Canvas gets a conscience
RANA SIDDIQUI
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Through "Guernica to Nithari", Canvas Art Gallery reminds art lovers to pay attention to their societal duties.
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When I broached the theme to the artists, I was flooded with 110 entries.Rakesh Gupta,Canvas Art Gallery
The trend of artists to think of their duty to society has been a fading one. Honourable exceptions that come to mind are Robin Mondal, who portrayed the Bengal famine, Satish Gujral's paintings on the Partition, Veer Munshi's distress over displaced Kashmiri Pandits, among others. Now thanks to Canvas Art Gallery, an exhibition is on that reminds viewers about their societal responsibilities. Barely a year old, this gallery, located at 1 Guru Angad Bhawan, Nehru Place, has mounted an impressive art show of 51 works titled Guernica to Nithari - A Homage. Curated by Vijay Kumar (Victor), the show aims to remind people of the brutal killings and sexual assault on children and women in Nithari.
Twenty-five per cent of the sales proceeds will go to Child Home, a Delhi-based organisation for less fortunate children.
Interesting assemblage
The show comprises an interesting assemblage of promising artists. Unfortunately, though, some of the works have already been seen frequently and are not even remotely linked to the theme. They seem like a forced addition to multiply the numbers. But some fit the bill.
NITHARI-CENTRIC Shama and Karuna's works of art mounted at the gallery.
For instance, Srinagar-based Shama's untitled oil on canvas portrays lifeless tiny feet, children's heads floating in the air, an anguished woman and a fiery eye, all in fierce red, symbolising the Nithari episode. Despite details, the work is aesthetically sound. Ishwar Chand Gupta's "Unwanted" portrays sleeping children oblivious of the danger peeping through a window, while Sangeeta Singh's work "There is more to me" points at the fate of a girl in Indian society. If Rahul Chaudhury's "Burning Desire" depicts the helplessness of a faceless man in society, Karuna's untitled work questions the status of a single woman. Sonali Pithawe's "Rudan" portraying several hands raised to seek help reminds one of innocent children crying for help. Pankaj Mohan Aggarwal's uncomfortable imagery of an inferno and Harsh Vardhan Arya's beautiful untitled drawing that portrays an old man's memory of his mother's affection quite appropriately recall the mother and child relationship in the backdrop of the Nithari killings.
Says Rakesh Gupta, director of the gallery, "When I broached the theme to the artists, I was flooded with 110 entries. I zeroed on 51 as some of them even went to the extent of making it horrifying by producing details of the killing around the pasted picture of Maninder Singh Pandher (the accused in the Nithari case). These were not aesthetic. Unfortunately such exhibitions for a cause hardly get space in the media, which is getting more and more celebrity-centric. Despite the fact that many people don't want to `live' with such works of art as they remind them of unsavoury incidents, it doesn't dissuade me from doing my duty as a gallerist."
The exhibition title refers to Picasso's famous painting "Guernica", named after the Spanish hamlet where Nazi bombing took 1600 lives. For "copyright reasons" though Guernica related works haven't made it to the gallery walls, yet the intense curatorial effort in the exhibition is evident. The show concludes on May 2.
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