Some senior artists visually probe Greece, one of the oldest civilisations, on their canvases. Meena Dhadha of the Chennai-based Prakrit Art Gallery, took a conglomeration of painters to Greece on an art camp, where they visited museums and galleries, trying to soak in the experience. The influences garnered were later poured out by the artists through their art, after they returned. The body of work produced, according to Dhadha, boasts quite a range. The connection to Greece, in some of them, the gallerist says, is difficult to figure out whereas in other cases, there are threads which are easier to pick. The viewers can decide it for themselves when they see the works exhibited in a show titled “Ithaca” (Greece) at Lalit Kala Akademi on December 6th. Shuvaprasanna, Rini Dhummal, Seema Kohli, Amitava Das, Mona Rai, Baala R., Nayanaa Kanodia, Shipra, Avijeet Dutta, Solanki.V and Sanjay Bhattacharya are the participating artists. Watercolours, drawings, lithographs, acrylic and oils make up the eclectic mix that would be on view in this exhibition.
“A lot of artists surprised me with their work but who surprised me the most was Sanjay Bhattacharya. He painted Krishna but I didn't understand why he painted that? What's the connection between Krishna and Athens? When I asked him, he said, the trip was about happiness and love and he associates it with Krishna. On the other hand, Rini Dhummal's work have turned out to be very close to Greece. She has done works in acrylic, on paper and two etchings,” reveals Dhadha. Dhummal visited the places, diligently accompanied by her sketch book. She did preliminary sketches right there.
“I am very quick so I could do the sketches on the spot. These later evolved into final works. Greece has such a fantastic history. It has gone through so much transformation. I had read so much about it so I made it a point to see its rich art like the red figure pottery, an ancient pottery style of Greece and many other things. That's how I do all my travelogues,” explained Dhummal, who has churned out black and white lithographs on Delphic Oracle, an important archaeological site, an oil work based on Goddess Athena and another, a Greek head.
Mumbai-based Nayanaa Kanodia, working in the format of naïve art, examines how this cradle of civilisation has influenced so many other cultures and evolved in the process. “It's such an old civilisation but both East and West have taken from it but if you go there, on the surface, it all seems so similar to us, the architecture, the clothes…,” says the artist.
(The exhibition will be on from December 6 to 12 at Lalit Kala Akademi)
