds of lines, that leads to a certain kind of vocabulary. Which I still think is true, but the goal, the journey of drawing for […]

Glass Architecture Jean-Michael Othoniel interview Rajesh Punj In his early correspondence on glass, seventeenth century Italian glassmaker Antonio Neri referred to the Roman author and natural philosopher Pliny the Elder, who cited that its origins could be located to the mouth of the Belus river in Northern Syria, ‘by merchants driven thither by the fortune […]

Indigenous Australia A Visual Insight into the Folklore and History of Aboriginal Australia Indira lakshmi prasad The art work on display ranged from traditional Australian Aboriginal tribal works to contemporary paintings, installations and sculptural works from Australian Aboriginal artists working into the present day, both equally striking visually as well as conceptually. Indigenous Australia is […]

Oral Tradition and Depictive Narration : Rural Stories in Images Vikas Harish for Naithani Foundation While in the Hindu classical cultures the epic texts; The Mahabharata, The Purana’s and The Ramayana formed a chronicle that was created in the three dimensionalities of sculpture or the larger than life colours of painting. The tribal and rural […]

READING MAY 1968, PARIS : POSTERS OF ATELIER POPULAIRE Amit Mukhopadhyay The Legacy: Alain Geismar, one of the leaders of May ‘68 movement later pointed out, the movement succeeded: “As a social revolution , not as a political one. May’s wealth is that there were no immediate solutions, but the movement spread to society” The […]

This mid-point of the season, when the intense sun is at its most merciless, is the time we usually associate with the winding down of the art season – however I’m glad to see that there are still a wealth of exhibitions, events and happenings occurring even now. India is renowned for its deep connection […]

Changing Paradigm of the Sacred The Sacred Mountain thatJivya Soma Mashe, and otherWarlis in the vicinity rever andcontemplate,Image Courtesy: Vikas Harish Not far from the highway, as one comes in towards the coastal town of Dahanu, an impressive mountain, a thumb like structure, looms ahead. Even to the uninitiated there is an eerie presentiment of […]

Evidence of Failure Dan Colen interview American painter and printmaker Robert Rauschenberg, during the 1950’s and 60’s in New York, was one of the greatest advocates of ‘art by failure’. Seeing in material mismatches and mistakes a greater candidness of a work’s visual value; so much so that Rauschenberg drew from his creative faults a […]

Art as a catalyst Understanding the philosophy behind the BAP III, a public art initiative in Barbil, Odisha. Arpita Akhanda an installation and performance artist and one of the participating artists in conversation with Utsha Foundation Director, Artist Jagannath Panda & Artist and BAP III, Curator Ushmita Sahu Current contemporary art practices often alienate the […]

LIBERATION/ REVELATION/ REPRESENTATION: THE ART OF BHUPEN KHAKHAR Professor Rajeev Lochan Curator – Professor Rajeev Lochan Curatorial Assistant – Prarthana Tagore Exhibition continues until 11th April, 2018 Swaraj Art Archive D-85, Sector 2 Noida, UP, 201301 Bhupen Khakhar established himself amongst the very few Indian artists who have been celebrated both within the country, as […]

The opening of GRIHAAS A discourse and the art practice of Sunayani Devi Dr. Aparna Roy Baliga According to Dipesh Chakravorty ‘Andar a space opposed to the public was mainly a space of femininity where men habituated after their jobs outside. Whereas a griha represents a state of mind, an ideological venture propounding a conscious […]

Gender Neglect; Bengal School – Dr. Seema Bhalla Not too long back, a very confident member of the curatorial team of one of the leading galleries in New Delhi reacted rather sharply against the idea of a woman artist who painted in the Bengal school. The conversation was regarding a small water colour of 1943, […]