38 IN 38-'A SPLASH OF COLOR'

18th September 2019 saw the coming together of 38 Chandigarh women artists to exhibit their art works under one roof. Rani Laxmi Bai Bhawan ,Sector 38 –C, was the venue .The event started with soul stirring music by Chandigarh Community based music group Soul’s Diet. It was a grand show organised to mark the inaugural show of Chandigarh Lalit Kala at this particular venue,’38 women artists in sector 38’.   

The exhibition was an eclectic mix of various techniques, medium and style used by the women artisan .There were acrylic paintings, prints, pencil and charcoal drawings, photographs, tapestry and sculptures. The themes were varied .Works of many eminent city artists were on display; Sadhana, with her zesty birds and nature theme is always a visual delight, Heidi’s digitally touched photograph clicked at Naggar, of the lofty Himalayas had an awe aspiring appeal. Navpreet’s painting of women figure in dialogue with a cat had a haunting demeanour; holding interest here in this work is the crescent moon that peeps in through the window. Aradhana's  painting have a mystic feel, in warm tones the female figure looms large, looking skyward holding the houses/town  in an embrace, Sonal’s bedtime stories with its colors that conjure a fairy-tale world with snowflakes, Christmas trees and reindeer's moving into the frame, resounds with the tinkling bells of Santa’s sleigh. Daphy’s palette of bright colors take on a softer hue in her water color ‘Branded’. Hers is almost a trance like vision in this painting composed of a woman and a bird, made with repetitive patterns and motifs.

There is wide array of visuals that meet the viewer, whether its collography by Jaskanwal, Chinese ink and gouache by Manjot, charcoal by Kavita, pencil by Anukriti, wood cut by Manisha , etching by Rashmita ,aquatint by Nutan, intaglio by Payal and the list goes on. All these speak high of the mastery of technique and thought evoked.

 Sculptures not to be outdone, women hold their sway in this medium in the exhibition. ‘Embrace’, wood sculpture by Gurmeet endowed with spatial quality depicts entwined forms, though used to her earlier colossal sculpture this has a diminutive bearing, though not in terms of quality of work .You are met me with rattling and clanking sounds as Shivani’s welded copper rider seemingly rides past you while Payal’s sculpture connects one to the serenity of nature filled with the sound of chirping of birds.  Ritu’s painting on fabric; ‘You, me and we …are like a flowing river’ joyously flutters heralding the women artists coming of age.

 Pimmi Khanna, who breathed her last at age of 81, was fondly remembered by the Chandigarh art fraternity, her paintings put on display.

PINK SEASON /ACRYLIC ON CANVAS/24X24 inches/SADHANA SANGER

EVENING RAGA//PHOTOGRAPHY/24X20inches/HEIDI SABRA

DIALOGUE/ACRYLIC ON CANVAS/24X36/NAVPREET KAUR

PAINTING BY ARADHANA TANDON

BED TIME STORIES/36X36 inches/SONAL SINGH

BRANDED/WATERCOLOR ON PAPER/20X20inches/DAPHY BRAR

EMBRACE/WOOD/15X4X4inches/GURMEET GOLDIE

PLAYFUL RIDE/WELDED COPPER/24X12X10 inches/SHIVANI SHARMA

MINGLING WITH NATURE III/MIX MEDIA AND ELEMENTS/24X24inches/HARINDER KAUR

YOU,ME AND WE ...ARE LIKE A FLOWING RIVER/MIX MEDIA/21X97inches/RITU M BANSAL

PARIKARMA- KALICHARAN GUPTA

The Chandigarh Lalit Kala Academy has started a new initiative, PARIKARMA, a Short Art Residency programme at Open Hand Art Studio at Le Corbusier Centre located in Sector- 19. Four eminent Delhi based artists, Mr Prem Singh, Mrs Shobha Broota, Mr Moti Zharotia and Mr Kalicharan Gupta are part of this residency started on 12^th September and ending on 15th September. Each day after the day’s artwork is done, these artists give an audio visual presentation about their work followed by an interactive session 

Kalicharan Gupta

Celebration galore

On the last and culmination day of Parikarma, 15 th September 2019, Kalicharan Gupta gave an insight about his life and artworks.

His education and work brought him from a village in Haryana to the metropolis Delhi .Somewhere, this village lad seems to be seeking the space and refuge that gets constrained in the influx of population and growth of the metropolitan city.

His visit to Behrampur in Orissa, made an impact on his art style. He was taken in by the way the villagers stored their grain in one place and used it whenever they needed. This concept of sharing and a community living in peace and harmony struck a chord in him. His works started reflecting strong tribal influence. There are human figures, animals and birds, he seems to be representing the whole cosmos of life on his canvas. His earlier works were drawings in black and white; later the colour’s start to seep into his work.

