"Triparna".... by Sarang Hundiwala

'Triparna: Trinity of Art', an immersive experience where the ancient meets the modern, and spirituality converges with creativity. Inspired by the foundational element of three in Hindu mythology, artist Sarang's work embodies the Trimurti philosophy, symbolising the cyclical nature of existence and the interconnectedness of creation, preservation, and transformation. Sarang's artistry weaves a spellbinding tale of creation, preservation, and transformation, as the Trimurti philosophy comes alive in a kaleidoscope of colour and light revealing 'Glowing Connections' and 'Threefold Harmony'

"Embark on a journey through the 'Cycle of Wonder' with Sarang's 'Triparna' exhibition, where the sacred and the surreal blend in perfect harmony. Each artwork is a portal to a world of enchantment, inviting you to surrender to the magic of the Trimurti.

 

The Artist:  Sarang Hundiwala

"Meet Sarang, a young and visionary artist from Aurangabad, a city of rich cultural heritage, where the ancient rocks and caves have whispered stories of Hindu mythology and traditions. Sarang’s art is deeply rooted and inspired by the intricate carvings and sculptures of the Ellora Caves.

For him, art is not just a form of expression, but meditation, an instinct that flows from the depths of his being, a journey within. It's a language that transcends words, a bridge that connects the material and the spiritual. Believing that self-love is the foundation of true artistry, Sarang's work is a reflection of his inner world, a world where culture, mythology, and spirituality converge.

In the solitude of his studio, Sarang explores the vast expanse of India's cultural heritage, pouring his emotions onto the canvas in a symphony of lines, colours, and patterns. With over a decade of experience in exploring the realms of art, he has come to a realisation that the creative process is a sacred ritual, a dance between the artist and the universe. 

 

The Artwork: 

The collection of art works is a symphony of Zen art, Buddha's teachings, and temple architecture, harmonizing meditation, discipline, and beauty in a celestial dance. Inspired by the ancient principles of Zentangle, expressive shapes and lines are woven into hypnotic tapestries, teasing the boundaries of beauty and abstraction. Buddha paintings evoke the transcendent power of Zen art and mindful creativity, whispering the divine. Sacred geometry and temple architecture infuse the art with sculptural intricacies and poetic engineering, merging earthy and ethereal elements in a sublime alchemy. The mythological majesty of the Airavat, a mystical elephant symbolizing prosperity, recurs as a motif, its multiple trunks and shining white presence conjuring the magic of the transcendent. The fluid pose of Padmapani, in contrapposto, and the steadfast grace of Shakti, inspire this unique blend, as the art seamlessly integrates the dynamic and the serene.

VENUE:

Nehru Centre Art Gallery

Dr. Annie Besant Road

Worli, Mumbai 400 018

Timing: 11am to 7pm

"Interwoven Realms"...By Dhanashri Sujit Deshmukh

In a world where social, political, cultural and religious pursuits clash head-on with each other to result in total unrest;

A world where social distancing and social discrimination become analogous, the common human is like a rudder-less, sail-less boat caught in a tornado. Like Turner’s ship wrecks, the lives of the people today, are a reminder of storms endured, some staying afloat, others sunk to the pits of no return. In a disrupted, shattered world, art is the voice and the vision of contemporary reality. It breaks through veils of two-faced diaphanous sophistication, tears open the innards of itself, to reveal the broken, the wrecked, the enduring, the healing, indomitable Self. 

Untitled 4, Mixed media on Canvas, Size - 60"x 48", Year- July 2024

Untitled 6, Mixed media on Canvas, Size - 10"x 8", Year- Sep 2023

At the heart of the works of artist Dhanashri Deshmukh is a self-awareness which dons the cloak of abstraction. Seemingly autobiographical in nature, these works could be seen as self portraitures using a non-objective lexicon. It has been seen in art history that the non-objective/abstract lexicon became the chosen vocabulary of those artists who were silently protesting or dissenting a regime or a time or those who were repelled by the monotony of the known form/figure. The burden of form, shape and familiarity was shed and a new way forward was being broached by the Impressionists, the Cubists and the Surrealists. This is how the seeds of Abstract Expressionism took root, to be able to bring forth an artistic style which embodies the artist’s mind and the situation it is housed in, without the use of overtly figurative elements.   

Visually the works of Dhanashri may carry a sprinkling of Jackson Pollock’s heavily layered works, but in philosophy they stand with the deep, responsive works of Mark Rothko or the psychologically laden works of the Surrealists. The logic being, Dhanashri depicts her social/psychological/personal/political experiences through her works, without the aid of figuration. In doing so, she does use a number of unconventional elements like plasters, gauze, cloth, fabric, on the canvas to bring out the effects of wounds, scars and difficult thoughts. Some of the works hint at the concepts of Suprematism and Kazimir Malevich’s black square series. However mosaic like the works may appear, they draw our on a singular narrative which the artist herself strongly imprints on to her medium of expression.

