Painting pathos
SHAILAJA TRIPATHI
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Osian’s first edition of its festival celebrates the universal issue of death
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Crucifixion Jamini Roy wanted to investigate if the same technique could be applied to an alien topic.
Though titled Jashn-Osianama, the latest visual arts festival launched by Osian deals with the stark but biggest reality of our lives — death. The 140-odd artworks, mostly canvases and a few photographs, look at 500 years of violence and non-violence of various kinds — in battles waged for freedom by individuals and countries, oppression going beyond the physical realm to become emotional subjugation, the struggle against poverty and assassinations.
Neville Tuli, Chairman, Osian’s who has curated the show along with a team, feels that though the works visualise death, the energy the show passes on to the viewer can only be positive. “Art is first and foremost one of the greatest non-violent acts of creativity,” he adds. And that’s exactly one of the reasons Osian’s is trying to get school students to view the exhibition. On the day of opening, a special preview was held for principals of about 20 schools. “The idea is to encourage people to participate, to respect the subject, our history and thereby feel responsible for our artistic heritage,” explains Tuli.
The works on display indeed give a glimpse of the rich cultural heritage and the varied art traditions borne of it. Chittaprosad’s canvases always remained voices of the underdog and their sufferings. Here too, we see a work on the Bangladesh War depicting ‘Bangla Mata’ trampling on the Pakistan army. All his life, Nikhil Biswas had pain in his work, but nobody ever thought KCS Paniker was dealing with the subject. It’s not possible for any creative mind to not deal with the universal issue of death,” says Tuli. Paniker, largely occupied with the man-woman relationship, made ‘Death’ towards the last few years of his life. A crying child with a totem doll in his hand surrounded by darkness with a crow and a dog lurking somewhere behind hint at the premonition the artist had of his end.
“All his life J. Sultan Ali was engaged with decorative motifs, but here his figures transformed, and similarly the usually colourful imagery of Manjit Bawa changed,” says Tuli. Deeply disturbed by the assassination of Safdar Hashmi — communist playwright and a significant voice in political theatre, the late artist placed the dead body of Hashmi in the background. The posture draws from Bhishma’s death in the Mahabharata in an apparent effort to find parallels. One section brings together works depicting famine and other natural calamities. The rare antiquarian photographs by W.W. Hooper capture human suffering during the Madras famine, whereas a few paintings depict the Bengal famine.
(The show will be on till July 21 at Visual Arts gallery, IHC)
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* The festival will be an annual affair.
* The exhibition was first held in Mumbai.
* There the exhibits were mainly Tibetan Thangkas, Japanese Samurai art, World Film memorabilia, etc.
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