“Amrita Sher-Gil: The Passionate Quest” NGMA Mumbai

National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, and the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, Ministry of Culture, Government of India are happy to inform that a special exhibition, ‘AmritaSher-Gil: The Passionate Quest’, developed by NGMA New Delhi on the occasion of the closing of the birth centenary celebrations of Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941) will be inaugurated and thrown open to the public at NGMA Mumbai on the 31st of May 2014. It is for the first time that almost the entire NGMA collection of around 95 works of Amrita Sher-Gil will be showcased at the exhibition, including many paintings that have rarely been displayed before.

Amrita Sher-Gil

The works Amrita Sher-Gill produced during her short but prolific life combined brilliant details from the scenes of everyday life in India, and created a timeless monumentality. In a tragically brief career, Sher-Gil did much to introduce her country to the idea of the free-spirited artist, and to show her people that art could interpret Indian life for Indians

She came to India in 1921, drew inspiration from the exquisite little miniatures of Kangra and frescoes of Ajanta. The figures she drew with expressions on their faces were her own invention. Amrita’s paintings were not mere reproductions of what she saw around her but visions born out of the coordination of colour, design and emotion. Visit to South India inspired her to produce the most remarkable works such as "The Bride’s Toilette", “The Brahmacharis" and "South Indian Villagers going to Market". The Brahmacharis, which was painted in , is a fine example of her understanding of the Hindu faith which is still prevalent in the traditionalist South India. She is remembered for her paintings done just over a period of seven years. But the passion with which she handled the brush and the genius with which she combined her training in the West and her view of the East, made her most popular. The sincerity of her subject and the uses of colours bring to Amrita’s paintings a quality of timelessness. Most of her paintings reflect her love for the country and more importantly her response to the life of its people. She was the youngest among the pioneers of contemporary movement and the most short lived.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Mrs Pheroza Godrej, Chairperson Advisory Committee, NGMA Mumbai in the august presence of Dr Gieve Patel, eminent poet and painter and Ms Yashodhara Dalmia, Curator of the exhibition on 31st May 2014 at 6.00 PM at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai.
Pheroza Godrej in her inaugural address said “The richness of Amrita Sher-Gil’s visual language and experiments with form and composition have been sensitively analysed by the curator, Yashodhara Dalmia, who has approached the oeuvre from four different perspectives described as Threshold, Icon and Iconolastic, Hungarian Manifestation and Indian Journey. Mrs Pheroza Godrej thanked the curator Yashodhara Dalmia for her perceptive approach to Amrita Sher-Gil’s art. She also expressed her thanks and gratitude to Ms. Manju Singh, Chairperson and members of

Group of Three Girls, Oil on canvas, January 1935

the NGMA New Delhi Advisory Committee for their support in bringing this exhibition to NGMA Mumbai. She also acknowledged the support of the members of the Advisory Committee NGMA Mumbai and the sincere efforts of the entire NGMA, Mumbai team for making this exhibition a great success.
This impressive and arresting collection of her paintings is supplemented by an illuminating display of text and images titled, Remembering Amrita Sher-Gil. This focuses on the artistic genius and mercurial personality of Amrita Sher-Gil, which have a bearing on her paintings. To further contextualise Amrita Sher-Gil’s modernism, an audio-visual highlighting the European art scene in the early 20th century, conceptualised by Ella Datta, is an attraction to this significant show.

Nude Oil on canvas, 1933

Prof Rajeev Lochan Director NGMA New Delhi, who spearheaded the birth centenary celebrations of Amrita Sher-Gil said, “The complexity of Amrita Sher-Gil’s personality and the brilliant versatility of her work invite varied reactions. Viewers remark on the sensuousness of her representations, her sensitivity, her melancholy faces and her intimate projections of a female identity. And indeed all these readings are inescapably true. I am confident that this exhibition will recontextualise Amrita Sher-Gil and her work in our present times

Marking the inauguration of the exhibition here at NGMA Mumbai Shivaprasad Khened Director NGMA Mumbai said “Bold, unconventional, hugely talented and very beautiful – the painter Amrita Sher-Gil is the stuff that legends are made of. Her paintings reveal her training in the Western schools of art, but at the same time, reflect colourfully her love for India and her response to the life of its people”.

Mapping Amrita Sher-Gil’s genius, Yashodhara Dalmia said, “her fervent journey resulted in a successful melding of Eastern and Western traditions. This paved the way for modernism in Indian art and influenced generations of artists. Sher-Gil's immense achievement is commemorated in this exhibition which also marks her birth centenary year. The works map the journey from the genesis of her art to its triumphant culmination in the last period. This consists of the essential conditions of her paintings which can be traced to the training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, her return to India in 1934, the subsequent experiments in her work resulting from the exposure to Ajanta and Ellora and Indian miniatures as well as her last paintings which point towards another fruitful breakthrough. As Sher-Gil's attempts at modernity and loosening the shackles of academism became increasingly successful, she was to make iconic works which created a distinctive interweaving of Eastern and Western art.

