Art/Culture

By Maitreyee Boruah, IANS, Bangalore : It will be another milestone in the history of a grand old venue here when a Japanese singer belts out light Kannada numbers this Sunday at the Bandstand in Cubbon Park, whose musical legacy is being slowly but surely revived. The Bandstand, which was once the hub of the city's musical concerts, mostly classical, went through a lull for almost 20 years before it was reopened Oct 5 last year.

By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS, New Delhi : Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's music transcends geography and culture. For Italian singer Francesca Cassio, a blue-blooded Roman, it is both a passion and vocation. Cassio received a resounding ovation at the India International Centre Tuesday evening for her rendition of Tagore's songs, Rabindra Sangeet, in English. She sang to a packed house accompanied by pianist Ugo Bonessi. Cassio, who grew up listening to her family playing the grand piano, fell in love with Tagore, his poetry and his music at the age of 15.

By Uma Nair New Delhi, March 25(IANS) An exhibition and book entitled "Enchanting Journey" comprising 50 of landscape master Paresh Maity's works opens at the Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi Wednesday. Maity's Kerala brims with "Green Zen" - a softening of aesthetic qualities and a few limpid details of the landscape that is a result of two years of travel through the countryside. "Two years and a lot of silence and a lot of working hours have brought this show together," Maity said about his historic collection of large watercolours, some as big as 20 feet, in an interview to IANS.

By IANS, New Delhi : The price band in the online art auction market is gradually moving up and becoming more competitive - defying the downturn. The total lower and higher price estimates at India's leading online art gallery, Saffronart's summer auction June 10-11, are Rs.11 crore (US$2.3 million) and Rs.13.9 crore (US$3 million) respectively. Saffronart's chief operating officer and co-founder Dinesh Vazirani said the works have been competitively priced to allow serious collectors and first-time buyers bid for them.

By Uma Nair, IANS New Delhi : Will a whiff of caution touch the season's first Indian contemporary art auctions beginning September in New York? A dealer in Manhattan, who wishes to remain anonymous, prophesies that art prices will decline as a result of losses by hedge funds and other large contemporary art collectors in New York.

By IANS, Dhaka : Folk musicians of India and Bangladesh have decried westernisation of music in the two countries and the rest of South Asia and said that it was at the cost of the rich musical heritage of the region. Bangladesh's Mustafa Zaman Abbasi, who is a performer and researcher of Bhawaiyya folk music of Bengal, joined India's West Bengal-based Shukh Bilas Borma to decry this trend and to give a call to artistes to return to their roots.

By Neena Bhandari, IANS Sydney : Among the many Australian academics working on literary links with India now is self-confessed Indophile Ralph Crane, who is resurrecting the writings of a forgotten Anglo-Indian novelist Maud Diver. Diver (1867-1945), author of more than two dozen books, was a regular on the bestseller booklist in Britain during her lifetime. But like many women novelists of the Raj, her star faded while those of her male contemporaries - notably Rudyard Kipling - never waned.

By IANS Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala will soon get a taste of northeastern culture as it prepares to host a dance festival that brings together 800 artists from the various northeastern states. The eight-day festival starts here Feb 16 and will include short plays and an exhibition of northeastern handicrafts.

By IANS, Kuala Lumpur : The "Little Indias" across Malaysia are agog with social and business activities two days ahead of the Pongal festival celebrated by its two-million strong Tamil community. Much in demand are pots, sugarcane and turmeric plants to usher in the new Tamil month called Thai, with people unmindful of the economic downturn. "Despite fears that this year's celebration may be toned down due to the economic downturn, the scene here showed nothing to that extent," The Star newspaper said in a report from Klang Tuesday.

By IANS, New Delhi : Classical music exponent Pandit Bhimsen Joshi's family Wednesday celebrated the vocalist's nomination for the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. The 88-year-old maestro's son Srinivas Joshi said his father had accepted the award on behalf of all Indian vocalists and it was an honour for Indian classical music.

By IANS, Srinagar : As the news of Mehdi Hassan's death spread in Kashmir Wednesday, a pall of gloom descended on the artistic fraternity and ghazal lovers here.

By IANS, New Delhi : The capital is gearing up to welcome what could perhaps be the country's most eventful art season. The first of three back-to-back mega art events in the capital starts Wednesday. Global art auction house Christie's will get the ball rolling with a preview at the Imperial hotel here of a collection of South Asian modern and contemporary art for its Sep 26 New York auction. The preview will be followed by the country's first art fair on an international scale at the Pragati Maidan Aug 22-24 - the India Art Summit.

By IANS New York : Sotheby's evening sale of impressionist and modern art on Nov 7 will feature two spectacular works by Pablo Picasso. The finest sculpture by the artist to ever appear at auction, Tête de femme (Dora Maar) and La Lampe, an important work from 1931 that comes directly from the artist's family, will go under the hammer.

By IANS

New Delhi : The Indian capital is set to host a film festival on "gender and sexuality, identities and spaces" starting May 12, with works of several artistes from different parts of the world.