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Time of India
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Oldest materials and beauty of the environment
Critic and Curator Uma Nair has been writing for the past 35 years on art and culture She has written as critic for Times of India and Economic Times. She believes that art is a progressive sojourn. She learnt by looking at the best shows in Washington D.C. and New York. As author her most important books are Reverie with Raza and Meditations on Trees by Ompal Sansanwal. LESS ... MORE At the Bespoke Art Gallery at Ahmedabad, it is the English Methodist hymn that hums in our senses as we glimpse the world's oldest materials, pen and paper and clay that extol the beauty of the earth as trees, as ceramics and a steel wired sculpture to harness World Environment Day that falls on June 5th ,2025. Tribal artist Bhajji Shyam India's tribal artist Bhajju Shyam creates a tall Vriksha that melds miniature tradition as well as textural nuances in his work that at once serenades the tireless striving of familial groups that tirelessly venerate the ecological the lens of his life in Madhya Pradesh Bhajju's painting and drawing as a testimony to trees all over the universe as sentinels of time. Leena Batra celadon Senior ceramic artist Leena Batra's celadon pot is a humane ledger of the genesis of ceramic studies in form and fervour. Leena takes us back to the term 'celadon ware', also known as green ware, which refers to a type of ceramic with a soft grey-green-coloured glaze. The effect is achieved through applying an iron-rich liquefied clay 'slip' to the ceramic before it is fired in a kiln. During the heating process, the iron oxidises to leave a delicate and lustrous green its later European name, the celadon glaze technique originated in China during the Shang (1600-1046 BC) and Zhou (1046-256 BC) dynasties, when potters began experimenting with glaze recipes. Saraswati's towers of tea ceremony Anagama fired stoneware stand like sentinels in silence as Saraswati's towers of tea ceremony bring in different elements that extol virtues of everyday living. Density, depth and texture all become her leitmotif in a series that tell stories of time and tide in glazes and gravitas. Saraswati who lives in Auroville says that her towers tell stories of life and humans and households. Within the details and dynamics we move from the mechanics of the craft of clay and firing to portray compelling characters in form, develop effective narrative structures, and edit ourselves into focus to the more profound questions of artistic resources and reflections that will remain as cherished memories and experiences. Keshari Nandan's Picasso platters Of verve and vivacity in stoneware are Keshari Nandan's stoneware platters sculpted as a tribute to Pablo Picasso who created his ceramic ware and painted owls and bulls over them. Keshari creates a sculptural identity by creating an owl and a bull on a pair of platters. Keshari and award winning ceramic artist reminds us that Picasso used his playful approach to the medium, and embraced the motif of the owl, its presence recurring prominently through many of his ceramic works. The allure of the subject was stimulated in Vallauris, alongside his growing appreciation of ceramics, as the owl was an ancient symbol of the neighbouring town, Antibes. The connection with the figure of the owl was deepened when the artist discovered an owl with an injured claw during his time in Antibes. Picasso's partner Françoise Gilot documented this experience in her autobiography, Life With Picasso, stating 'one of his claws had been injured. We bandaged it and it gradually healed. We bought a cage for him and when we returned to Paris, we brought him back with us and put him in the kitchen with the canaries, the pigeons and the turtledoves.' A great lover of animals, Picasso gained a great affection for the bird, incorporating the muse into the many whimsical ceramics he went on to create. Vineet Kacker's quartet of Buddhist iconography Vineet Kacker's quartet of iconographic symbolism in his single square study as well as three chorten like Buddhist compositions all have an aura of quietude and meditative stillness. Three works belong to his In You I Am series in high fired stoneware while we are drawn toward the beauty of glazes and square plate Transmigrations reminds us of archaeological excavations that bring back the past and regale our senses as we visit the pages of glazes in the other three works have their own aura of enchantment and the transience of life. His quartet of works draw from the landscaped iconography of the Himalayas, while his built forms reference the sacred, and personal engagement with sombre spiritual disciplines. His sampling of sequences from familiar imagery to living traditions create a corollary of conversations of multiple ceramic techniques within a single piece, recreating both landscapes and iconographies. His rough textures and the use of layered dry glazes create surfaces that reference the ancient and time-worn. The contrasting shiny embellishments allude to that which is luminous and timeless. Dhananjay Singh's Tree The centrepiece at Bespoke Art Gallery's Purusha Prakriti show is Dhananjay Singh's Tree created out of steel wires. This work becomes the contemplative ethos of the show that heralds the environment as an emblematic symbol of civilisational cultures. As a lifelong admirer of flowers and plants, Dhananjay is particularly fond of trees and has never stopped depicting them from his youth to his later years. The present work belonging to the Devin Gawarvala collection was part of Saffronart's exhibition Alchemies of Form, a show of sculptural masterpieces at Bikaner House this year for the India Art Fair. The sculptor uses simple yet expressive leaves in steel as well as wired steel to portray the trunk reminding us of minerals as well as the botanical beauty of trees as exemplary spirits in the infinite pages of nature's bounty. In the saturated material suggestions and the power of trees that fill the earth this sculpture brings alive the Swiss author Herman Hesse who said: ' Trees are sanctuaries.' For founder and collector Devin Gawarvala of Bespoke Art Gallery, commerce, culture and collecting all come together to create a synergy that points at the need for being guardians of cultural preservation in the odyssey of preserving contemporary art practices and all that is therein. Images : Bespoke Art Gallery Ahmedabad Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Time of India
