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Hindustan Times
05-08-2025
- Hindustan Times
Are Dhanush and Mrunal Thakur really dating? Sources confirm new romance on the block
Ahaan Panday, star of Saiyaara, won hearts with an old YouTube clip revealing his simple haircare routine. Using Head & Shoulders and occasional oil from his mom, he charmingly admits to sometimes using soap, showcasing his humble, relatable nature.
Indian Express
03-08-2025
- Indian Express
Himmat Shah's heads: at the apex of his investigation into the human condition
Renowned for his experimentation with material and form, Himmat Shah's studio in Jaipur was a laboratory in which he would use disparate tools, found objects and mitti (clay), that he personally ground by hand and soaked in water for years, to make art. His signature creations were elongated and abstracted human heads, which were distorted yet expressive. First making an appearance in the mid 1970s, these heads were reimagined in a range of diverse mediums, from terracotta and bronze to intricate pen and ink drawings that Shah was working on up until his passing in March this year. 'In modern Indian art, his head sculptures stand out as distinctive and pioneering, with their pronounced features, intense eyes and a compelling tactile and gestural quality achieved through the exploration of their texture,' Mamta Singhania, director, Anant Art Gallery, told The Indian Express. She added, 'Treating them as silent witnesses to history and conflict, he imbued them with a certain timelessness, reminiscent of excavated artefacts.' From childhood memories Born in 1933 into a Jain mercantile family in Lothal, Gujarat, Shah was always an artistically-inclined child. In an interview to The Indian Express in 2024, he recalled how he would often sit with potters to learn their craft, and return home with clay objects that he created for his grandmother. His distinguished stylised heads too were inspired by his childhood, with Shah attributing the form to memories of playing in the pond with friends. 'I did not know how to swim, so I would just sit and watch. As they dived in, their heads emerged from the water at first — that image stayed with me,' Shah said in the interview, adding that the textured and uneven surfaces of his sculptures mirrored the terrain of dried-up pond beds. Experimenting with material It was in the mid-1970s, at the Garhi Studios in Delhi, that Shah made his first sculpture of a head. By this time, he had already gained somewhat of a reputation as a maverick, whose monumental murals and charred paper collages — made by burning holes on paper with cigarettes — had caught the attention of many a connoisseur, including the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Shah often recalled how his first head, made of clay, was fired by fellow sculptor PR Daroz. Soon, Shah began experimenting more frequently with the form, using earth (terracotta) sourced from the potter's colony near the railway station. 'For almost two years, I photographed every sculpture I created to understand the nuances of its expression. Living alone in that small room at Garhi, I would work all day and sometimes even wake up at night to continue. My teachers instilled in me the belief that our goal should always be to create something new. The material guides me and I follow,' Shah said in 2024. While he developed his own slip-casting technique for terracotta and ceramic, some of his earliest plaster heads were also reportedly immersed in linseed oil to harden, and then overlaid with silver-foil. Later he also began casting in bronze, producing some of his bronze heads at a foundry in London. In his 2017 essay 'Internationalism: The Determined Strength in Himmat Shah's Art', art critic Arjun Kumar Singh wrote, 'From the mid-1980s Himmat's work took on the look it bears until today — an array of heads and object-forms in plaster, ceramic and terracotta, sometimes enveloped with silver and gold-leaf that gives them the aspect of icons, shrines and votive object.' In her 2007 essay 'An Unreasoned Act of Being: New Sculptures by Himmat Shah' on the website Critical Collective, art critic and curator Gayatri Sinha wrote: 'Himmat Shah's suite of large heads comes at the apex of his investigation of the human condition.' 'In his contraction of head, ancient presences are suggested, like atavistic shadows. More accurately, Himmat arrives at what [artist] Nilima Sheikh describes as 'the projective voluptuousness of the image.' Here, as the artist perceives it, the head, the phallus and the pillar all the same; the sculpture gains its vitality not in its definition, but in the process of arriving at a form,' Sinha wrote. Shah's work appears to echo the passage of civilizations, perhaps recalling early migrations between Africa and India. After all, the artist himself was born in Lothal, the great port of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which is said to have links to Mesopotamia. Gayatri wrote: 'Occasionally divested of features, they present models of classical introversion, of the gaze turned inward, still and contemplative… Stubborn and unrelenting, these heads become expressive of a state of resistance, one that bears the marks of isolation perhaps, but also of a commitment to life and endurance.'
Time of India
27-07-2025
- Time of India
Souza's 4 rare works to be auctioned this week
Panaji: A rare collection of four distinctive artworks by modernist painter of Goan origin, F N Souza, collectively valued at over Rs 1 crore, is set to lead the upcoming online auction by AstaGuru Auction House on July 29 and 30. The artworks include two pieces from his 'Head' series periods (1964 and 1985), a dynamic 1990 landscape, and a 1987 nude inspired by Khajuraho sculptures. 'Souza was a pioneering force in the Indian modernist art movement,' said Sneha Gautam, the director of client relations at AstaGuru Auction House. 'As a founding member of the Progressive Artists' Group in the 1940s, he was instrumental in challenging conventional Indian artistic traditions and introducing a bold modernist sensibility, especially at a time when the country was finding its distinct artistic voice. ' Gautam said, 'His work played a key role in shaping the trajectory of modern Indian art, bringing modernist styles and ideas to the forefront.' The artworks span various styles and themes that the artist concerned himself with throughout his career. The curation also showcases Souza's command of and proficiency in varied mediums. Lot No. 37 and Lot No. 42 showcase his different takes on portraiture and are reminiscent of his 'Head' series. The series featured portraits influenced by European art movements that displayed the artist's inner turmoil through the depiction of distorted faces. While Lot No. 37 is a colourful untitled work executed using acrylic on paper in 1985, Lot No. 42 is a charcoal-on-canvas work from 1964. Lot No. 56 belongs to Souza's vast oeuvre of landscapes. Executed in 1990, the oil-on-canvas work exemplifies his visceral approach to environment and structure. With a dense web of jagged lines and rhythmic brushstrokes, the composition collapses foreground and background into a frenetic tangle of green, ochre, and blue. Lot No. 84 is an untitled pen-on-paper work executed in 1987. It reveals Souza's fascination with creating nude works and the inspirations he took from the erotic sculptures of the Khajuraho temples. Captivated by the uninhibited expression of human desire found in these ancient carvings, Souza drew from their raw physicality and symbolism, particularly in his depictions of the female nude and intertwined couples. 'Characterised by assertive lines, striking colours, and a fusion of abstraction and figuration, Souza's art drew inspiration from Cubism, Expressionism, and other European movements,' Gautam said. 'His paintings frequently explored existential and religious concerns, while also offering sharp critiques of social and political structures.' She said, 'With a distinctive visual language, his use of line and colour imbued his work with dynamic tension, often evoking both intensity and unease. Souza left behind an unrivalled legacy of rebellion, paving the way for generations of artists to come.'