“Amrita Sher-Gil flashed through the Indian artistic horizon like an incandescent meteor. Her place in the trajectory of Indian modern art is unquestionably pre eminent. Her aesthetic sensibility shows not surprisingly a blend of European and Indian elements. Her command over handling of oil medium and use of colour, as well as her vigorous brushwork and strong feeling for composition, all go towards giving a dazzling quality to her genius. Amrita Sher-Gil was already a legend as a young woman painter in the early thirties of the last century in the art world of India. This exhibition at NGMA Mumbai is accompanied by the release of a comprehensive catalogue with a lead essay by YashodharaDalmia.

The exhibition will be on view for public from 1.06.2014 to 30.06.2014 from 11 am – 6 PM, for a period of one month. (Except on Mondays and National holidays).

PRESS RELEASE
National Gallery of Modern Art
Sir Cowasji Jehangir Public Hall,
M G Road Mumbai 400032

copyright NGMA

ART TALK SHOW at Art Gate Gallery

Do come...26th June. ART TALK : Kajal Gaitonde at 4:00 to 5.00pm and Prashant Hirlekar at 5pm to 6pm Art Gate Gallery, Churchgate Mumbai
Art Gate Gallery can be contacted at:022 4213 8855
or emailed at artgate.sc@gmail.com

मेरा मानना है कि हमारे जीव होने को प्रामाणिकता प्रदान करने वाले एहसास आरम्भिक बिंदु से ही अवतरित होते हैं -अर्चना मिश्रा

मनुष्य जब जन्म लेता है तो उसका स्वरुप  निर्मल और स्वच्छ होता है परन्तु सभ्यता , शिक्षा, संस्कृति  और संस्कार के आवरण से हम उसे  ढकते चले जाते हैं या यूँ कहें कि अपने निर्मल मन का दमन कर बुद्धि का विकास करते  हैं। बुद्धि हमारे शरीर का एक ऐसा यंत्र है जो कि इन्द्रियों  द्वारा दी गई जानकारी से संचालित है।  यह सत्य है कि मात्र मनुष्य ही ऐसा प्राणी है जिसने अपनी बुद्धि का सर्वाधिक विकास किया तथा प्रकृति में अपनी नयी सत्ता कायम की परन्तु दुर्भाग्यवश अपनी ही वास्तविकता से दूर होता चला गया। 

( Archana Mishra Art Talk series at Art Gate Gallery 2014 )

मेरा मानना है कि  हमारे जीव होने को  प्रामाणिकता प्रदान   करने वाले एहसास आरम्भिक बिंदु से ही अवतरित होते हैं   कहने का तात्पर्य है कि आत्मा के साथ - साथ एहसास भी हमें  अपने शुद्ध रूप में प्राप्त होते हैं। जन्म से पहले और जन्म के बाद बच्चा जैसा महसूस करता है वैसे ही भावों को प्रकट करता है परन्तु जैसे - जैसे उसकी इन्द्रियाँ और बुद्धि परिपक्व होती हैं भावों का स्वाभाविक प्राकट्य नगण्य हो जाता है।  यह विडम्बना है कि अनजाने में ही हम अपने एहसास की तिलांजलि दे भावों का रूपांतरण कर देते हैं। भाव जो हमारे आंतरिक एहसास को प्रकट करते थे वो कब इन्द्रियों के वशीभूत हो गए हमें पता भी नहीं चलता।  अब वो बुद्धि और इन्द्रियों के अनुरूप प्रकट होते हैं। यही कारण है की इनकी स्थिरता स्थाई नहीं होती।  बाहरी आवरण से प्रकट हुए भाव आंतरिक एहसासों से अछूते होते हैं  उनका  अस्तित्व आधारहीन होता है और वो  जल्दी समाप्त हो जाता है। समाज में लिप्त और खुद से दूर जिंदगी आंतरिक और बाह्य जगत से उभरे भावों में अंतर कर पाने में अधिकांशतः असमर्थ और भ्रमित  रही है। यही भ्रम बुद्धि और मन पर आच्छादित हो सत्य को धूमिल कर रचनात्मक भावों की सत्ता को जन्म देता हैं और मनुष्य आजीवन अपनी आंतरिक सृष्टि को भूल बाह्य जगत को तुष्ट करने में सर्वस्व अर्पण करके भी अतृप्त रहता है। 

               