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Purusha Prakriti celebrates earth month in Ahmedabad
Critic and Curator Uma Nair has been writing for the past 34 years on art and culture She has written as critic for Times of India and Economic Times. She believes that art is a progressive sojourn. She learnt by looking at the best shows in Washington D.C. and New York. As author her most important books are Reverie with Raza and Meditations on Trees by Ompal Sansanwal. LESS ... MORE The works of 39 artists come together in a historic showing at Bespoke Art Gallery Ahmedabad, in a celebration of Earth Month titled Purusha Prakriti. Paintings, prints, sculptures and ceramics by some of India's finest practitioners are all under one roof and it breathes of rhythms of the earth and the beauty of as an avant garde space by the brilliant architect Shomu Dasgupta, this is a free floor plan, longitudinal space that invites the gaze of art lovers to create a world within a world spanned over long walls. Himmat Shah and Manu Parekh Dedicated to the late modernist sculptor Himmat Shah, it begins with a small head by Himmat that belonged to his London series specially given for the show. The spartan, archetypal bronze textured head is a masterpiece in meditation and the idea of the human head always being an enigmatic symbol of life to artists and sculptors all over the idea of the dedication is taken from the fact that Himmat was born in Lothal in Gujarat and his life has been one of selfless service to the art of sculpture in of Bespoke Devin Gawarvala says: The Himmat sculpture is a definite example of his brilliance and we are so honored to have this in our gallery in Ahmedabad. The second master to be part of this epic exhibition is Manu Parekh. His early 1997 canvas on board is a monumental work created in acrylic and sand with a few splashes of deep purple that creates evocations of chants and the beauty of rituals and time spent savouring the world of contemplated idioms in Benares. Manu's handling of the compositional alchemy comes from his love for Abstract Expressionists and his idea of blending both materials and mediums to create Benares in its contemporary character. Manu was specially chosen after this critic saw his historic Samudra Mathan at India Art Fair as well as Astaguru's Showkeen at Mumbai. Director Anar Gawarvala, said she liked Manu Parekh's Banaras for its narrative of tradition and the suggestion of bhakti always being a part of Indian accents in the lifestyle of people from all walks of life. Ankon Mitra and Karl Antao Sculptural studies add to the inventory of artistic aesthetics in this show. The exhibition has an installation of 3 aluminium butterflies that have been powder coated and folded in origami style by the maestro Ankon Mitra whose installation is also a part of Ahmedabad Airport Terminal frame within a frame is the second work in this show and it extols the virtues of time as a testimony. Ankon is known also as a landscape designer who melds the consciousness of the inner spirit with a yen for botanical brilliance. The entrance of the show has a pair of Burmese teak multiple facaded sculptural heads by Ahmedabad dweller Karl Antao. Director Devin Gawarvala who admired Antao's works was delighted to discover Antao and said he was unaware that Ahmedabad had such a brilliant sculptor in the city. Antao is well known for his monumental sculpture at Trident Oberoi in Mumbai and has been a seasoned sculptor who works only in wood .Accents and shades of sanding down in varied colour tones is what sets apart Antao's work for its contemporary charisma. Sanjay Bhattacharyya and Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi The idea of Purusha Prakriti, was to include multiple mediums and materials. Amongst drawings in the show two stellar drawings speak of the oldest tools in the world, pen and ink, pencil ,pastel and graphite. Sanjay Bhattacharyya's Durga is a lithe lined beauty created as a tribal form and nestled in the beauty of says his Durgas are a celebration of form and feminine fervour and it isn't about religion. However it is the nestling of elements that draws the gaze of art lovers. Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi's Winged -5 mixed media on archival paper goes back to 2014 is work of depth and an artist Phaneendra is versatile in many mediums and uses his love for pencil to create man in monochrome suited to fashion modern urban wing of a bird is one deep zoological depth. ' The central figure is a figure of beauty,' says Phaneendra. ' My choice of donning him in a striped shirt represents the beauty, I associate with confidence. The wings of the eagle represent a different beauty: of unbridled freedom, of living life on one's own terms and an ambition that keeps him going in a competitive world.' Images: Bespoke Art Gallery Ahmedabad Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
