By Madhusree Chatterjee , IANS,
New Delhi : The prestigious Mumbai-based art house Osian’s is adding a new festival to India’s art fiesta.
The first edition of the festival, Jashn-Osianama, will be held June 26-July 2 at the Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai and in the capital July 4-21. Presented by Osian’s, the theme of the annual festival is “500 years of Violence and Non-Violence”.
The exhibition will be curated by Neville Tuli, founder of Osian’s. Jashn will strive to narrow the gap between museum exhibitions and the traditional Indian ‘mela’ by opening up the Jehangir Art gallery to a free-wheeling spread of art that will display almost every genre – sourced from Osian’s Archive and Library Collection.
The exhibition will feature classical and contemporary art, Japanese Samurai Art, Tibetan Thangkas, Rajasthani and Pahari miniatures, vintage world film memorabilia, antique and modern photography, all of which will be at the core of the festival this year.
However, Tuli promises to bring every kind of art from across the world under one roof in the subsequent editions of the festival.
“For the past nine years, I have been trying to take art out of the purview of the few and traverse all sections of society. I have built the Osian’s Collection with very clear cut ideas and themes, such as the erotic, death, human face, the relationship between man, animal and nature, along with the history of the subjects. Within these broad frameworks, I have also explored the relationship between violence and non-violence and have woven it around various personalities,” Tuli told IANS from Mumbai.
Jashn-Osianama will explore the anatomy of violence and will examine how Indian and Hollywood art have dealt with it in various forms.
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Powerful horses
M.F. Husain’s horses are known for their mobility, geometric lines and vibrant colours, says young Delhi-based artist Biswajit Das, who colours his horses in Husain’s bright shades and frugal lines.
An exhibition “Horse Power and Cosmic Relation”, featuring 34 of his horses is on at the AIFACS Gallery, Delhi. The animals which initially look straight out of Husain’s frames later reflect the artist’s brush with spirituality. They become meditative creatures in a cosmic space, each conveying a story from Indian mythology.
“I love horses because they are good looking. They are sexy and full of power,” Das told IANS.
The artist, who has been inspired by Husain, heads the designing team at the IIPM.
Camellia Suman, another young artist from Bengal, is also sharing the show with Biswajeet. Suman explores female consciousness and man-woman relationship on his mixed media canvases as well as installation art which uses women’s accessories and lingerie to peep into a woman’s private space.
The show closes June 14.
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Stone art
Parminder Singh of Chandigarh is one of those few sculptures who is comfortable with stones as a medium.
His exhibition, “Dissolving Stones,” at the Open Palm Court Gallery in the India Habitat Centre is riveting because of the way he treats blocks of marble – in pink, white and black – to craft ancient “power and fertility symbols” like the “Shakti Stambh”, “Shakti Punj”, “Shakti Chakra”, “Twins” “Birth of Energy” and “Balance”.
The forms are abstract and pick up heavily from the scriptures and traditional Indian mysticism.
“Sculptures should be promoted in India. Stones should be carried from the temple to the world. Marble icons and figures are usually found in temples. I want to make history – stone art that will last for a millenia,” Singh told IANS. The exhibition closes June 13.