His foray into abstract startled many. The tribal influence gave way to complete abstraction .He continued with his vertical lines following the drip technique. He lets the colour drip to make these lines vertical or horizontal, tilting the canvas at various angles to achieve the desired result. The three primary colours red, yellow and blue along with white predominate.

Through his work, he tries to bring the concern of unchecked growth of cities which is leading to utter chaos in terms of housing, traffic and even daily necessities. The rapid industrialization and development by builders taking away the green spaces of cities.

In most of his works there is no attempt at mixing colours. Out of small blobs of varied colours emerge huge vegetables, to represent the scarcity of food that is bound to hit sooner or later due to urbanization.

His visit to a Buddhist temple in Korea, brought about a certain quietness in his recent works. The colours seem to dim, a certain haze envelops these paintings, the greys come into play and bring about an essence of enlightenment.

PARIKARMA- MOTI ZHAROTIA

The Chandigarh Lalit Kala Academy has started a new initiative, PARIKARMA, a Short Art Residency programme at Open Hand Art Studio at Le Corbusier Centre located in Sector- 19. Four eminent Delhi based artists, Mr Prem Singh, Mrs Shobha Broota, Mr Moti Zharotia and Mr Kalicharan Gupta are part of this residency started on 12^th September and ending on 15th September. Each day after the day’s artwork is done, these artists give an audio visual presentation about their work followed by an interactive session 

Moti Zharotia

The Dream Weaver

Moti Zharotia weaves dreams through the technique of silk screen printing and has been using this technique for the last 35 years.

On 14^th September, 2019, the artist showed a slide show of his silk screen prints.  The slides were divided into two different time phases of his life; before 2000 and after 2000.

 Before 2000 prints were a visual delight. They took you on a flight into a different realm, an ethereal world of lyrical colours; the pretty lavenders, the hazy pinks, the dreamy whites, gleaming yellows and the powder blues with flying figures that surge through the mysterious clouds that drift effortlessly. The female figures seem to be frolicking, spreading a fairy rainbow or at times a ray of light that gleams through. The same play continues underwater, are they now mermaids or human enchantress .The butterflies and the figures flutter forth from the artists mind. In a mundane and dreary world the artist takes fancy in this dream world he has created. The male figure joins at times in the magical journey. Each print of this period seem to defy gravity in term of movement and emotion.

After 2000; the prints do jolt you from your reverie. They reflect a period where the artist becomes grounded, realising the futility of the dream. The colour palette changes, no more of the soft colours, they are now replaced with earthen colours. The figures are in embrace caught up by daily trivialities of life, caught with their legs entangled or are they tied.  Their profiles facing opposing directions. Their flight a thing of the past. The playfulness now reminiscent only in the pattern that repeats itself. The shades of brown tone down the effervescence of the earlier works. The blues do come, to add “the blues” in the overall mood of the prints. The cat also sneaks in a few prints, it’s back arched in a defiant pose. The form and gradation is there in the works, but the former exuberance, the artist sheepishly admits, due to his hectic work schedule does get grounded.

We do hope life’s journey does spare him some time to revel in his world of fantasy and allows the release of his other worldly prints.

PARIKARMA- SHOBHA BROOTA

The Chandigarh Lalit Kala Academy has started a new initiative, PARIKARMA, a Short Art Residency programme at Open Hand Art Studio at Le Corbusier Centre located in Sector- 19. Four eminent Delhi based artists, Mr Prem Singh, Mrs Shobha Broota, Mr Moti Zharotia and Mr Kalicharan Gupta are part of this residency started on 12^th September and ending on 15th September. Each day after the day’s artwork is done, these artists give an audio visual presentation about their work followed by an interactive session 

Shobha Broota

Return to the Origin

13^th September 2019, was a talk by artist Shobha Broota, an artist well versed in varied classical arts. She considers herself to be lucky to be born in a family that encouraged her creative pursuits. Her early works show mastery over realism and her self- portraits do reflect quintessence of serenity. After finishing her studies she was offered a job in the institute where she studied, this provided her ideal grounds to embark on her inward quest and began her tryst with art.

Symmetry plays an important role in her works, there is definitely an attempt to look for brevity in composition. The artist seems to be firmly possessed by the idea of center in all her later works. The colours at times muted and times fully saturated have a luminous quality. The artist comments that she started removing everything that was not essential in her life and in her work. Her spiritual evolution and creative world seem entwined. Her art works have influence of Tantra. Tantra literally means loom, warp and weave. The term itself is based on a metaphor of weaving, Ron Barret states that the Sanskrit word root tan means the warping of threads on a loom. It implies interweaving of traditions and teachings as threads into a technique.

