The excitement is building up as Chennai marches towards its 378th birthday. As various talks and heritage walks are being organised across the city, DakshinaChitra, a cross-cultural living museum of art, architecture, and performing arts, joins in with an unusual event of its own: an exhibition of meticulously curated vintage photographs.
Admittedly, old photographs of the city and its significant landmarks are much easier to access today, thanks to the fact that they are widely circulated on the Internet. “But the vintage photographs that we have curated are completely different, unique and never seen before,” says Gita Hudson, programme office and curator of the art galleries at the museum.
Hudson says she has chosen 20 photographs which depict the people and lifestyle of the past. The pictures depict everything from the jewellery that women wore then to Madras’s old markets. For an idea of what life looked like more than three centuries ago, take a look at these pictures of a domestic helper, school children, cart pullers and people from all walks of life. “It is a people-oriented exhibition,” says Hudson.
The 20 large-format photographs will be exhibited in the public spaces within DakshinaChitra, Muttukadu, from August 19 to 27, from 10 am to 5.30 pm.
The Madras Art Movement
The Madras Art Movement (MAM) (1960s to 1980s) refers to the artists who shaped and contoured modernity in the South. It was a modern regional phenomenon, where artists looked to their roots for inspiration but produced international quality works in the 1950s. Its initiation was the concerted efforts of pioneers such as KCS Paniker and S Dhanapal mainly in painting and sculpture, later extended by other artists who played a seminal role in its growth and development.
This art movement had a character and identity, which contributed in many respects to the modern Indian art movement which was happening in other parts of the country.
Modernity in Madras achieved its special character by rooting it in its regional culture. For modernity to take shape, the pedagogical space of the art institution namely the Government College of Arts and Crafts (Established 1850) proved crucial, becoming the locus for the emergence of this movement in the South in the 1960s.
Gita Hudson, who is a painter and documentary film maker, has made several films on senior artists of Chennai and those who were part of the MAM. Alphonso Arul Doss, Vidyasankar Sthapathy, P Perumal, Sooriyamoorthy, S Rajavelu and painters like Achuthan Kudallur, RB Baskaran, Douglas and Veerasanthanam. “I was surprised when I came to know that the arts college students themselves did not know anything much about the history of their institution nor had any idea about these great masters. These are young artists who are pursuing their degree presently in the very same prestigious institution. But they enjoy it whenever they are exposed to these kind of films,” says Gita Hudson. Apart from films directed by Hudson, other filmmakers’ works on SG Vasudev, Panicker and Haridasan will also be screened.
“Documentaries are about real people and incredible stories, and hence very engaging to people from all walks of life. Art lovers and students can sit back and enjoy works of our regional masters forgetting the much hyped commerce of art in today’s world,” says Hudson. Films are in English and Tamil (sub-titled in English).
Around 10 films will be screened everyday between 11 am and 1 pm and between 3 pm and 5 pm, from August 12 till the end of the month at the Seminar Hall in Varija Gallery.
The Heritage Quiz
On August 18, a heritage quiz on Chennai is to be conducted, and school students from Chennai and Puducherry, studying in Classes 6, 7 and 8 are eligible to participate. “Senior education coordinator, DakshinChitra, Lakshmi Thyagarajan says, the heritage quiz is a mega event where they are expecting about 1000 students. Schools can send any number of teams (3 in a team) to participate. The quiz (preliminary and finals) will be conducted in English and there is no participation fee. The heritage quiz will begin by 9,30 am and end by 2.30 pm
