Curtains part to give entry into the scene of the Last Supper when Christ discloses that one of his twelve apostles will betray him. The scene is characterised by chaos and cacophony, suspension of volume and depth and a severe compression of pictorial space. The figure of Christ looms (picture above: Last Supper. […]
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Category: Art
Defacing Heritage
The public works department (PWD) of Karnataka recently took on a 153-year-old part of the Hampi ruins with a bulldozer. It appears that all we have space for in our country today are roads, malls and housing projects. The architecture of a country in a way is its identity, its cultural capsule and when we deface, destroy or […]
A Quiet Legend
It is hard for me to write legibly about the quiet legend of Gokuldas Sadanand Shenoy. I did not know him personally and yet I feel I know him in a way that is instinctive, beyond the realms of academics and art history. While soaking and absorbing the book,Shenoy-Footprints (put together with painstaking passion and insightful […]
Vintage Tales
When every work requires you to stop for at least a few minutes to absorb the intricacy in the carefully assembled objects, you know that this is no ordinary show. New York based artist Samanta Batra Mehta brings together a potpourri of antique and vintage objects for her debut solo show in India, at […]
Milind Nayak: Painting The Source
Artist Milind Nayak’s relationship with colour is mercurial. Colours is his hands are shadows and sunlight, tangled branches of mystery and the profusion of spring. Whether he is using pastels, mixed media or even water colours, his colours are not self effacing. They proclaim the joy of life, of existence, theirs and ours. They […]
GS Shenoy: The World Within
GS Shenoy was a quiet, self-effacing force of Nature. It is only when he painted that you saw the swirling galaxies within, the many worlds within worlds. Interlocked pieces of thoughts. Thoughts with edges and texture and imprints of fading memories. Thoughts that are like scrunched up papers. Like rocks that want to melt. […]
One Man, Many Avatars
If you are a cynic who feels that Mahatma Gandhi has gone out of fashion, or that his bespectacled, simpleton imagery fails to inspire any more, maybe it’s time to look at contemporary art. At the India Art Fair 2013, one could find the Mahatma reinterpreted by several artists – in minimal portraiture to kitschy […]
Painting A Dream
She reminds me of Umrao because she really was. The young Umrao in Muzaffar Ali’s 1981 classic film, I mean. Years later I met her as an artist in her own right, not just as the daughter of MS Sathyu and writer Shama Zaidi. ** Recently, I met her again at the Sathyu home […]
Art For All
From its very first edition in 2008, India Art Fair has only grown from strength to strength. As the mega-art event, now in its 5th edition, there will be once again a deluge of Indian and international art at the exhibition venue of NSIC grounds. With as many as 106 exhibitors from 24 countries part […]
Magic..Like That Only…
LikeThatOnly’s signage befuddles me to start with. It is like..a jaunty scooter developed butterfly wings that turned into a Japanese fan. But then who said dreams should make sense and that is what this young, spirited restaurant in Bangalore’s Whitefield is. A dream sequence right from the whimsical tub with its watering can shower in the […]
The Memory Keeper
“I am the ‘memory keeper’. I have become a memory keeper because I was born wedged between the sunset of one era and dawn of another. Existing between eras is to live in a space where people forget to keep records because they are eager to forget the past and move on to the future. […]
Imagine..
In a world where a random shooting spree can take away 20 young lives in a school, what do we need from not just our law makers, law enforcers, politicians but our musicians, artists, writers, film makers? Through the ages, the arts have been the humans spirit’s escape from intolerance and violence. For cinema, music, […]