Date:08/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/08/stories/2008100850710200.htm

New Delhi

An interesting mix of paintings, sculpture and much more....

Different strokes: A work by Satish Gujral on display in the exhibition.

Featuring a blend of modern Indian paintings and contemporary art practices is a month-long group show that opens at Delhi Art Gallery in Hauz Khas Village on October 18.

Titled “Frame. Figure. Field”, the exhibition will be accompanied with a well illustrated catalogue with essays by art critic and independent curator Roobina Karode. The participating artists include M. F. Husain, Satish Gujral, Shobha Bro ota, Avinash Chandra, Amitava Das, C. Douglas, Shanti Dave, Jaya Ganguly, Sheela Gowda, P. Khemraj, Ambadas Khobragade, Sovan Kumar, Altaf Mohammedi, Rabin Mondal, Gogi Saroj Pal, Sohan Qadri, G. R. Santosh, Paritosh Sen, Nataraj Sharma, F. N. Souza, Vivan Sundaram and Vasudha Thozhur.

The exhibition brings together expertise of artists from different generations and different regions. For instance, while veteran artist Ambadas Khobragade brings out non-representational genre on canvas, young Sovan Kumar utilises the truck as the main motif for a tongue-in-check portrayal of the destruction of rural life.

The late P. Khemraj ploughs the vast terrain of his canvas titled “Charpai” that communicates depth, surface, illusion, movement and mystery within painting.

Veteran artist Satish Gujral blurs the divide between painting and sculpture through his architectonic sculptural piece meant to be hung on the wall in the manner of painting. Yet another veteran artist, Sohan Qadri, makes use of challenging techniques in painting. He allows the colour to percolate through the thick hand-made paper he paints on, allowing forms to develop on the other side that he then textures by tearing and blending the surface.

Some women artists have articulated feelings of nostalgia, claustrophobia or longing. In Gogi Saroj Pal’s paintings, woman’s desire vis-À-vis prescribed societal roles is scrutinised quite persistently. Often her female figures acquire wings or extra limbs, expressing unspoken desires or predicament. In “Valley of Flowers”, Gogi transforms the pictorial space into a dreamy landscape, the crimson colour representing both the earth and sky in which the female protagonist appears in effortless flight. While Gogi revels in the openness of the imaginative landscape, Vasudha Thozhur’s jigsaw composition in “Still Life with Cat and Bananas” presents an unsorted view of life.

Thus these artists formulate an interesting mix, especially the ones who have now embraced other media and formats, using computer-generated imagery, organic and recycled materials and the sculptural-installation format.

Madhur Tankha