किशोरावस्था  से ही मेरे अंदर ये द्वंद चलता रहा कि भाव इतने आतुर क्यों होते हैं  ? न ही ये तृप्त होते हैं न ही शांत, बस उभरते हैं अपने अस्तित्व का प्रदर्शन कर लुप्त हो जाते हैं। यह पानी में उठने वाले बुलबुले जैसा है जो सतह पर अपने अनिश्चित अस्तित्व के प्रदर्शन से  हमें आकर्षित कर कुछ इस तरह विलीन हो जाते हैं जैसे कभी उभरे ही नहीं। यह आकर्षक है परन्तु सत्य नहीं , सत्य क्षणिक नहीं शाश्वत है। हमारा मन बहुत उपद्रवी  है।  अतृप्त और असंतोष मन में ठहराव नहीं है। ऐसे ही कई प्रश्नों को  खंगालने के बाद मुझे यह ज्ञात  हुआ कि एहसास प्रकृति के कण -कण में यथावत  व्याप्त हैं  परन्तु भावों का रूपांतरण होता चला गया। प्रारम्भ में मैंने अपने प्रश्नों के उत्तर प्रकृति में तलाशे क्योंकि मुझे ज्ञात था कि प्रकृति में निहित एहसासों के प्राकट्य   भाव भी शुद्ध हैं। उन्हें देख कर हम समझ सकते हैं की हमारे भाव कितने स्वाभाविक हैं और कितने अस्वाभाविक।  यही कारण है कि मेरे प्रारंभिक कलाकृतियों में  प्रकृति की भिन्न - भिन्न छटाओं को आसानी से देखा जा सकता है परन्तु समय के साथ प्रश्नों का गूढ़ होना स्वाभाविक है।  यह भी एक अद्भुत बात है कि प्रश्न जितने गूढ़ होते  हैं उनके उत्तर उतने ही सरल। हमारे अंदर से उपजे प्रश्नों के उत्तर भी हमारे अंदर ही है। स्वयं को जानना संसार को जानने से ज्यादा कठिन है।  

सालों पहले उपजे प्रश्नों के उत्तर आज मेरे सामने हैं परन्तु इन्हें यथावत स्वीकार करना संभव नहीं। इन्हें स्वीकारने का अर्थ है अपने अस्तित्व की तिलांजलि दे पुनः जन्म लेना। यही कारण है कि पिछले कुछ  सालों से मैं इन जवाबों के मूल को तलाश रही थी।  एहसासों और भावों के मूल को समझें तो , एहसास आत्मा है और भाव रूप  है अर्थात हम जो अनुभव करते हैं उसका  इन्द्रियों द्वारा प्राकट्य भाव है।मेरा मानना है भाव दो प्रकार के होते हैं बाह्य  भाव और आतंरिक भाव।

( Archana Mishra Art Talk series at Art Gate Gallery 2014 )

 बाह्य भाव जो  सभ्यता , शिक्षा, संस्कृति  और संस्कार की लक्ष्मण रेखा के अंदर बुद्धि और मन के रचे भ्रम का प्राकट्य है, यहाँ एहसास का कोई अस्तित्व नहीं।यह परिस्थितियों के दबाव से प्रकट होते हैं । बाह्य भाव

अशांत , सतही ,उत्तेजित और अल्प अवधि के लिए होते हैं। बाह्य भाव भ्रम है। 

आंतरिक भावों में केवल एहसास और मन ही कार्यरत होते हैं बाकि सब नगण्य है, बुद्धि का यहाँ कोई काम नहीं। यह मन की स्वच्छ्न्दता से प्रकट होते हैं। आंतरिक भाव शाँत, गहरे, हठी और दीर्घकालीन होते हैं। आंतरिक भाव सत्य है।  

हम अधिकतर  बाह्य भाव में  ही जीते हैं और धीरे - धीरे यही सत्य हो जाता है , आंतरिक भावों की गहराई में डूबने से डरते हैं और बाह्य भाव की सतह मजबूत करते चले जाते हैं। मेरी नई कृतियों में इन जवाबों के सार को आप स्पष्ट महसूस कर सकेंगे।  निराकार विषय होने के कारण मेरी कृतियाँ भी अमूर्त हैं, जैसा कि हम जानते हैं दुनिया में सबसे छोटे कणों को क़्वार्क्स कहते हैं और हर कण की अपनी मूल संरचना होती है ऐसे ही अनगिनत कणों के संयोजन से ठोस आकर बनता है। मेरा मानना है कि एहसासों की संरचना भी कुछ इसी तरह की है , हर एक  एहसास भिन्न -भिन्न अदृश्य अनगिनत सूक्ष्म  कणों की संरचना है यही कारण है कि मेरी कलाकृतियों में अलग -अलग रूपाकारों  का संयोजन  दिखता है तथा इसमें प्रदर्शित  रूपाकारों के संयोजन प्राकृतिक और वैज्ञानिक जगत से प्राप्त कणों से पूर्णतः प्रभावित हैं। कलाकृतियों में इस अदृश्य सूक्ष्म जगत की  कोमलता  और सत्यता को प्रदर्शित करना मुझे आनंदित करता है।  

