KUMAR GALLERY PRESENTS ITS ANNUAL SHOW ‘CELEBRATIONS 2011’

New Delhi: As India
celebrates its 62nd Republic Day, Kumar Gallery, one of Delhi’s
oldest galleries, brings forth an eclectic exhibition of works by some of the most
eminent masters as well as some younger names, in its annual show - Celebration
2011. Featuring works in a large format, the exhibition from Kumar
Gallery’s vast art collection, including works in diverse media by twenty-two
artists, will be on from January 25, 2011 to February 9, 2011 at Kumar Gallery, 56,
Sunder Nagar Market, New Delhi,
11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
 
Artists
whose work will be showcased are M.F. Hussain, F.N. Souza, Sakti Burman, Paresh
Maity, Jatin Das, A. Ramachandran, Ram Kumar, Satish Gujral, K.S. Kulkarni, Seema
Kohli, Arpana Caur, B. Prabha, G.R. Santosh, A.P. Santhanaraj, Krishen Khanna,
Sohan Qadri, Ashok Bhowmick, Laila Khan, Amit Slathia, Ramu Das, Shampa Sircar
and Nabanita Saha.
 
Sunit Kumar, Director, Kumar Gallery says: “Celebration 2011 brings together some of India’s most admired
post-Independence masters along with younger artists, through a beautiful amalgamation
of India’s contemporary art scenario with that of the 70’s and 80’s. The
exhibition is a legend in itself, narrating the story of the evolution of Indian
art.”
 

Padmashree Krishen Khanna’s works
engage the political, social and historical landscape of India. His
works display a close study of the lives of the ordinary human beings, such as Bandwallahs and the activities they
engage in. Krishen Khanna’s drawings have a quality of expressionist fervor
which captures the existential angst of human beings. Making a gestural impact
on the canvas, Khanna's masterful deployment of paint to evoke the human
situation is unmatched. His work titled The
Last Laugh is a similar portrayal of the misery and anxiety of the common
man.
 
Founder member of the Delhi Shilpi Chakra and the Triveni
Kala Sangam, Prof. K.S Kulkarni’s paintings surrounds the
world of the Indian peasant, which reveals his tensions and travails, caught in
the whirlpool of this fast-changing world yet stolidly withstanding its blows
and buffets. A superb draftsman, Kulkarni was also a master colourist. The
fantastic vibrancy he achieved by the soft, light strokes of his brush cast an
aura of light through and around the boldly and vigorously delineated forms. The work to be exhibited in the
current exhibition is from the artist’s Geet Govinda Series, illustrating
Jayadev’s Geet Govinda, a poetic
narration of Krishna’s relationship with Radha
and the other Gopis, through his masterstrokes on canvas.
 
A poet, vajrayan
tantrik teacher and master-abstractionist, Sohan Qadri dislikes creating figurative visuals as according to
him “they destroy the painting”. Instead, he uses signs reminiscent of tantrik and ritual symbolism which
epitomizes “energy or Shakti” which moves. Qadri has a unique style of
working, wherein he bathes paper in acid-free water and once it is swollen with
liquid, rhythmically scores the surface and applies inks and dyes. He carves the
paper in stages to achieve a sculptural effect. The repetition of these careful
incisions is an integral part of his meditation. Imbued with vibrant hues, the
serrated surfaces possess a strong sense of energy and rhythm. In Qadri's
hands, the very nature of paper is transformed. It is no longer a flat,
two-dimensional surface, but a three-dimensional medium. Over the years his work though has gone through a form of
distillation. Colour has become lighter and lines the residue of textures.
 
One of
the most promising young painters of contemporary Indian art, Paresh Maity started out as a painter
in the academic style, but over the years began to shift from atmospheric
scenery to representations of the human form. Gradually the imagery and form
became more and more abstract until the young painter with flourish of a brush
laden with transparent colours began to create paintings of great evanescent
beauty. His recent 7/800-feet mural at the Terminal 3 of the New Delhi International
Airport, probably the longest painting
in the country, added another feather to his cap, bestowing on him the glory of
creating the largest public art of India. Recognized as a water-colourist,
Paresh’s watercolour on paper in the current show displays his signature style of
using colours.
 
Young
artist Shampa Sircar Das has a
unique style where she creates unfinished, serene and mystical human forms.
Replete with motifs of animals, scripts, signs, mythology and spiritualism,
Shampa’s visually narrative works exhibit an element of surrealism in them.
Another important feature is the presence of a Lotus in her paintings, which,
according to Shampa, is symbolic of man’s inner spiritual potential that is
waiting to blossom. The artist's palette is strong and vivid, with an extensive
use of primary colours in various tones, over which she has excellent control. While
most of her works are filled with a riot of vivid colours that vibrate with
energy and suggested movement, there are many others which are quieter and
introspective with the monochromatic tones of silver and grey.
 
Sakti Burman's paintings evoke the look
of a weathered fresco, depicting figures in hues that the viewer feels were
once vivid, but that are now faded. It transports one into a dream-like world,
where the perspective and composition is often that of medieval icons. On
Burman's canvas, one sees mythical creatures who tell ancient tales of courtly
romances. They enliven a magical world - of comely maidens, children astride
elephants, flutists, fruit laden trees, exotic flowers, birds and beasts - a
lost paradise, where all creatures dwell in harmony. Each work is charismatic
for its pure delicacy. Because of his unique ability to blend different
influences into a composite work of art, he has been termed as an ‘Alchemist of Dreams’. Burman’s
watercolour on paper painting to be exhibited in the current show further
renews this magic.
 
An artist
who worked mainly in oil, B Prabha’s graceful
elongated figures of pensive rural women, and a canvas filled with a single
dominant colour marks her signature style. Her paintings explore the struggle
and the inevitable fate of Indian women using ominous symbolism. She sought
inspiration from the strength that most Indian women showed under various
adversities in their everyday life –Mumbai fisherwomen on the seaside, clad in
colorful sarees, women selling vegetables in the market place, women with their
babies, women getting married. Her canvas almost always avoided men, and even
if they did find a presence, it was more in the background. Rarely seen in
group shows, B Prabha’s style is clearly evident in her oil on canvas work Fish Vendors presented in this show.
 
Described
as one of the foremost abstract painters, Ram
Kumar was an artist, whose works proceeded through an alternation of joyous
expressivity and brooding reticence, playing out a crucial polarity of emphasis
in the context of Indic culture: that between samsara, the sensual
participation in the world of events, and nirvana, the ascetic blowing-out of
desire. The severity of the structure and the intensity of the brush strokes
evoke the universal rhythm of art creation in Kumar’s paintings. The true
subject of Ram Kumar’s art is perhaps the sensuousness of the beautiful
landscapes that he creates in his paintings. His landscapes are usually done in
oil or acrylic. His work Laddakh Monastery
carries an uncommunicative silence, screaming for the attention of the onlooker
at the same time, which clearly distinguishes Ram Kumar’s paintings from others.
 

Amit
Slathia, a Master of Fine Arts (Painting) from University of Rajasthan, has participated in many
group shows around the country, each, clearly reflecting his brilliancy in
figure studies. His love and fascination of the scenic beauty of his home state
Jammu is
noticeable in most sof his paintings. The colours in his paintings vividly
recount a pastoral setting, with shades of dry sand. He thus makes his work
animate with all its included elements. His work is not illustrative; rather he
paints what nature, at core, makes him do and thus communicates a serene mood
in varied and changing ways. Slathia appears fascinated by light, and therefore
also by the shadows.