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Time of India
a day ago
- General
- Time of India
MSU professor invited to international museum summit
Vadodara: A professor from MS University has been invited as a speaker for the international museum summit – Eurasian Alliance Initiative in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Professor Ambika Patel, dean of MSU's Faculty of Fine Arts and director of the Maharaja Ranjitsinh Gaekwad Institute of Design (MRID), has been invited to the summit scheduled from June 9 to June 12. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now She will be a panellist on the theme – "Creating Museum Cooperation in the Eurasia Region." "Eurasian region, characterised by remarkable cultural diversity, boasts rich international museum collaborations. This international summit is to explore a sustainable structure to initiate seamless exchange of innovative ideas and resources, promotion of cultural agendas in participating countries contributing significantly to shaping a vibrant cultural landscape across Eurasia," said Patel. She added that museums play a vital role in building relations between countries and cultures. "Across borders, museums and museum professionals interact with one another by making museums platforms for dialogue among people, cultures, and nations," she said.
Indian Express
10-05-2025
- General
- Indian Express
I went beyond the popular image of Kabir to create mine: Gulammohammed Sheikh
You joined the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda in 1955, within five years of its opening. Coming from a provincial town, Surendranagar, what was your experience like? It was amazing to be part of a like-minded community of artists and aspirants; to have the doors of our studios in the art school open, day and night. I had never imagined there could be a whole library full of books, only on art! The atmosphere in the college was liberal, which made newcomers like me feel at ease. Our teachers worked in the studios after class hours. We saw the seminal paintings of our teacher NS Bendre being painted. He gave demonstrations of oil painting and watercolour with such mastery, leaving us spellbound. Art History classes were conducted by artists themselves, except for Dean Markand Bhatt, who had studied it at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. He taught us Western art and aesthetics, while Bendre taught us Chinese art, and sculptor Sankho Chaudhuri, Egyptian and Mesopotamian art. You started your teaching career in Art History before you shifted to Painting. When I was a post-graduate student, there was an opening in the department to teach art history. The then Dean, Bendre, asked me if I would like to teach. It was a godsend offer as I was living on a paltry scholarship. I taught for three years before going to London in 1963. Upon my return, I taught again for 15 years till I moved on to head the Painting department. London played a role in igniting your interest in early painting traditions. The Painting Department at the Royal College of Art was adjacent to the Victoria & Albert Museum and students had free access. I used to eat lunch in the museum restaurant to avoid the bland fare in the college canteen, and on my way, I would see paintings in the Indian section. I was aware of the various schools of Indian painting, but a magical-looking Kota painting of a nocturnal jungle scene in the moonlight fascinated me. Robert Skelton, the Assistant Keeper of the Indian section, became a mentor. Writing my dissertation on Kota enabled me to have a closer look at the regional school of Rajasthan. During the summer vacation, I hitch-hiked in Italy to see the masters of the Renaissance. I was especially touched by the Sienese artists such as Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone Martini and Sassetta. For them, painting was an act of love offered with humility and passionate conviction. I found them close to Indian painting in sensibility. After finishing my studies in London, I returned to India, mostly travelling overland. The three-month-long journey evoked greater love for the wanderings than I was already prone to. The year 1981 seems to be seminal, as you completed several important works. Yes, in that year I showed with artists such as Bhupen Khakhar, Vivan Sundaram, Nalini Malani, Jogen Chowdhury and Sudhir Patwardhan in the exhibition we called, 'Place for People'. Each of us was involved in exploring and focusing on the world we lived in. In that sense, several works were autobiographical. In my case, Speaking Street recalled memories of my childhood in a provincial town. Following it, a large painting, titled City for Sale, dealt with the irony of communal riots raging at one end, and on the other portrayed a cinema hall audience, totally oblivious of it. The Tree of Life (1996), which you painted for the Vidhan Bhavan in Bhopal, was the first time you took up painting on such a massive scale for a public building. Yes, I had long desired to make a mural in a public space, after I saw the cityscape, Effects of Good Government, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Sienna. The mural in the Legislative Assembly was 31-feet high and 21-feet wide. The idea was to cover a cultural tapestry of India with its multiplicity and diversity. The central motif of The Tree of Life represents the lives of people, both past and present, including glorious as well as turbulent periods. Then, Kabir appeared in your work. The beginning of the 1990s was a period of great turbulence, which needed a healing touch. Kabir was the answer. Instead of using just the popular rendition of Kabir as a Vaishnavite saint, I also searched other images of Kabir as prototypes to create mine. The man who said 'tera Saai(n) tujh me', indicated looking inwards, instead of seeking an answer in the outer world. You started with a small town. Then, you entered the belly of a city, and then you moved to the world. In a chance encounter I found a medieval map of the world — the Ebstorf mappa mundi — which I used as a basis for re-enacting the world. In the 20-odd years, many such maps were made to reframe the world. The use of a portable shrine or Kaavad served as an alternative to the easel painting. Its format allows multiple stories like a picture book unfolding gradually. The recent work, Kaarawaan, at its core, holds the idea of a journey, wherein I packed my favourite characters from history, mythology and the world of dreams. I painted within it all the artists, poets and thinkers whom I admire. The intention was to paint a civilisational ark carrying a world of humanity in the midst of highly turbulent waters.