18th June SAVE DATE: ART TALK : Archana Mishra at 4:30pm and Prakash Waghmare at 6pm Art Gate Gallery, Churchgate Mumbai

Green Palette Group show

18th June SAVE DATE: ART TALK : Archana Mishra at 4:30pm and Prakash Waghmare at 6pm Art gate gallery, churchgate Mumbai

PRESS RELEASE : by Green Palette Group show

Date: April 18 – 26, June 2014 Venue: Art Gate Gallery, Churchgate, Mumbai

18th June : ART TALK : Chief Guest Speech

Archana Mishra : 4:30pm 5:30pm 

Creative Expressions ( Hindi) 

Prakash Waghmare : 6pm: 7pm 

Art Walk ( Marathi)

Date: April 18 – 26, June 2014 Venue: Art Gate Gallery, Churchgate, Mumbai

Byline: The Art Gate Gallery hosts an exhibition of contemporary paintings by Maharashtra  based Artist

• Nitin Vinchure
• Madhav Joshi 
• Vikas Malhara  
• Vijai Jain
• Ashok Hinge
• Raju Baviskar

( Group of artist Green Palette )

About the exhibition:in this group show  ‘Green Palette’ is a revival of freshness of Romanticism. As its name suggests, it is about taking the world back into nature holding on the social reality as well. The artists involved in this exhibition have creations depicting man’s mystic relationship with nature. There is also a revolutionary energy flowing in Green Palette which deliberately transforms our perception of the world. Like, artist Ashok Hinge, who uses natural and man-made elements in nature to simplify the concept of completeness of world around us. Nature is a source of subject and image; it’s a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization. Green Palette aims at retrieving clean and green environment world wide. Every artists participating in this exhibition contributes in one form or the other in increasing Environmental awareness and spreading greener. It would be a great delight to feel and experience the revival of Romanticism in art after a long time on the group show ‘Green Palette’ and also be a part of spreading the message-  Gear up to make Globe Green again.   

About the artist’s work and artist:

Nitin Vinchure displays classic interpretation of all creations in this Universe with his imagination. He logical explains his imagination cum interpretation saying that, before any creation, there was only the Mahashunya or Nix. But Shakti or Sheerenrgy existed ...

Vijai Jain creations are perfect examples of symbolic creations. For him Solar System, Earth, Soil, Water, Birds, trees and his alkies’- the human beings, all the gleans are symbols surrounding us. Life proceeds enjoying the process of decoding the meaning these gleans...  

Madhav Joshi desires to express the "inexpressible"--the infinite--through the available resources of colors and forms. He too is completely awed by nature. He applauds the Nature’s capacity as a unified whole. The realistic creations are devoid of scientific or rationalist associations.

Vikas Malhara. I feel his statement suggests that nothing is static and permanently dominant in Life. For him Life is a kaleidoscope of happiness and sorrow, of brightness and darkness, of the beautiful and the ugly, of the form and the formless, of the seen and the unseen. They interplay, dominate by turns, changing patterns and meanings along the way.

Raju Baviskar, social realism is subordinate to imaginative suggestion, and most importantly the ideals suggested by his creations based on honest, hard working villager, their struggle round the clock for survival all these have simplicity and innocence, drawn with deep thinking of the reflections that he has seen in their eyes and expressions on their faces. The bodies are worn out and yet have hopes of something good to happen.

Ashok Hinge manages at his best to unify symbolism and realism. His creations are inspired by the God-made and Man-made elements, which is an attempt by the artist to metaphorically simplify the universe. For him man-made creations like temples as shown in ‘Surya Mandir’ is as important as lush green surroundings, mystical landscapes.     

The artist lives and works in Mumbai. 

