The first Sunday of the New Year, January 5, will see over four lakh people visit the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath’s ‘Chitra Santhe’ (the art fair) where nearly 1,500 artists from across the country will display their work.
This time around, the 17th edition of the art fair will be dedicated to farmers, said CKP President B.L. Shankar. “The Chitrakala Parishath has been preserving and publishing dying art forms, both traditional and folk, for the last half a century. To make art more accessible to the public, we have been holding Chitra Santhe without a break since 2003,” said Mr. Shankar.
Art is not restricted to galleries and embodies the cultural and historical heritage of the State. Over the years, the Santhe has helped facilitate dialogue, discourse, debate and artistic interaction, and has become an open school for artistic exchanges between the States in India. With this in mind, the Tourism Department along with Chitrakala Parishath organised the Karnataka Heritage Camp from December 30, 2019 where 30 artists from across the country toured Karnataka.
They will be producing three art pieces each depicting 90 tourist attractions of the State. The artwork will be displayed at the Public Art Display under the theme ‘Heritage Karnataka – Love, Beauty and Art’ on January 5. “The Department of Tourism provided funds of ₹15 lakh for this initiative,” said Minister for Kannada and Culture C. T. Ravi at a press conference on Friday. He added that around 125 other art works related to the heritage of Karnataka would also be on display during the santhe.
For the first time, the Chitrakala Parishath has instituted a national award this year, named after its founder secretary Prof. M.S. Nanjunda Rao. “It will be awarded to senior artist R.B. Bhaskaran and will carry a cash prize of ₹1 lakh,” said Mr. Shankar.
The presentation ceremony will take place on January 4 where the ‘Chitrakala Sanman’ awards will be presented to H.N. Suresh (H.K. Kejriwal award); S. Krishnappa (M. Aryamurthy Award); Ganesh Somayaji (D. Devaraj Urs Award); and Vijaya Hagaragundagi (Y. Subramanyaraju Award).
At the santhe on January 5, visitors will be able to see Mysore and Tanjore traditional paintings, Rajasthani, Madhubani-style art, and modern and contemporary works in various media like water colour, oil, acrylic, pencil, ink drawings, and fibreglass.
All through the day, there will be performances at the Parishath and on Kumara Krupa Road. Special counters will be provided to senior artists and differently-abled artists within the premises of Chitrakala Parishath.
There would be 1,500 stalls from Windsor Manor hotel up to Shivananda Circle and part of Crescent Road.
“The last Chitra Santhe generated a sale of around ₹3 crore. We expect the figure to go up by 10% this year,” said Mr. Shankar, adding that the expenditure for the Chitra Santhe amounted to approximately ₹30 lakh.
Bengaluru as art hub?
The city will host India Art Fair, which will be organised by the Chitrakala Parishath on April 24 and 25. “Until now, it was confined to Delhi and Mumbai,” said CKP President B.L. Shankar. “There were two appeals from the public to extend the Chitra Santhe for two days and also change the venue. Unfortunately, we had to turn them down due to budget constraints,” he added.
