Celebrating contemporary artists

Since most of us, me included, found fault with the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), for almost complete inaction over the last few years, we must also give praise where it is due.



The NGMA has been running its first retrospective of a contemporary artist, Atul Dodiya.

















The selection, curated by Ranjit Hoskote, was a treat to watch. Most of us are familiar with Atul Dodiya's work with rolling shutters.

The exhibition however was comprehensive, giving a glimpse into the thought process of the artist. I found particularly his Gandhi series very thought provoking and inspiring.

Golden Era

I went to an exhibition recently where the artist was perhaps trying to capture the golden forgotten days of his childhood.

Amit Dutt was exhibiting at the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, from his series "Art Sutra" (the closest expression would probably be "the meaning of art".

The paintings were on the theme of various traditional childhood games like "Lattoo" ( a spinning top), "Ludo" (a board game played with a dice, by two or four players), "pitthoo" (played with small flat stones stacked in a column, and with a rubber ball), and "Gilli-Danda" (played with two sticks, a long cylindrical one, and the other one short and rounded). These games are popular as amateur childhood sports in large parts of India and the sub-continent, and do not require much resources.

Here is an image of his composition, with the friends gaily playing "pitthoo".

There were also installations, all on the theme of various artifacts, tools and instruments of yester-years.
I specially liked the dressed-up gramophone:

Dilli O Dilli

Madhubani paintings refer to various distinctive and ritual art forms practices in the Mithila region of Northern Bihar.
I attended an exhibition of Madhubani paintings from "Traditional to Contemporary" curated by Manisha Jha, who was also one of the artists.
It was extremely refreshing to see Madhubani paintings where the artists while being true to the medium, and its heritage in terms of strokes and nuances, explored their individual creativity. The artists happened to be all women, and their works dealt with events in their lives, their issues, their gods and goddesses, as well as contemporary challenges, and surroundings.

This black and white composition called "Dilli 2" is by artist Manisha Jha :

The show is currently on at Rabindra Bhavan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.

Is that a trash can?

It was good to see the trash cans at Delhi's scenic and beloved Lodhi Gardens getting dressed up. Post the make-over, these trash cans are getting a huge response from delighted visitors.



http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/Vj9WihbVGOIAfewiBDr0IJ/Not-just-a-trash-can.html

In fact, trash cans were earlier hardly noticed, and sadly not used much at all. The new trash cans are practically begging to be noticed and used.



http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/bin-there-brush-that/article5336220.ece

Such initiatives may slowly just make the Delhi citizen more aware and appreciative of its public spaces. That would be a huge contribution by the dedicated band of artists led by creative entrepreneur Yogesh Saini. The group has set its sights on many more dustbins, and then painting and transforming the larger spaces in the city. There are walls, subways, school and college compounds, playgrounds and hospitals....so many places waiting to be dressed up...

A new ligament?

In today's world of advanced scans and MRIs, most of us would have been a little surprised to hear scientists had discovered a new body part: apparently we have one extra ligament in the knee we did not know about.



Source: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/11/06/your-knee-bones-connected-to-your-what-scientists-discover-new-body-part/

Time to pay homage to the great genius Leonardo Da Vinci:  We are still discovering how correct his drawings were, in all aspects including details of muscles, tendons and even blood vessels.

It was good to know about the Edinburgh International Festival, which showcased Da Vinci's distinctive anatomical drawings alongside modern day scans to show just how correct Da Vinci had been: 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/edinburgh-festival/9923336/Leonardo-da-Vinci-was-right-all-along-new-medical-scans-show.html

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-the-mechanics-of-man-QGPHH

In fact Leonardo is also venerated as the father of embryology by medical scientists. The study of the formation and maturity of the human foetus was totally unheard of in the time of Leonardo Da Vinci.

Colour Saffron

Saffron is widely used in Indian, Persian, Arab, Turkish and European cuisines. It is also used as a dye, and for its traditional healing properties. It is an autumn flowering plant, and saffron fields make a pretty sight, like this photograph in The Hindu newspaper today, of a girl plucking saffron flowers at a farm in Pampore, on the outskirts of Srinagar.

As per local legend, saffron first arrived in Kashmir in the 11th or 12th century AD, when two foreign and itinerant Sufi ascetics, Khwaja Masood Wali and Hazrat Sheikh Shariffudin, wandered into Kashmir. A tomb in Pampore is dedicated to the two saints. However, some scholars maintain that saffron has been grown in the Kashmir valley since two millennia, and came much earlier through Persian rulers or through trade routes.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_saffron

Here is an example of saffron being used to provide the yellow-orange hue, in a painting known for the earliest portrayal of Thomas Becket's murder in Canterbury Cathedral:



A huge amount of about half a kilogram of flowers are required to yield about 5 gm. of dried saffron. We know - from paintings again, as available in ancient palace frescoes - that monkeys helped in the picking of saffron flowers!

http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/258128?pkgids=86

https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/4303/1/The_Aegean_Garden.pdf

Say No to Crackers

"The National Green Tribunal has ordered relaxation of the firecracker noise norm in Bengal from 90 decibel at 5 metres from the source to the less stringent central standard of 125 decibel at 4 metres from the source. The green lobby and society at large had hailed the Bengal norm framed in 1997 as a pioneering effort to check noise pollution."

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130829/jsp/calcutta/story_17271527.jsp#.Um6VF_mVOHY

With all the discussion going around the topic, what caught my eye was this picture of school children participating in a rally against noise pollution and crackers in Kolkatta on Sunday. This sure was a pleasant way to protest.