Exhibition details: April 18 – 26 (11.00 am to 7.00 pm) and April 21 from 11.00 am – 3.00 pm Art Gate Gallery 1st Floor (above Satyam Collection) Chheda Sadan 115, J Tata Road Churchgate Mumbai, India

- by Pankaja JK
 

(Note : This PRESS RELEASE for all Indian news paper and Media, leading PR Agency  and online social media, please share )

Art Talk at Art Gate Gallery

(Advertisement)

18th June SAVE DATE: ART TALK : Archana Mishra at 4:30pm and Prakash Waghmare at 6pm Art gate gallery, churchgate Mumbai
Art Gate Gallery can be contacted at:022 4213 8855
or emailed at artgate.sc@gmail.com

(Note : This PRESS RELEASE for all Indian news paper and Media, leading PR Agency  and online social media, please share )

Nature is a source of subject and image; it’s a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization

‘Green Palette’ is a revival of freshness of Romanticism. As its name suggests, it is about taking the world back into nature holding on the social reality as well. The artists involved in this exhibition have creations depicting man’s mystic relationship with nature. There is also a revolutionary energy flowing in Green Palette which deliberately transforms our perception of the world. Like, artist Ashok Hinge, who uses natural and man-made elements in nature to simplify the concept of completeness of world around us. Nature is a source of subject and image; it’s a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization. Green Palette aims at retrieving clean and green environment world wide. Every artists participating in this exhibition contributes in one form or the other in increasing Environmental awareness and spreading greener

Recent work by Nitin Vinchure

Imagination is the core of Green Palette artists. Each creation is shaped by imagination. It is vibrantly active power with vision of reality. It’s like an ‘intellectual intuition’ uniting reasoning and feeling, leading to synthesis of different and opposite worlds of unseen power of nature and its physical appearance. Nitin Vinchure displays classic interpretation of all creations in this Universe with his imagination. He logical explains his imagination cum interpretation saying that, before any creation, there was only the Mahashunya or Nix. But Shakti or Sheerenrgy existed. Later on arose a desire to create, materialize and multiply; which in turn was made possible by Shakti or Shreenergy and it manifested in innumerable forms. The positive energy of this Shakti negates negative energy and facilitates expression of desire, passion, beauty, warmth, courage, spontaneity and the power to transform. Color is one of the forms of this Sheerenergy. Therefore his paintings in various hues/ colors express a flow and spontaneity of all creations.  He prefers to go abstract and symbolize the forms in universe. For him abstraction of form has wider scope of expressing the inexpressible, there is a depth of insight. With Shakti as a significant theme, he creates abstract paintings. If  we observe  crisscross strokes meticulously in his paintings, we realize that these crisscross strokes are nothing but random flow of Sheerenergy enabling the vital principle or animating force within living things have momentum. Very often he uses water colors to paint his abstractions.

Symbolism also has a lot of importance for these artists. Through it they enable us to read nature as a system of symbols. They try to unravel the meaning of gleans and reveal the positive impact on our lives. Truly, Symbols are the human artistic correlatives of nature's symbolic language; a visible symbol adequately represents an abstract idea.  Artist
Vijai Jain creations are perfect examples of symbolic creations. For him Solar System, Earth, Soil, Water, Birds, trees and his alkies’- the human beings, all the gleans are symbols surrounding us. Life proceeds enjoying the process of decoding the meaning these gleans. And being one of these he believes that he surely has some role in this vastly scattered world. Spontaneous creation is one of the characteristic of nature that attracts man’s thoughtful attention.  He tells us that his world is confined in symbols of nature which are water, paper, canvas and colors. Flowing in the course of water these colors get a form and infiltrate on paper, thus completing the circle of his creation. To be the witness of all this process i.e. to be one of the representatives of nature is truly a mesmerizing experience. And for him his every creation is the evidence of this experience. 
   
Like him even artist Madhav Joshi desires to express the "inexpressible"--the infinite--through the available resources of colors and forms. He too is completely awed by nature. He applauds the Nature’s capacity as a unified whole. The realistic creations are devoid of scientific or rationalist associations. He celebrates the raw form of nature in his paintings because he feels it (Nature) has enormous effect on him. Like seasonal swings, he experiences changes in his thoughts and mood and this he largely credits to variations in nature due to impact of changing seasons. These changes perk up and exhilarate us. It vitalizes and creates positive energy. He prefers to paint nature, get inspired by it and also divulge its depth and intensity to admirers.
   

Recent work by Vikas Malhara

 Artists of Green Palette also seem give greater emphasis on importance of intuition; instincts, and feelings along with activity of the imagination. Greater attention is given to emotions as a necessary supplement to purely logical reason. When this emphasis is applied to the creation, a very important shift of focus occurs; there is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. It is illumination of the world within.  This interior journey and the development of the self recur as subject material for artist Vikas Malhara. I feel his statement suggests that nothing is static and permanently dominant in Life. For him Life is a kaleidoscope of happiness and sorrow, of brightness and darkness, of the beautiful and the ugly, of the form and the formless, of the seen and the unseen. They interplay, dominate by turns, changing patterns and meanings along the way. If this is the truth, than he wonders what would be its essence. The fact that perfection of Life is hard to define, is does not bother him and he does not intend to know the solution for perfection, instead, he is determined to paint the token appearance and emotional outburst in life. Because he knows that whatever he has depicted may just be a speculation but it does exists and adds to meaning of existence therefore it needs to be acknowledged, appreciated.
   

