While known best for its Nawabi andaaz and food, Hyderabad is gearing up for its first art festival. A concept, frequent in Delhi and Mumbai, the art camp called Symphony of Colours will involve artists from all over the country along with Hyderabadis.
The Department of Tourism and the Hyderabad Art Society are organising this camp on the occasion of Telangana Formation Day. 200 artists, young and established, will work on pieces inspired by the city and showcase their talent on June 1 at the Chitramayee State Gallery of Art, Madhapur.
Artists Seema Kohli and Prabhakar Kolte at the camp.
Dr. B Kumudini with her artwork
Priyanka Aelay adding hues to her work.
Big names including Thota Vaikuntam, Kavita Deuskar, Seema Kohli, Bairu Raghuram, and S.K.Sirajuddin will participate with younger talents like Sachin Jaltare, Anjani Reddy, Sidharth Shingade, C.H.Manohar, Suparna Mondal, Waheeda Ahmed, D. Jayaprakash, Tailor Srinivas, and Srinivasa Chary among others.
Vishal Joshi, artist from Mumbai, is surprised by the large participation of artists in the camp. “I keep meeting many artists from Hyderabad in exhibitions that are organised in Delhi and Mumbai. It’s nice to spend time with them in their home city,” he says.
Famous artist Prabhakar Kolte remembers his first art visit to Hyderabad. “I was studying in J J School of Art, Mumbai and we visited Hyderabad on a student tour in the year 1967. We toured around the city and did live drawings and paintings. I have good memories of the streets around the Charminar,” he says.
Another artist Dr. B Kumudini gave up her practice as a dentist to pursue art. She is participating in the camp and will paint Indian street food including popular Hyderabadi Irani chai, mirchi bhaji, Osmania biscuits and onion samosas.
While the camp has become one of the first platforms in the city for young, upcoming artists to showcase their work along with the bigger names, Ramana Reddy, the President of Hyderabad Art Society aims to work harder in the same direction. “When I was in Munich, Germany,” he recalls, “I was surprised to find that a city with population of nearly 1.2 million have close to 5,000 practicing artists! They had their own studios and constant Government support in terms of art festivals, residencies and workshops along with social benefits. This effort in Hyderabad is an attempt in the same direction to see that most of the talented artists do not get marginalised and have a constant opportunity to make a mark on the National scene. This camp is like a festival for the whole art fraternity,” he says.
