Kumar Gallery celebrates 55th year with an eclectic annual show of master artists

New Delhi: As Kumar Gallery, one of Delhi’s oldest galleries founded in 1955, enters its 55th year, it’s time for celebrations galore! Bringing forth never-seen-before works by some of most coveted master-artists as well as younger names, Kumar gallery presents its annual show titled Celebration 2010; a group exhibition of more than fifty works including paintings in oil on canvas, acrylics on paper and sculptures by twenty-seven artists from January 25, 2010 to February 9, 2010 at Kumar Gallery, 56, Sunder Nagar Market, New Delhi.

The artists whose work will be showcased are A. Ramachandran, A. P Santhanaraj, Anil Karanjai, Arpana Caur, Ashok Bhowmick, Dhiraj Choudhury, F.N. Souza, G.R Santosh, Gopal Ghose, Jai Zharotia, Jamini Roy, K.S. Kulkarni, Krishen Khanna, K.S Radhakrishnan, M.F Husain, Paresh Maity, Prodosh Das Gupta, Ram Kumar, Ramgopal Vijayvargiya, Seema Kohli, Sangeeta Gupta, Sohan Qadri, Sakti Burman, Satish Gujral, Sankho Chaudhury, Sharad Sonkusale and Shikha Sinha.

Sunit Kumar, Director, Kumar Gallery says: “Celebration 2010 dwells on India’s blooming modern artistic endeavour through a historical framework, bringing some of India’s most revered post-Independence modern masters along with contemporary artists. Through this exhibition, we have brought forth an inimitable collection of artworks from as early as 1960’s to the present times and presents a panoramic overview of Indian contemporary art as it has evolved.”

One of the iconic features of classical Indian art has been its ability to blend ephemeral humanistic emotions with a vivid sense of the eternal as well as the metaphysical and mythological. This was primarily achieved via a deep sense of spiritual devotion on the part of the artist. For instance a master of crosshatching, Ashok Bhowmick’s Bull and Bird Series has been inspired from the Bronze Age and Indus valley civilization. Explains the artist: “The earliest cave paintings and the coins had bull engravings on them. Bull symbolizes power and I respect it. Notice how the bird calmly sits over bull’s head. The proximity of force and feeble is what teaches us a lesson.”

Founder member of the Triveni Kala Sangam, K.S Kulkarni’s paintings depict the world of the Indian peasant, a world still throbbing to the drum-beats of the folk-dancers, swaying with rapture to the hypnotic melody of the shepherd’s flute, jogging along in the ancient bullock-cart. It is also a world which reveals the tensions and travails of the peasant, caught in the vortex of this fast-changing world yet stolidly withstanding its blows and buffets. A superb draftsman, Kulkarni was also a master colourist. The fantastic vibrancy he achieved by the soft, light strokes of his brush cast an aura of light through and around the boldly and vigorously delineated forms.

Yet another founder-member of the famous ‘Calcutta Group’, Prodosh Das Gupta brought the self-conscious individuality of a modern artist into sculpture. His love of the body - of man, woman or trees - links his work with the great tradition of Indian sculpture. He built his sculptural forms through the modeling technique, i.e., using clay or plaster, but the resulting effect was ‘lithic’, that is as if they are carved from a stone block maintaining the essential simplicity of the human form and scooping out just what is redundant.

A poet, vajrayan tantrik teacher and master-abstractionist, Sohan Qadri dislikes creating figurative visuals as according to him “they destroy the painting”. Instead, he uses signs reminiscent of tantrik and ritual symbolism which epitomizes “energy or Shakti” which moves. The most challenging thing in Qadri’s art is technique. His works are to be seen back to front. 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. Call them bindus or yonis, but they represent an alternative harmony of form and texture. Over the years his work though has gone through a form of distillation. Colour has become lighter and lines the residue of textures.

Another self-taught artist, abstractionist and a bureaucrat in Indian Revenue Service, Sangeeta Gupta had started her artistic journey making intricate drawings. She wields the brush with finesse, suggesting the viscosity of ink, the glossiness of lacquer, the mist of heights, the glow of the sun, and the inherent palette of rocks when wet. Strident and subtle strokes, dots, and amorphous patterns unfold energy channels.

One of the most promising young painters of contemporary Indian art, Paresh Maity started out as a painter in the academic style, but over the years began to shift from atmospheric scenery to representations of the human form. Gradually the imagery and form became more and more abstract until the young painter with flourish of a brush laden with transparent colours began to create paintings of great evanescent beauty. Deriving his inspiration as much from the surrounding landscape as from folk forms and contemporary life, Paresh Maity creates a web of fantasies and stories soaked in beauty, pulsating with romance, passion and intrigue. Though recognized as a water colourist, the young painter is equally at ease with oil on canvas as is evident in his work titled Rani.