Recent work by Raju Baviskar

Though these artists interpret things through their own emotions, and these emotions also  included social and political consciousness. Like, for artist Raju Baviskar, social realism is subordinate to imaginative suggestion, and most importantly the ideals suggested by his creations based on honest, hard working villager, their struggle round the clock for survival all these have simplicity and innocence, drawn with deep thinking of the reflections that he has seen in their eyes and expressions on their faces. The bodies are worn out and yet have hopes of something good to happen.
   
Ashok Hinge manages at his best to unify symbolism and realism. His creations are inspired by the God-made and Man-made elements, which is an attempt by the artist to metaphorically simplify the universe. For him man-made creations like temples as shown in ‘Surya Mandir’ is as important as lush green surroundings, mystical landscapes. The paintings are attractive in themes and colors as well. For a Universe to be complete in itself there should be a beauty and captors of beauty. So instinctively I feel he paints both- nature as self emerged beauty and man-made things that represent man as captor, who vividly tries to imitate and capture the power and beauty of nature through his creations.
   

In brief, It would be a great delight to feel and experience the revival of Romanticism in art after a long time on the group show ‘Green Palette’ and also be a part of spreading the message-  Gear up to make Globe Green again.    

- by Pankaja JK
  art critic & writer:- Art blogazine 2014


(Note : This PRESS RELEASE for all Indian news paper and Media, leading PR Agency  and online social media, please share ) 

One Who Learnt Art in a Law Court: The Life and Art of Kumar Ranjan - Johny ML

Aaya Nagar is the southern end of Delhi and a few kilometre from there India’s current international trade hub, Gurgaon that falls in Haryana starts. The metro station that takes you to Aaya Nagar is Arjan Garh. Get down at the station, take a left turn and you hit the road that leads to Aaya Nagar. It is still a village dominated by Jat and Gujjar communities. No autos or cycle rickshaws ply on this road because village pay with lathis and fists than with currency notes. A few rickety Maruti Omnis provide the feeder service for the people, the ones who are ready to pay ten rupees. The side lanes are narrow as the villagers do not want their boundary walls to be broken down for widening the roads. Hence, often the traffic stands still on these roads. Local businesses thrive on either side of the road; from chana walla to fruit juice sellers, vegetable vendors to hardware dealers do well here. There is a pervading sense of non-belonging in most of the faces that you see on the roads. The local youngsters zoom past by their motorized mean machines and open jeeps that blare out Punjabi songs. That itself is a signal to keep off not only from the vehicle but also from the occupants in them. Migrants who live there have learnt to live with the reality and they just do not mess around with the locals. Even in this carefully created insular society a sort of multi-culturalism thrives. People from different parts of India have found their dwelling here. Aaya Nagar is a place trapped between the cosmopolitan Delhi and mega-polis Gurgaon. And one may feel that it would remain like that for centuries. Kumar Ranjan, a young artist from Jharkhand lives here.

( Artist Profile Kumar Ranjan)

Kumar Ranjan, for those who regularly visit art openings and discussions, is a familiar face. But all the familiar faces in the art scene are not well known artists. They are familiar because they attend most of the art dos not because they want to be a part of the glitterati and chatterati, but because they feel that they need to make up with what they have lost. They are the people who have been denied opportunities and chances to make it big and they are the people who have been even denied their right to art education in the established academies. Kumar Ranjan, however is not a failure amongst such visible yet invisible artists. He came to Delhi for the first time in 2002 and then came back again in 2008. Now he has chosen to be a Delhi based artist and it is his sixth year in Delhi. Kumar Ranjan is not a failure because he has a good studio in Aaya Nagar, though rented out from a banker couple from Jharkhand. He has made his own house in Faridabad and has put it on rent. He is married and has a nine year old son. He misses his wife and child who are with his parents in village. But he has made it a point to be in Delhi because it was in Delhi he finally found his vocation as an artist. All what he has earned so far is from art and he is proud of it. But all these do not make is story interesting because there are so many artists like him who has migrated to the big cities and become moderately successful. What makes Kumar Ranjan’s story interesting is something else besides his art. It is his story that I am going to recount here.

