Four is the new score for students of the painting department of Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University as they get ready to make a new beginning. On a warm Monday afternoon, at the Nehru Art gallery, the walls have been cleaned and packets comprising works are kept in a corner.Here, the students are set to showcase their works in four traditional forms mainly Kalamkari, Cheriyal masks, Cheriyal paintings, Nirmal art and also Shilpkar and craft works in an exhibition.
New beginning
Priti Samyukta, head of the department calls the show a new beginning. “It is first time in the college’s 77-year-history that something of this sort is happening. When we say history, we focus on a span of 50-60 years. We don’t know about the art culture prior to that, as we don’t have any documentation,” she states. “We have a stringent syllabus where these art forms are not part of it.” The onus was to make youngsters understand the journey of these forms and expose them to different media. As part of it, many workshops were held in 2017 by master craftsmen Tilak Reddy, Pentaiah Varma and Vinay Nakash who introduced the art, explained the basics and its nuances. With 15 works of Kalamkari, 24 works of Cheriyal paintings, 20 Cheriyal masks, 42 Nirmal paintings and craft work, the collection is huge. “It is also a first for the gallery that it gets to display something is not academic. It is nice to learn about art which is in and around your place.”
Harsha, a third year student calls it an opportunity to know something different. “Although the experts introduced the art, the onus is on us to use our imagination,” she says, showing her work which has a blend of different art forms. “Kalamkari is in fashion and we loved doing it and also wearing it,” enthuses Nikitha Marisetti. “We took notes of the process so that later we can create something lovely, maybe a Kalamkari duppatta. ” Zarnain, who did not want to stick to a form and created a mandala pattern that was in vogue in Machilipatnam, calls Kalamkari ‘therapeutic.’ “We learnt to break away from the realistic technique that we have been following since first year. It gave us insights as to how the ornamentation and clothes was done differently in different regions,” she points out adding it was also a lesson on natural colours.
Sandhya’s Cheriyal work is a dialogue between king and queen. “We hear many mythological stories about kings and queens but have not heard the interaction the couple has behind a close door,” she says. In the work, the king and queen are seated on par with each other. “I wanted to show that women are equal to men. While women fulfil their duties of being a wife, mother, daughter and sister... they are no less. That is how I am treated by my husband and wanted to show it that there can be a nice, open dialogue between a wife and husband.”
Besides this unique show, Priti shares another reason to cheer by the department of painting. “We are starting the department’s first ever newsletter after 77 years where students are contributors; we have topics like ‘know your artist’, books, philosopher, medium and learning from masters.”
(The show Thinking Traditions is on view at Nehru Art Gallery in JNAFAU till February 25)