 

Untitled 3, Mixed media on Canvas, Size - 4"x 4", Year- Jan 2024

Untitled 8, Mixed media on Canvas, Size - 2"x 2", Year- July 2023

In a society where an individual lives a fragmented life, playing numerous roles, social, political or personal, Dhanashri drives the imbalance and even the conflicts generated within her psyche into her work. These roles could be gentle and harmonious, yet create inner psychological conflicts, and even contrast with the very essence of freedom and the need to feel unburdened. The heaviness of the layers, the deep gashes on the gauze or plaster which gives deep relief to the works, the cuts, the slashes that one sees goes beyond a mere ‘texturising’ technique, bringing into focus the emotion with which they are made.  
Abstraction is an active process, the art is not just embedded only within the completed work, its relevance lies in the journey of reaching the said completion. Much like uncovering a fossil from the annals of the earth to be able to glean the living organism which walked the earth millions of years ago, abstraction is the process which is evolutionary and active through out its formation and beyond. Some times abstraction embeds itself in the thought behind the work, an ideology which is so ephemeral that it needs no ground to anchor itself upon. It can remain suspended in the realm between belief and disbelief. Abstraction in Dhanashri’s works suspends itself from such heights and depths. Like the unending roots of a plant in a lake, embedded deep within the soil under the water body, the artist’s works anchor deep within her mind and experiential repertoire to bring to the surface mere glimpses of her lived experiences.

Untitled 11, Mixed media on Canvas, Size - 60"x 48", Year- July 2024

Untitled 1, Mixed media on Canvas, Size - 70"x 60", Year- July 2024

In some of her recent works, the artist has chosen to use fabric to literally bandage the work, as if it were injured or wounded. This could be a view of how she interprets today’s world, the state of a societies which are ruptured and toggling between stability and instability, a kind of push and pull of expectations from any and every angle. The binding element of pure white holds this fragile fragmented human together, like a mummified existence of a live being, these works are more globally relevant than others, especially where wars and political, social, economic and civic unrest dominates. Dhanashri’s works begin to slowly become polemical when seen through this lens.  

Some of the works are held together by a thread, where the stitch could be a literal stitch of a wound or a mental one, as in a society holding on by a thread. As the onslaught of pandemics, political unrests, wars, economic dichotomies, intellectual and religious fanaticisms, take its toll on humans all over the world, Dhanashri’s works articulate these issues in the most subtle yet vociferous of ways.     

Artist: Dhanashri Sujit Deshmukh

 

It is important to mention the artist’s choice of palette, which is like that of an Impressionist’s; she chooses to engage with the light and dark, juxtaposed with the neutral and the murky. This positioning of light and dark shades alongside neutrality could be seen as a social, collective pursuit of a populace in search of light in dark, noncommittal times. It also could be seen as the intimate solitudinous journey of realising one’s true purpose in life. Dhanashri’s works throw light on the secrets embedded within any common person today, in doing so she reveals the contrasting multifarious layers of acceptance and dissent, revolt and conformity, despair and hope existing in today’s human beings. Like a lighthouse indicating land ahead to ships and boats at sea, artist Dhanashri Deshmukh’s works become beacons of light reassuring those who are floating in life trying to find their safe, firm ground.  

 Sushma Sabnis  

ArtCritic/Curator  

Mumbai

“Versova’s Edge: Chasing Shadows in Aaram Nagar”

Here, you come across strange faces—disheartened, frustrated, agitated, excited, curious, energetic, and overly enthusiastic. You can observe them passing through countless emotions in the span of a brief conversation. They roam in pursuit of something invisible, a desire that has left them weak, frail, and seemingly helpless.

Some have managed to cover some distance, while others stand at a crossroads, where a large "Zero Mile" billboard is mounted on a tall post right in the center. They wonder which path will lead them to the right destination, the elusive destination that remains unknown.

Versova, a corner of Andheri West in Mumbai, is a place artist have chosen for themselves. Why do artists seem to be so drawn to corners? Or perhaps it's the people who live in solitude, in their own private worlds... the loneliest people always choose the corners.

Nestled by the sea, this place humbly embraces all who come here. Artists find homes according to their means (by means, I refer to both economic and social standing). Every day, these individuals emerge from their little boxes (and by boxes, I don’t mean they live in unsuitable or unworthy rented places), adorning themselves in the best they have, filled with a profound sense of self- confidence. They smile at familiar, inconspicuous faces, wandering through the narrow lanes of Aram Nagar for hours. Each one presents themselves according to their own formula, and after achieving their respective equations, they scatter across the streets of Yari Road.