Mirage,Year: 2008, Mix Media on Canvas, Size : 87 x 97 cm, ULTRASOUND Series

I like Kumar Ranjan’s art. When I first saw his works in the absence of the artist in one of the galleries in Delhi, I had asked the gallerist about the artist. The naive language and the playfulness of strokes seemed to hide the real angst of an individual that I had felt while seeing his works. I thought he was more like Bhupen Khakkar, who refused to be ‘realist’ because what he knew naturally was not realism. Bhupen could have trained himself to be academically perfect; he could have polished his skills. But his polishing act itself was his works and they were charged with the artist’s world view. I found such sincerity and straightforwardness in Kumar Ranjan’s works. Graphically they were not perfect, they were not figurative and narrative. But the works had it all in an entirely different way. A person with trained eyes could see that. In one of the openings, a few years back, Kumar Ranjan came to say hello to me. Since then I have been seeing him and his works in the galleries and outside the galleries. As I am genuinely interested in those artists who see more than they exhibit, or rather work more than they display, I took a special interest in Kumar Ranjan’s works. Those were confusing at time as they did not show a chronological development. I thought the artist was jumping fences of his own mood. As such there were no influences in his works so I could not have said that he was chasing a dream of success. The more I looked at his works the more I thought I needed to know the artist. Then finally I met him at his studio on a Sunday afternoon.

Hailing from a remote village in Jharkhand where the sonic ambience was that of the birds and animals than those of the horse power engine vehicles, Kumar Ranjan’s only familiarity with art while school was seeing some of the magazine illustration and some reproductions of M.F.Husain. His parents were school teachers and the four boys they had were of different talents. The eldest one aspired to be a writer; but at the age of twenty four he committed suicide. Parents did not interfere in Kumar Ranjan’s life after that incident even when he told them that he wanted to become an artist. A drawing teacher in the Navodaya school where he completed his higher secondary education told him of Santiniketan. So Kumar Ranjan packed his bag and found himself at the Bolpur Railway station. He walked into the Kalabhavan premises, sat for the practical examinations. Now in Kumar Ranjan’s own words, “If I could get the face right, the hands were not happening. If I could get the hands right the head was not happening.” Result was simple; he did not get admission in Santiniketan. The same ritual repeated almost all the major art institutions in India. He applied in Baroda and Delhi College of Art but in vain. He was not just getting it right. “Whenever they asked me to draw human figures, I was drawing some human figure in my mind, like a village artist,” remembers Kumar Ranjan.

Ultrasound, Year: 2009, Mix Media on Canvas, Size : 69 x 58 cm, ULTRASOUND Series

Kumar Ranjan’s real art education was done in court premises. You may be surprised to know how it happened. After a series of rejections, he had been informed by one of his friends that Patna College of Art could be the next place to try. He also told Kumar Ranjan that some bribing would make the things possible. Kumar Ranjan was ready to bribe anybody to get into a fine arts college. He did bribe, not the authorities but his friend. His friend forged a signature and made some attempts for admitting Kumar Ranjan in the college. Indian authorities are very diligent when the bribe is siphoned elsewhere. He was caught and the university filed a case against him. Now it was Kumar Ranjan’s responsibility to prove his innocence. To attend the court hearing he started visiting Patna regularly. It was here he came in contact with the local artists and art students. With them he started sketching and painting. He learnt the techniques of mixing colours, making canvases and also finding different qualities of art materials. Interestingly, he was living with the same friend who had got him into the soup. Finally in 2006, Kumar Ranjan was acquitted by the court after finding him innocent. But by that time he had learned the basic skills. In between court hearings, giving test in other colleges, Kumar Ranjan once walked into the Triveni Kala Sangham in Delhi where he was told that they did not teach the beginners but they admitted only those people who had the basic skill. Their job was to prepare them to be professional artists. Loaded with experience and a burning passion to become an artist, Kumar Ranjan finally reached Delhi, this time but with a determination to live in the city.

The earlier works of Kumar Ranjan were done in large jute clothes because he did not know how to prepare a canvas. In his village there was no possibility to get prepared canvases. So the easiest surface available was jute clothes. Patna had taught him about acrylic paints. He collected enough paints and started working. Initially the surfaces were filled with people or people like figures. Then slowly he started emptying out of the surfaces. It became a string and random human figures hung from them. It was then Kumar Ranjan found out that his visual images needed the support of some texts. He wrote some cryptic words on these pictorial surfaces, at times in speech bubbles and other times scattered in the surface. The figures were not having any hagiographic details. As he progressed in his working both in style and use of materials, he started bringing more and more defined figures into his canvases. Once he had shifted to Delhi, art material problem were solved and he started working in proper canvases. In Delhi he found something more, something which would become a defining feature of his works. While strolling along the streets of Delhi, near Mehrauli he found an enamel signage of a bone setter. In India the local wrestlers still double themselves up as physiotherapists and bone specialists. Their advertisement often showed a well muscled man in his underwear with limbs in bandages. Though it is the pahalwan (wrestler) who sets the bone, the signage showed the pahalwan himself as an injured person. Painted by local artists, these advertising enamels exuded a strange naivity verging into comedy. But Kumar Ranjan adopted this figure and also created a female counterpart for him, with more or less the same physical attributes.


