CULTURE

Artscape
Thanks to cognoscenti, artists graduate to big league
Ravi Bhatia

An artwork of Raamji Sharma. A painting by Ajai Kumar Kowshik.

Thanks to the patronage of some of the affluent business houses, art scene in the Capital has never been so good. During the last couple of years, art galleries have virtually mushroomed all over the sprawling metropolis providing ample opportunities to the artists to exhibit their creations.

No wonder, artists from all over the country have started descending on the Capital with hopes of being noticed by the cognoscenti, which could help them to graduate to the big league. Delhi is the in-thing and this is the buzzword in the art circles.

Face in the crowd

The PBC art gallery at Nehru Place here is showcasing the works of a large number of well-known artists in an exhibition, titled, ‘Faces in the Crowd’. The exhibition, curated by Ram Nawal Singh, will continue till November 3.

Promoted by the Paharpur Business Centre, the group show of paintings was inaugurated by Mrs Sofia Blake, wife of the Charge D’ Affairs of the US embassy here on Wednesday.

Abhisarika - the workmanship of Raamji Sharma. Radha - a painting by Suhash Roy.

Magic in realism

Born in Basholi, a small town in Jammu, famous for its miniature paintings, it was imperative that Raghu Vyas would imbibe artistic qualities that have today translated into his running a full-fledged studio for contemporary art in Delhi.

Son of a politician, who has made art his hobby and passion, Raghu Vyas belongs to the post-modern school of realism. He organises art exhibitions of works by like-mind artists.

This year, too, he will be holding an exhibition of realistic paintings, titled, ‘Magic of Realism: Part 7’, featuring renowned artists including Sanjay Bhattacharyya, Suman Gupta, Tejinder Kanda, Ramji Sharma and others at Hotel Hyatt Regency from October 10 to 17.

Raghu himself has held 25 solos in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Toronto and London. He has participated in a group show at the Nehru Centre, London in June 1999. His series, ‘A Journey Down the Ganga’, was exhibited at Gallery Art Indus in Delhi in 1998. He has recently done 24 paintings for the Hyatt Regency, Kolkata and Mumbai. He also makes documentary films, one of which was the critically acclaimed Rasmanjari, a documentary film on the Basholi Miniature paintings. In fact, the film is slated to be screened at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore in November this year. Raghu Vyas has also had the honour of presenting a painting to Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, USA, which added artistic dimension to Indo-US co-operation.

Says Raghu Vyas: “I have been doing this exhibition, ‘Magic of Realism’, for the last several years. I curate only realistic works, which have a place of their own.

Unlike modern and contemporary abstract art, realistic paintings need a lot of skill to execute.

The technical quality of the work is very important and so is the artists’ perspective.”

Creations of a famous virtuoso

From October 9 to 23, the Lalit Kala Akademi here will showcase the creations of the famous sculptor, Lallan Singh. Born in Allahabad and now settled in Udaipur, Lallan Singh has many awards to his credit and has held a large number of exhibitions of his works through out the country. Using marble as his principle material, this sculptor has chiselled out many shapes. One of his exhibition, ‘Penguin Family’, created out of black marble, was an impressive one.

Jiving to the beat of dandiya

Dandiya fervour captured zealous Delhiites like never before last week at Hotel Ashok, where a spirited dandiya evening was presented by Concepts Window.

What was most striking about the event was the spirited participation from the guests present. People from every age group seemed to have shed all their inhibitions and had descended with their partners to swirl the colourful sticks, matching their steps rhythmically.

Under the sun

It was a poignant moment for the parents of Kargil martyrs at the musical launch of a patriotic driven film on Kargil hero, who sacrificed their life for our country.

A special evening to salute the freedom fighters of Kargil was organised to launch the musical album of the forthcoming Bollywood film – ‘Dhoop’ at a glittering function hosted at Hotel Ashoka by Dinesh Gupta of Rashtriya Advertising last week.

Mr Gupta welcomed the producer Mr Parth Arora and the entire star cast of the film ‘Dhoop’, which featured India’s velvet voice ghazal samrat Jagjit Singh and other musical celebrities like Hariharan, Wadali Bros, Shreya Ghoshal and former Miss India Gul Panag, Revathi and Sanjay Suri, besides several others.