Indian Express
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
How artist Jyoti Bhatt questioned power hierarchies and chronicled his times
The visual language of one of India's most distinguished artist-pedagogues, Jyoti Bhatt, combined modernism with traditional idiom, as his engagements left a deep imprint on Indian art. In the exhibition titled 'Line and the Lens' at Latitude 28 in Delhi, Rekha Rodwittiya — artist and his student at Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda in the late '70s — has woven together decades of his art practice, reflecting on the evolution of his oeuvre and that of the Indian art landscape. In this interview, Rodwittiya discusses her fondest memories of her beloved teacher and her curatorial vision for the exhibition celebrating Bhatt. Excerpts from an interview: I have always said that while I was studying at FFA (1976-1981), Jyoti Bhatt was the only teacher who exemplified, through his teaching and conduct, a lived and practised understanding of feminism. He addressed his responsibilities of being an educator very seriously, exposing his students to varied areas of articulation within the arts – yet never preferencing anything as being more or less deserving of attention to curiosities. He has been a major contributor to defining the pedagogic content of the syllabi at the faculty, and with students from varied cultural backgrounds he insisted that an openness to diverse cultural practices was respected within the classroom. He loved to deconstruct methods and techniques to share with us, and was wary of anyone holding things as too precious to be questioned. All students were equal to him. He disliked any display of power hierarchy, and always stated that he learned from his students because their questions led him to new areas of inquiry. At a personal level, one of my most impactful experiences was when as his student, after a particularly gruelling submission session, he said to me that I could view critique as damning or I could view it as a compliment that indicated that people held an expectation of me. These works of the artist are known as the series 'Living Traditions'. This archive is hugely significant because it serves to document, what he himself refers to, as vanishing practices. However, for me this archive serves another less obvious factor of importance. The wanderings of his travel create this journeying back and forth between the many worlds of 'his India'. It positions his engagement with plural and parallel existences that otherwise get ignored. He is, however, never the outsider or the voyeur – he is within the images he takes despite his physical absence, because he has the connect of empathy that allows him to be the sutradhar of these other worlds. He brings them to you to also belong within. The camera therefore isn't a device to 'record' but to perpetual memory. Jyoti Bhatt is never shy of what constitutes his value system and therefore the personal politics that shapes his thinking. He grew up in Bhavnagar, where he was exposed to the changes India was experiencing through the Independence movement, and through the industrialisation that the British Raj had swept to our shores. Extraordinarily, he displays his political alertness at the tender age of 12, when he paints an image that references the reality of a lower caste Dalit man having to proclaim his presence to the upper castes by wearing a broom what sweeps away the imprint of his existence, so as to avoid polluting them even in passing. As an artist he continues to exhibit an informed understanding of how visual language provides a vocabulary that can be read, and which accommodates a commentary with referential indicators that are infused with specific meaning. We see this very clearly in the works he did in 1975-77 that holds the commentary of censure in which he refers to MF Hussain equating Indira Gandhi as mother India, during the time of the Emergency. Jyoti Bhatt has always been someone who discredits systems of elitism and hierarchies. He worked outside of any need to hold attention to any personal space of self-glorification. However this did not mean he did not see his art practice as holding relevance and belonging within the discourses around him. What he positioned was the idea of disseminating a work of art through an edition, therefore becoming a means and method by which his art could reach and belong to many people. He also strongly believes in the idea of democratising his art practice by keeping his prices very nominal and not playing up to the manipulations of an art market. Perhaps this is because Jyotibhai has never cared to be prescriptive. Respectful of the choices and functioning of other artists and art institutions, he nonetheless configures his own operative systems as an artist, to what his personal beliefs adhere to. Jyotibhai and Jyotsnaben's doors have always been open. When I was a student and on one occasion when I needed to attend a theory class, both of them babysat my infant son. It is a tradition within Baroda where the communication and relationship with students or young artists does not end at the college front gate, or at the exit of an exhibition gallery. Jyotibhai, in his belief of equal relationships, views his interaction with all whom he interacts with, with the greatest of openness and humility. There is never a time that I have visited him, when my favourite dish of Batata Poha isn't made and kept ready for me. This, I think, best exemplifies the platform of how he engages with those who visit him. His genuineness and his comfort with who he is, allows for others to find their comfort in their discourses with him.
