The smiling face of a man and his outstretched arms greet me. Behind him is a red evening sky. His smile is infectious and you can’t help smile back at him. The man is in a painting called Freedom, and the artist who created him is Murali Cheeroth. He is from Thrissur, but studied art at Santiniketan, West Bengal.
Cheeroth was but one of the many artists on display at Vivanta By Taj Surya. There were nearly 80 other works of great contemporary Indian artists such as M.F. Husain, Paritosh Sen, Sachin Jaltare and Arpana Caur.
( One of the works at Heightened Senses. Photo: S. Siva Saravanan)
Paritosh Sen’s painting of a boy on a wheel chair was moving. The face is expressionless. But, the body has been rendered with care and detailing. The person looks real and human. Paritosh Sen from Calcutta was strongly influenced by Western Modern Art and Cubism. He left for Paris in 1949 and was influenced by the French painters. He was in the Calcutta Group to create a movement to incorporate contemporary values in Indian art.
“That’s Pather Panchali !” A few kids in the room exclaimed, as they stood before the portraits of Apu and his creator, Satyajit Ray, made by Rajib Chaudhari.
( One of the works at Heightened Senses. Photo: S. Siva Saravanan)
There was Chaplin too. The work by Amit, a young graduate from Kolkata, is a painting within a painting. Charlie Chaplin’s portrait adorns a peeling wall and his trademark cane sticks out of the frame to rest on the arm of an old fashioned chair. The shadow of the chair and the cane and the dull gold cloth on the chair are lifelike. Sunil Das lived in Spain for years and was fascinated by the bull fights he witnessed there. His works are famous for his obsession with bulls. He has drawn around 7,000 bulls in his career, and one of them was right there in the gallery!
( One of the works at Heightened Senses. Photo: S. Siva Saravanan)
The expo also exhibited works of emerging and young artists such as Farhad Hussain whose bright colourful painting caught the eye as soon as one entered the hall. A little more subtle was the oil on canvas made by senior artist Sachin Jaltare. Beautiful women were the subject matter of another renowned artist Sujata Achrekar.The grand finale was M.F. Husain. There were three of his paintings, one original and two lithographic prints. Husain, who started by painting posters for Bollywood films and designing toys in the 40s, went on to become a landscape painter. He was the original member of Bombay Progressive Artists to encourage Indian Avant Garde Art and break away from the norms of conventional Indian art.
His original painting was a modernist work that featured a tiger, arrows and regional motifs. It was difficult not to be affected by the work of the genius who was way ahead of his times, misunderstood by his countrymen and who ultimately died in a foreign land.
(The event was organised by Rotary Club of Coimbatore Texcity, in association with Artchutney.com, a Bangalore based gallery, and Casa Grande Private Limited. The Hindu was the media partner. The proceeds from the event will be used for community service projects for girl children and cancer care.)
