Collectors' delight

'Ambience' is indeed the right word for the place where the exhibition of paintings titled 'Soul Art', is being held in collaboration with artlogin.com, an art portal commissioned recently to showcase Indian contemporary art on a global level. The lush green garden, with small pools with lilies and floating oil lamps, a passage with thatched roof leading to a small room behind the main building, create a natural ambience. The display of the rich collection of colour coordinated fabrics, furnishings, wrought iron furniture, artefacts, ceramic ware and pink, blue and amber wine glasses lends an air of creativity.

Among these are displayed paintings from the early 1900s to the present, perhaps the oldest ones by (late) M. V. Dhurandar to the most contemporary expressions of young artists Shailesh and Umashankar. This is the first time that Ambience has ventured to show contemporary art, while artlogin wanted to exhibit works in a different atmosphere from a regular gallery, so that more people could be exposed to art of this nature.

A painting by Muralidharan just outside the entrance - a big round face playing the flute - welcomes the visitor.

The small watercolour sketches by Dhurandar of men and women going about their daily routine are delightful, realistic studies; one gets the feeling that they would turn around and talk to if one addresses them. Aloke Bhattacharya's watercolours with carefully done details remind one of Boticelli's works. Shekar Roy pastes thin gauze on canvas in such a way that it looks as if it has been painted. Youngsters Umashankar and Shailesh impress with their works - the former with two works titled 'Solitude' in blue which evoke a feeling of loneliness and the latter with his clever use of 'Found Objects' with the same title.

Yuriko Lochan's horizontal gouache on paper works 'Land of milk and honey' and 'Hill at night' are most appealing - they combine miniature and contemporary techniques in an interesting manner. The show comprises creations by some well-known artists from all over the country such as Adimoolam, Prabhakar Kolte, T. Vaikuntam, Suhas Roy, Sudip Roy, K. S. Rao, Mrinal Kanti Das, Douglas, Vrindavan Solanki and Nandagopal (metal sculpture).

Maria Anthony once again reveals that he thinks a little differently in his sculptures such as the 'Modern Hunter' in metal and terracotta and the stone and bronze piece, 'Hill'.

There are also several graphic prints by many leading personalities to choose from - Amitabh Banerjee, Rini Dhumal, Jogen Choudhury, Paritosh Sen, Arpita Singh, Palaniappan, K. K. Hebbar, Bhupen Khakkar, Shail Coyal, Devraj and so on. The etchings, lithographs and serigraphs reveal each artist's way of thinking and approach to their subjects and different techniques of print making.

LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN

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