Arab News
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Bangladesh marks Bengali New Year with tribute to student uprising
DHAKA: Tens of thousands of Bangladeshis crowded the streets of Dhaka on Monday to welcome the Bengali New Year, with a parade that pays tribute to the student-led uprising that led to the ousting of longstanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In the capital, people wore traditional attire as they marched, danced and sang in a colorful procession that started from the Art College of Dhaka University, alongside larger-than-life handmade figures depicting the ousted premier and symbols related to the mass student movement that took place last July. Monday's parade was the first under the new interim government led by Nobel-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, who assumed office in August 2024. 'The memories of July spirit are still very fresh in our hearts. And we tried to demonstrate this spirit through this New Year's parade,' Dr. Azharul Islam, the dean of Dhaka University's Faculty of Fine Arts, which organized the event, told Arab News. 'Our efforts were to represent the country from historic to contemporary time. That's why the July movement spirit also got a placement along with other traditional Bengal cultural elements.' The student-led movement of July 2024 began with protests that were initially sparked by opposition to public sector job quotas, but it quickly grew into a broader, nationwide uprising against Hasina's government. After a violent crackdown by security forces and a communications blackout, the unrest peaked in early August with protesters defying nationwide curfew orders and storming government buildings, forcing former premier Hasina to resign and flee the country, ending 15 years in power of her Awami League party-led government. This year, the new year's parade, called Ananda Shobhajatra, was held under the theme 'Symphony of the New Year, End of Fascism.' It featured an elaborate, dark-colored figure meant to depict Hasina as a 'Face of Fascism,' seemingly chased by a figure of a Bengal tiger trailing behind it. The parade also featured a huge water bottle, which became a symbol of the student movement and a nod to a young protester called Mugdho, who was shot and killed as he was handing out bottles of water during a protest. A watermelon figure made it into the line-up of festivities in Dhaka as a symbol of solidarity with Palestine from the country of 170 million people, which have held several pro-Palestine rallies since Israel's war on Gaza began in October 2023. 'The main success of this rally is people's participation,' Islam said. 'People joined the rally hand in hand in a peaceful way. It shows that with this event, we have been able to uphold the people's voices of the time." The parade, which was formerly known as Mangal Shobhajatra, was in 2016 recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage. It was first organized in 1989 as a protest against military rule by art college students at Dhaka University. Since then, it has been held annually to mark the first day of Bengali New Year — known locally as Pohela Boishakh. While celebrations have in the past focused on Bangladesh's heritage, the additional themes have added new layers to the event. 'The specialty of this year's celebration is the representation of (the July spirit), the resistance for the Palestinians, the fall of the fascist regime, and other traditional elements of Bengal culture,' Dhaka resident Puja Sen Gupta told Arab News. 'This year's celebration arrangement was a bit different compared with other years. I enjoyed participating in the parade a lot.'
Al-Ahram Weekly
28-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Ismailia Int'l Film Festival to honour Egyptian filmmaker Ali El-Ghazouli - Screens - Arts & Culture
The 26th Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentary and Shorts (IIFF) (5 - 11 February) will honour veteran Egyptian filmmaker Ali El-Ghazouli,92, by showcasing several of his acclaimed films in a special segment titled 'A Look At History.' El-Ghazouli studied Photography at the Faculty of Applied Arts, graduating in 1956 before contiuning his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts and also in Italy. Over an illustrious career that spanned decades, he established himself as one of the leading photographers and documentary directors in Egypt and the Arab World. Earlier in his journey, he focused on directing short social documentaries, whichfeatured regularly on Egyptian TV. Over the years, he branched out to direct feature documentaries. He is renowned for his documentary films, such as The Healer of Saint Catherine (1986), Twilight Fishing (1990), Mr Gaber (1993), and The Martyr and the Square (2012). The 26th edition of the IIFF, founded in 1991, is the oldest specialized film festival in Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa. The festival is organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture's National Cinema Centre. Headed by Egyptian filmmaker Hala Galal, the 26th edition includes 51 films from 34 countries. The short film segment features 24 works, while the special segment, dedicated to student films, features 17 works. The feature documentary films include 11 titles, including Chronicles of the Absurd (Cuba) by Miguel Coyula; Shahid (Germany/Iran) by Narges Kalhor; Green Line (Lebanon) by Sylvie Ballyot; And There Was An Evening. There Was A Morning -The First Day (Egypt) by Youhanna Nagy; and Rising Up At Night (Congo) by Nelson Makengo. It also includes A Fidai Film (Palestine) by Kamal Aljafari; The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder (Mozambique) by Inadelso Cossa; Union (USA) by Brett Story and Stephen Maing; Brunaupark (Switzerland) by Felix Hergert and Dominik Zietlow; and Where the Trees Bear Meat (Argentine) by Alexis Franco. The festival also revealed the jury panel for this segment at a press conference. Three filmmakers sit on the jury panel of documentary films: Jean-Marie Téno (Cameroon, president of the jury), Rodrigo Bernardo (Brazil), and Nadine Salib (Egypt). The festival also hosts numerous seminars, workshops, and masterclasses. Short link:
