The 21st-century Kerala is becoming a better place for art, according to renowned painter-sculptor A Ramachandran. The state has moved forward by opening itself up to the larger world of art outside its geographical boundaries, but its visual arts sensibility has scope to become more active, the Padma Bhushan-winning septuagenarian said in the run-up to […]
The Homi Bhabha collection at Mumbai’s National Gallery of Modern Art. Photo: S. Kumar/Mint The “Aims and Objectives” section of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) website was so spot on, it took my breath away. It began with the usual stuff about acquiring, organizing and preserving art. It ended with the following […]
Artist A. Ramachandran at Durbar Hall Art Gallery, Kochi. Photo:Vipin Chandran Unlike in the Western world, India has never had a historic necessity to experiment with a genre that has come to be known as modern art, according to renowned painter-sculptor A. Ramachandran. “Ideally, our art should be advancing along a path that […]
Recently, auction house Christie’s announced it would hold its inaugural auction in India this December. It would be the first international auction house to conduct sales in India. In recent auctions, Sotheby’s sold a painting for $30 million, while Christie’s sold 66 paintings worth $495 million. These reports make one wonder about the benefits of […]
Karachi: Pakistani artists were quick to condemn the attack by Hindu extremists on an art gallery in Ahmedabad showcasing the work of Pakistani and Indian artists. But their Indian counterparts were not. Members of Bajrang Dal, an extremist youth organisation, ransacked the Amdavad Ni Gufa Art Gallery and destroyed the collection of paintings […]
The last few days of the current fiscal saw Indian art worth Rs 100 crore being auctioned at three separate venues over a few hours each, yet it failed to form part of what the cognoscenti consider the $6 billion luxury industry (minus real-estate). It’s not art alone that’s outside the purview of what is […]
The following essay is not about India, it is universal. But then India is part of this universe and, therefore, it applies to the dwarf copycats of India too. I am old-school so I actually STILL delude myself believing primacy always belongs to the artist. I always look for first-causes there. Mega-galleries must emit […]
Local artists protesting vandalism Defaced art work KOCHI — The Kochi-Muziris Biennale made worldwide headlines when it opened on December 12 — as India’s first biennale, the three-month long Kerala-based event signifies the area’s debut of a major international contemporary art platform. But on December 19, it received a different kind […]
Bihar and Kolkata plan major spaces By Gareth Harris | Web only Published online 5 Oct 11 (Museums) http://www.theartnewspaper.com Coming in 2014: the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art BIHAR. India’s sub-standard state museum infrastructure is set to be enhanced by plans for a new museum in Bihar, east India, scheduled to open in 2015. The […]
A collection of over 20 paintings by legendary artist M.F. Husain fetched $4.7 million at auctions held at the prestigious Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York. An auction held on Thursday at Sotheby’s of 11 masterpieces by late Husain fetched a total of $557,500 with one of his paintings Man with Sitar selling for $146,500. […]
