By IANS,
Mysore : Fifteen artists from various parts of India have come together to raise funds for treatment of cancer patients by selling their paintings at an auction here in mid-March.
The artists, from Bangalore, Mysore, Udupi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Assam, chose either nature or human figure for their paintings at a five-day camp that ended Tuesday.
Around 30 art works, two from each artist, would go under hammer at Swasti Art Gallery here and the proceeds from the sale will be used for treatment of cancer victims at various hospitals of Health Care Global Foundation (HCGF), which organised the camp.
The Swasti Gallery was started by HCGF in June 2007 to exhibit and sell artworks to raise funds for treating cancer patients. The HCGF supports 16 oncology institutes located in Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi and Orissa.
The 15 artists at the camp included G.M.S. Mani from Bangalore, Ravindra Salve (Mumbai), Tridib Dutta (Assam), V.S. Deshapande (Mysore), Shyam Bharat Yadav (Hyderabad), Rama Suresh (Chennai) and Purusttom Adve (Udupi).
“I immediately accepted the invitation from HCGF to come and paint for a noble cause. Art has always contributed for the society. As an artist I feel responsible towards society and it makes me happy if I could contribute for the cause of cancer patients,” said 39-year-old Dutta.
Echoing Dutta, other artists at the camp said: “Through our art works we would like to share the pain and agony of cancer patients and help them in time of need.”
This is for the first time that all the 15 artists are participating in an art camp to raise money for cancer patients, though most of them have already attended several art camps, mostly for the sake of creativity.
Bhagya Ajay Kumar of Swasti Art Gallery, an artist herself, said artworks will be on display at the gallery and auction will be held mid-March.
“We want to invite art lovers from across India for the exhibition-cum-sale. We wanted time to arrange it and hence the mid-March schedule,” she said when asked why the sale was not arranged at the camp itself.
According to data of Indian government’s National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) there are 2-2.5 million cancer patients at any given point of time in the country. Around 700,000 new cases are reported every year.
“Two-third of the new cancers are presented in advance and incurable stage at the time of diagnosis. More than 60 percent of these patients are in the prime of their life between the ages of 35 and 65 years,” the NCCP data said.