She introduces different mediums to add three dimensionality to her art .Even material like toilet roll is put to use and coiled to make concentric circles, many a time wool is wrapped or at times knitted to form an integral part of her canvas, this intermingling of craft with art does give a very different aspect to her art work.

PARIKARMA-PREM SINGH

The Chandigarh Lalit Kala Academy has started a new initiative, PARIKARMA, a Short Art Residency programme at Open Hand Art Studio at Le Corbusier Centre located in Sector- 19. Four eminent Delhi based artists, Mr Prem Singh, Mrs Shobha Broota, Mr Moti Zharotia and Mr Kalicharan Gupta are part of this residency started on 12^th September and ending on 15th September. Each day after the day’s artwork is done, these artists give an audio visual presentation about their work followed by an interactive session.

Mr Prem Singh

Symphony on Canvas

The first day of the workshop, on 12th  September 2019, Mr Prem Singh, former Principal of the Government College of Art Chandigarh, talked about his life and his art works .He spoke about his childhood, how his friends during their game play were the first to recognize his talent as an artist. Realizing his potential in art, he further honed his skills as an artist and then there was no looking back .His first stint with fame as an artist was the selection of his painting, that of a flower pot in Lalit Kala during his college days.  

In his earlier works, there is an interesting painting showing children playing hopscotch (stappu). Only the drawing of hopscotch is made on the ground to represent their play, next to this is a cot and a figure lying beside it. Reflecting simplicity, this flat pictorial work has an alluring quality .The simplicity of the artist comes to the fore, giving an insight to the wondrous world of artworks he is set to embark on.

 The artist moves to a mature phase of paintings, depicting his famous veiled female figures. His wife being his muse, who at that time used to wear a veil. There is a haunting quality in these paintings, especially that of a tree and a veiled women next to it.

None of these works prepare you with the pain and anguish that reflects in his works post 1984 riots in India, titled ‘Images of the scarred city’. In these works, the grief does seemingly engulf the viewer, the wail and cries of the grief-stricken rent the air; the veiled figures, here stand for the numerous unknown bereaved families. Rumi aptly says that ‘the wound is the place where the light enters you’. Here in this phase of art work, the artist in a very sombre style conveys his hurt on the lack of humanity in society.

He now embarks to a journey where abstraction in art takes over. His experiments with water and colour culminate to a pinnacle and at this juncture, one of his painting gets awarded in Triennale India International.

 His soul search continues in his paintings; the play of colour, the myriad forms now create symphonies on his canvas. Most eloquent is the expression of the emotions expressed without words, and he does just that, for he masters the art of representing the formless with interplay of forms.

His present day works devoid of colour, are drawings in black and white and have taken a spiritual turn.

THE LEARNING CURVE

3^rd September, 2019, saw the opening of a group  painting exhibition ‘CELEBRATING INDIAN LANGUAGES, THE LEARNING CURVE’, at Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh.

This exhibition is a group show to promote Indian languages through the medium of visual art. It is an attempt to bring to forefront, the beauty of the alphabet by using alphabet of the diverse Indian languages. This exhibition saw the coming together of various artists from India and abroad on one platform provided by the academy.

The artist’s work reflect maturity as well as proficiency in their technique .Their attempt to work with a singular theme does provide a unison at some levels. The skill of these artist in their work whether abstract, realistic, or classical is in their own ways adapted to bring in the theme of the exhibition that is the ‘alphabet’. It does create new avenues of presenting their thought, at the same time the theme seems to restrain the creative thought, confining the need of the individual artist to express himself, especially evident in works of art of the Indian classical theme. Though these works are beautifully rendered by the artists and exhibit control of technique, lack in terms of spacing and presentation and in an effort to bring in the alphabet, tends to jar the overall effect of the art work.

 The artist who are exhibiting are accomplished artists, in their field in terms of rendering ,composition as well as brushstroke .The artists definitely exhibit expertise in  handling colour and balancing in terms of form and line work, but the theme puts a bondage in their thought process.

‘Learning curve’ is a well curated exhibition bringing together artists with diverse styles, had the thematic content been on a much more wider concept, the expression of the artists would have definitely crossed all barriers of language giving forth an eloquent expression to the viewer and a cause for rejoicing and celebration.

This exhibition was curated by Indira Gandhi Centre For Arts, New Delhi in association with Chandigarh Lalit Kala Academy.

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