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ARTSCAPE
Three days of festivity for music lovers
 It is titled ‘Swar Utsav- A Celebration of Music’. The India Today Swar Utsav, a multi-faceted music festival, which has been held every year since the past three years in the Capital, has been rightly called the ultimate music festival of India. Ranging from bhajans to khayal and qawwali to folk songs, the rich diversity of forms of musical expression gives the entire utsav a very rich look. The Swar Utsav spans five sessions comprising devotional music, the romantic semi-classical genre, classical instrumental and khayal, Sufi music and creative fusion. It was held in the midst of the open-air ambience of the lush green lawns of India Gate. Some of the best musicians from across the subcontinent gathered to perform for an audience made up of true music connoisseurs. It began on October 25 and ended on October 27. Different musical genres were brought together to cater to the tastes and preferences of a wide variety of audience. Pandit Jasraj, one of India’s leading master of the voice, sang Khayal and bhajans on the opening evening with the other sessions devoted to Sufi qawwali and Guruvani. Pandit Channulal Mishra, unequalled singer of the semi-classical genres, who belongs to the celebrated Kathakar community of Uttar Pradesh, rendered passages from Ram Katha. Pandit Rajan and Sajan Misra presented the seasonal songs of Divali while the towering voice of Shubha Mudgal rendered an eclectic mix of poetry from the subcontinent to the accompaniment of piano and percussion. Sufiana qalam was presented in its Urdu form by Rashid Khan. Punjabi Sufi poetry was presented by Wadali Brothers of Punjab. Also heard were flavours of Carnatic instrumental music at its modern best with U. Shrinivas. And last but not the least was the vivacious and exhilarating creative fusion band led by percussionist and composer Taufiq Qureshi.
A great churning
of art forms
Portrait 1, acrylic on canvas, by Sanjay Verma
A form of Devotion, by R. K. Yadav
Geometric poetry in paint, by Anupama Jain
Fun & frolic, a multi-hued creation, by Nankusiya Shyam |
The ‘Manthan’ group had organised an exhibition of paintings and sculptures at the Lalit Kala Academy comprising works of six very talented contemporary artists. These artists, namely Koushal Choudhry, Mihir Pandya, Mukul Mishra, Sanjay Verma, Sohon S. Jakhar and Yogendra Kumar Purohit, are able to convey their thoughts vividly in a very simple manner to the viewer. They hold a lot of promise and their works offer a breath of fresh air and different horizons to explore. Koushal Choudhry, who holds a BE (Civil), has captured dance movements with such grace that it is difficult to differentiate whether his work is a painting or a photograph. He seems to hold a fascination for Kathak dance and its movements as a wide majority of his works have depicted this movement in its utmost grace and beauty. No distortion seems to occur. Then there is Yogendra Kumar Purohit whose work, titled ‘Composition’, is very appealing piece of art. Done with oil on canvas, it is a composition of six paintings with one object being common to all the paintings, only the things around it change which depicts the various phases of the constant object. All the works have great visual appeal to them. Feast for art
aficionadosAn exhibition of paintings, graphics, sculptures and photographs called ‘Fankar’ with a gamut of 35 artists was held at Lalit Kala Academy. All these artists from Madhya Pradesh brought in together a vast and wide variety of works ranging from one extreme to the other. Parvez Ahmed, who brought them together, has to his credit the laudable task of promoting new and talented artists. This whole brigade has definitely not disappointed him. A wide variety of subjects have been explored and innumerable thoughts given concrete shape and form. For artist Sangeeta Pathak, the face is the mirror to one’s heart and soul. She has tried to portray human faces with the intensity and conflicts of one’s soul getting highlighted. Dejection, helplessness and difficulties help her add more liveliness to her work. All artists involved in this exhibition hold great credentials and are an experienced lot. Metamorphosis in mixed mediaThe 57th solo exhibition of paintings by R.K. Yadav (Ram Kishore Yadav) titled ‘Devotion’ is on at Krishna’s Collection Art Gallery till November 9. The artist is a well-known figure both in the Indian and the foreign art circle. Born in the beautiful city of the alluring Taj Mahal, Agra, he has participated in various major group exhibitions and art auctions in India and abroad. He is the recipient of many awards and honours. Notable among them are the Union Township Chamber of Commerce Award in New Jersey, USA in 1994 and the Gold Medal and Certificate of Patronage on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in 1996. He was also honoured by Uzbekistan Art Academy, Tashkent, in 1997. He also holds a visiting fellowship from the British Council, London. His present works are in the mixed media. His thoughts, he feels, are slightly bent towards spirituality, but he wouldn’t call it an environmental phenomena. In fact, it is a kind of change that has been brought about over the years, possibly because of the oppression of the materialistic world, and it is this change that is being reflected in his works. He has made sincere efforts to simplify the message of his art as, according to him, simplicity is the key to the success of any message.
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