Everyone has found their own spots, where they can take stock of what transpired outside the good offices of those narrow lanes. Some are seen at Zameela, with the last sips of their day’s tea and the final puffs of their cigarettes, or perhaps at Sakina or Nagori, or sitting on the hard stones by the seashore—watching the sun sink into the sea. They find themselves comparing their existence to a metaphor, reflecting on the image that just played out before their eyes, caught in the dilemma of aligning the waves crashing against the shore with the silence that echoes within them.

Gradually, darkness begins to embrace the entire space (though patches of artificial lights still remain, don’t they?). Time passes, and suddenly, a familiar sensation, one we've known for million years, begins to knock at the door of our consciousness—hunger. This feeling must have baffled one of our ancestors when it first struck, stirring a strange restlessness within. They might have frantically run around, confused. Many of our people must have lost their lives before we could understand hunger and discover its remedy.

And then they return to their little spaces, locking themselves in a sense of predictable security, until the same sun pierces the ocean’s horizon and rises once again. Then, they wander through the markets with silent, longing, yearning eyes... Here and there, gestures of dance are exchanged in place of thought.

Written By: Shatrughan Kumar

Percepted face: The inner core of our own person-psyche... by Mr.Santosh Shirsat

 An attempt to find our existence-form gets start in the surrounding noise...

while observing our own daily movements, pause is taken at the origin of thoughts - the head and they with subtle movements start conversing in two dimensional surfaces...and taking the visual form the space journey begins... This is the journey of visual -compositions created by Mr. Santosh Shirsat... through his solo exhibition “the HEAD”, through which we can observe a different journey of his own and alternatively, that of every human being. A mind in a body moving in the world:: its coverings - with many unwanted coverings, the face begins to find its own form by taking the multi-dimensional somewhat moving form of the line... in the three vertical uneven divisions of space, simplicity conveys clarity; with the effect of grey colors, uneven somewhat kinetic line texture; faces are stabilized by bold black lines in a dynamic questioned-synthesis... The questioned journey for searching identity goes continuously on and on... 

Then in a similar continuity, the identity-seeking journey from the face to the mind goes in search to become somewhat freer, freer... Now all thatremains is space..., the free clarity of the tripartite division..., a somewhat found “identity” seeking to merge into it.. a tenuous but free relationship with space. Looking to become somewhat liquid with a light touch coating from the lines leading up to it... now the lines have covered themselves with lightly coated and the sensitivity of color is equality entered with light touch... a bit gentle translucent too... Now own face with a different perspective is found...; own unique identity... completely different from all others... not similar to anything... with their own uniqueness... the only one!... our own discovered true face.. our own person-psyche...! 

Dr. Gauri Kate

 

    Shirsat Santosh Pandurang

For the past two decades, the focus of my paintings has primarily been myself. In the beginning , the composition in the painting was an event, an incident that was stuck in mind, my desires, aspirations, lust, dreams were presented from the subject. 

Later on, the maximum space in the pictorial space started to be occupied by self-portrait. while painting that self-portrait, my facial features would also come, such as nose, head structure, curly hair, beard, ear-hair etc. these over-occupying faces sometimes depicted some subject specific element in the background, but secondary, with low contrast, dim. 

Lately only the face is depicted in the picture, the shape of the face remains the same and the ‘self’ in it is reduced. That face is not my own or that of a particular person or of a particular society, but it is only a human face. that face represents the human being. trying to express various emotions (sadness, compassion, fear, anxiety, anger , lust) through the depiction of this face. 

When portraying this face shape is becoming more linear. according to the words of my guru Mr. Prabhakar Kolte sir _ 

 “Don’t try to find a form, just go with formation” 

 I am more focused on the formation of that face.

Amrita Sher-Gil

 “Amrita Sher-Gil: The Passionate Quest” NGMA Mumbai

National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, and the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, Ministry of Culture, Government of India are happy to inform that a special exhibition, ‘AmritaSher-Gil: The Passionate Quest’, developed by NGMA New Delhi on the occasion of the closing of the birth centenary celebrations of Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941) will be inaugurated and thrown open to the public at NGMA Mumbai on the 31st of May 2014. It is for the first time that almost the entire NGMA collection of around 95 works of Amrita Sher-Gil will be showcased at the exhibition, including many paintings that have rarely been displayed before.

