What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough —Eugene Delacroix.
The week saw the annual art extravaganza in the form of Chitra Santhe. The 16th edition of the Chitra Santhe was nothing short of extravagant and colourful. This year’s edition saw over 2500 artists from all acorss the country. What was remarkable to see was that this time most of the participants were from Maharashtra. The word has spread wide about the fair and how nothing close to this exists anywhere in any city in India.
Avik, a gallerist of a Singapore-based gallery who visited the show said “With artists participating from all over India, this was a beautiful way of appreciating and spreading awareness in art to the masses. I was part of something similar in Singapore called as the affordable art fair,” he quotes. Speaking about the artwork, a lot of creative artworks were on display. One artwork featuring Narendra Modi in multiple avatars attracted a lot of crowd. One of the artists Santosh Khawale who came from Pune, said “The kind of enthusiasm and love for art in Bangaloreans is second to none. This is my second time and I am already looking forward to the next year.’. Another art show which is set to enthral the art lovers is ‘Kala for Vidya’. The Art show hosted by Rotary Club of Bangalore is an event which happens once every year. The show is curated by Soshan Soma of Art Loka. Proceeds of the show go towards the initiatives for education. This year, the funds raised from Kala for Vidya, will be utilised by the Rotary Club of Bangalore for renovating and refurbishing government run Anganwadis. This year the art show boasts of an impressive ensemble of artists. While the show is dominated by the most well-known artists of the city like Sg Vasudev, Gurudas Shenoy, G Subra, Milind Nayak, JMS Mani, Krishna Setty to name some, it also has some wonderful young artists and photographers like Vivek Mathew, Pallon Daruwalla, Ashu Gupta, Sujata, Sanjeev Rao to name some. Gurudas Shenoy has been on a roll recently. His style inimitably combines aspects of the traditional with the modern, and his work is driven by a deep interest in spatial experimentation — both two and three dimensional. Portraying spirituality and feminism, Sujata’s works are based on nature, affection, love, life, harmony, meditation, emotions and beauty, which are essential accessories to woman, she finds them incomplete without the feministic touch. Vivek Mathew and Pallon Daruwalla do justice to their work with their respective digital oeuvre. Milind Nayak and JMS Mani also have been at their phenomenal self. The first leg of Art show runs from Saturday January 12 at the Taj West End.