In many of his figurative works, Kumar Ranjan portrays the protagonist with a pressure cooker attached either on his body or as an emblem on his clothes. Also he presents them having a torch light in their hands. Pressure cooker, according to Kumar Ranjan, is the emblem of the human emotions. Each human being is a walking pressure cooker, about to release all the pressures welling up in him or her. Torch is emblematic of a search for redemption though the image comes from his childhood memories. As a child he used to use the torch to look into the darkness and also to frighten the other children. When he came to Delhi, this part of his memory also came with him which he started transporting on to his canvases. Besides these figurative semi-narratives, Kumar Ranjan also takes a lot of interest in machine drawings and paintings where he converts the human beings and male-female relationship into certain mechanical devices. Human body gets extended to machinery and these machine parts are intricately connected often giving these drawing some sort of erotic charging.

Every one is sick,Year: 2009, Mix Media on Canvas, Size : 294x 176 cm, ULTRASOUND Series

Male-female relationship also comes to play a very interesting role in Kumar Ranjan’s works. He admits that his depiction of female figures is tinged with some sort of sadism. He also says that he does not see women as objects or he does not have any intention to demean them. But for him, female figure is something really enigmatic and it is his ‘failed’ attempts to understand a woman. “I am enamoured by women’s presence. I am not so keen about their body but I am attracted to their presence. This presence is an enigma. I become absolutely helpless before them. It is my helplessness that comes to appear as cruel treatment of female figures in my canvases,” says Kumar Ranjan. However, in his erotic drawings, which he does not do often but only on rare occasions, he is extremely sensuous and unapologetically open. What intrigues the viewer is his logical identification with gay and lesbian relationship. As many people see it in their lives, it is not a theoretical position for Kumar Ranjan. He says that he used to enjoy male company and has always been curious to know about the girls who like other girls not just as friends but as something more than that. Kumar Ranjan, however says that he is not a gay. But he believes that there could be very sensitive relationship between men as well as women even amongst the heterosexuals. One of my personal favourites in this series is ‘Anita’ where one could see two girls trying to measure up their physical beauty.

Kumar Ranjan has been invited to be a part of Vadehra Gallery’s FICA show and Raqs Media Collective’s Devi Art Foundation show. While he is happy with FICA and its attitude in promoting artists, he is not at all happy with the way Raqs Media conducted their program at Devi. “What Raqs wanted was their own promotion,” Kumar Ranjan does not mince words. He says that FICA participation has done a lot good to him. It was after the FICA show that he started getting invitation from other galleries to participate in group shows. Some of the collectors were very benevolent to him. Kumar Ranjan says that whether there is money or not, his whole aim is to paint; perhaps his life’s mission itself is to paint. “I am not thinking about living in a big house or buying big cars. They are good. But having a studio is important and decent amount of money to live. If I have these two things then I am happy.” He goes to art openings to see how people see art and also to see how he sees art himself. “I want to see myself from another person’s perspective. Galleries and openings give me that space to divide myself into two different personalities. I am often silent and I learn a lot from these occasions.” Kumar Ranjan however is not cynical about these openings. He enjoys these evenings and says that his aborted art education is still on even in these gatherings.

Ultrasound, Year: 2009, Mix Media on Canvas, Size : 69 x 58 cm, ULTRASOUND Series

Kumar Ranjan, unlike many artists of his age (mid thirties), does not complaint about anybody. He is not anxious about the returning of art market boom. He does sell his works but never yields to the pressure of the gallerists who ask him to paint in a certain style. “I work two or three themes at once. I flit between ideas and rendering styles. It may appear different but the difference is only superficial. Inside all these works, it is the same spirit working; the spirit of an artist, that is me and my life in Aaya Nagar.”

 - By Johny ML

online solo show going on http://pickoneartist.com/
(Start - 8.00P.M. 9/06/2014 End - 8.00P.M. 9/07/2014)

Ultrasound by Kumar Ranjan

(Advertisement )

Pick one artist :Registered Office
: Villa No. R4, Near Kannamangala village Bidarahalli Hobli,Bangalore – 560049 India.

Live link
http://www.pickoneartist.com

Revolution Art

(Advertisement )

Revolution Art 

Group Art Show of Contemporary Art at Art Gate Gallery, Mumbai to be held from: May 22nd – 31st, 2014 Venue: Art Gate Gallery, Churchgate, Mumbai

(Note : This PRESS RELEASE for all Indian news paper and Media, leading PR Agency  and online social media, please share )