Amrita Sher-Gil

The works Amrita Sher-Gill produced during her short but prolific life combined brilliant details from the scenes of everyday life in India, and created a timeless monumentality. In a tragically brief career, Sher-Gil did much to introduce her country to the idea of the free-spirited artist, and to show her people that art could interpret Indian life for Indians

She came to India in 1921, drew inspiration from the exquisite little miniatures of Kangra and frescoes of Ajanta. The figures she drew with expressions on their faces were her own invention. Amrita’s paintings were not mere reproductions of what she saw around her but visions born out of the coordination of colour, design and emotion. Visit to South India inspired her to produce the most remarkable works such as "The Bride’s Toilette", “The Brahmacharis" and "South Indian Villagers going to Market". The Brahmacharis, which was painted in , is a fine example of her understanding of the Hindu faith which is still prevalent in the traditionalist South India. She is remembered for her paintings done just over a period of seven years. But the passion with which she handled the brush and the genius with which she combined her training in the West and her view of the East, made her most popular. The sincerity of her subject and the uses of colours bring to Amrita’s paintings a quality of timelessness. Most of her paintings reflect her love for the country and more importantly her response to the life of its people. She was the youngest among the pioneers of contemporary movement and the most short lived.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Mrs Pheroza Godrej, Chairperson Advisory Committee, NGMA Mumbai in the august presence of Dr Gieve Patel, eminent poet and painter and Ms Yashodhara Dalmia, Curator of the exhibition on 31st May 2014 at 6.00 PM at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai.
Pheroza Godrej in her inaugural address said “The richness of Amrita Sher-Gil’s visual language and experiments with form and composition have been sensitively analysed by the curator, Yashodhara Dalmia, who has approached the oeuvre from four different perspectives described as Threshold, Icon and Iconolastic, Hungarian Manifestation and Indian Journey. Mrs Pheroza Godrej thanked the curator Yashodhara Dalmia for her perceptive approach to Amrita Sher-Gil’s art. She also expressed her thanks and gratitude to Ms. Manju Singh, Chairperson and members of

Group of Three Girls, Oil on canvas, January 1935

the NGMA New Delhi Advisory Committee for their support in bringing this exhibition to NGMA Mumbai. She also acknowledged the support of the members of the Advisory Committee NGMA Mumbai and the sincere efforts of the entire NGMA, Mumbai team for making this exhibition a great success.
This impressive and arresting collection of her paintings is supplemented by an illuminating display of text and images titled, Remembering Amrita Sher-Gil. This focuses on the artistic genius and mercurial personality of Amrita Sher-Gil, which have a bearing on her paintings. To further contextualise Amrita Sher-Gil’s modernism, an audio-visual highlighting the European art scene in the early 20th century, conceptualised by Ella Datta, is an attraction to this significant show.

Nude Oil on canvas, 1933

Prof Rajeev Lochan Director NGMA New Delhi, who spearheaded the birth centenary celebrations of Amrita Sher-Gil said, “The complexity of Amrita Sher-Gil’s personality and the brilliant versatility of her work invite varied reactions. Viewers remark on the sensuousness of her representations, her sensitivity, her melancholy faces and her intimate projections of a female identity. And indeed all these readings are inescapably true. I am confident that this exhibition will recontextualise Amrita Sher-Gil and her work in our present times

Marking the inauguration of the exhibition here at NGMA Mumbai Shivaprasad Khened Director NGMA Mumbai said “Bold, unconventional, hugely talented and very beautiful – the painter Amrita Sher-Gil is the stuff that legends are made of. Her paintings reveal her training in the Western schools of art, but at the same time, reflect colourfully her love for India and her response to the life of its people”.

Mapping Amrita Sher-Gil’s genius, Yashodhara Dalmia said, “her fervent journey resulted in a successful melding of Eastern and Western traditions. This paved the way for modernism in Indian art and influenced generations of artists. Sher-Gil's immense achievement is commemorated in this exhibition which also marks her birth centenary year. The works map the journey from the genesis of her art to its triumphant culmination in the last period. This consists of the essential conditions of her paintings which can be traced to the training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, her return to India in 1934, the subsequent experiments in her work resulting from the exposure to Ajanta and Ellora and Indian miniatures as well as her last paintings which point towards another fruitful breakthrough. As Sher-Gil's attempts at modernity and loosening the shackles of academism became increasingly successful, she was to make iconic works which created a distinctive interweaving of Eastern and Western art.

“Amrita Sher-Gil flashed through the Indian artistic horizon like an incandescent meteor. Her place in the trajectory of Indian modern art is unquestionably pre eminent. Her aesthetic sensibility shows not surprisingly a blend of European and Indian elements. Her command over handling of oil medium and use of colour, as well as her vigorous brushwork and strong feeling for composition, all go towards giving a dazzling quality to her genius. Amrita Sher-Gil was already a legend as a young woman painter in the early thirties of the last century in the art world of India. This exhibition at NGMA Mumbai is accompanied by the release of a comprehensive catalogue with a lead essay by YashodharaDalmia.

The exhibition will be on view for public from 1.06.2014 to 30.06.2014 from 11 am – 6 PM, for a period of one month. (Except on Mondays and National holidays).

PRESS RELEASE
National Gallery of Modern Art
Sir Cowasji Jehangir Public Hall,
M G Road Mumbai 400032