BABA AND BIBI AT ICONART

BABA AND BIBI

by Shymal Mukherjee

preview on 23rd Jan 2010

on till 3rd Feb2010

at

ICONART Gallery

www.iconart.in

email-iconartinfo@gmail.com

ph no 9849968797

 

Bibi and Baba

By Shyamal Mukherjee

Foreword

In his signature caricature style, Indian rusticity achieves a modern day interpretation in Shyamal Mukherjees art works. The immediacy of the robust forms with their bright orange , red ,green attires attire fill the frames end to end, may on first impression seem to achieve a comic , humorous end. But when one appraises a body of his work, these men and women titled simply as “Babas” and “Bibis” convey a sampling of Indian middle class life , especially artisans finding joy in the paradox of frugal living and their occupation of entertaining others . The body postures and eyes drawn into the chubby and plump rotund pudginess, profess an astuteness that comes from a life of patience and sustenance. These men and women as performers, with their entertainment paraphernalia of musical instruments and scrolls , within the context of gallery walls seem to poke satire as figures of entertainment for the viewer and as a means of livelihood for themselves, as artists . People painted in pairs or as larger family empathise each other with compassion, in this effort.



Dr.Avani Rao Gandra
curator

SPRING FRESH by Zuju Shareef

At ICONART Gallery

"Spring Fresh"

exhibition of paintings

by artist Zuju Shareef

preview on

16th Jan '10, 6.30 pm

Show on till 21st Jan '10

11.30a.m to 7 p.m

view exhibhition online on

www.iconart.in

ph no 9849968797

Dream And The Divine

Artist Saumya Bandhopadhyaya stretches the boundaries of his imagination into a pictorial that encompasses love in all its diverse elements-of love that is eternal,  enduring and endless, of love  between man and woman , of love between the divine and the human , of love between mother and child .

The artists excellent skill at realistic figuration compliment his dreamscape vision of charming women and princely men, in a fictitious playground of beauty and fantasy. Here is a generous play of fiction, the divine self of lord Krishna amidst fantastical winged men and women , of cherubic children , angelic and blessed, all set to play a honest game of  love  and worship .

The paradox of elements within the frame creates interest. The highly realistic human forms set in an illusory world, defying gravity, invent a certain lightness from the humdrum everyday day life. The sensuality of the human form pitted against the iconic image of the lord Krishna is another contradiction that calls forth a possibility of the unlikely coming together, as in life. Only the strong bonds of love are the  basic rudiments that seem to sustain all these differences .

Dr.Avani Rao Gandra

Man & Women...Between Divine And Mundane

It’s a mythopoetical world between man and woman, suspended in timelessness and a space that summons both the earthly and the heavenly. The organic rendering of the human form as nudes with swift strokes and inherent natural textures are reminiscent of nature. As earth bound trees , mountains ,rivers on one side and the luminous colours, more cosmic in symbolism recalling the bright sun, moon ,planets on the other end . At times more obvious, the woman as goddesses and man a gigantic , muscular presence and at times engaged in a sensitive play with each other or with other forms of nature such as birds, fish or flowers. This sensuousness tunes in and balances the ascetic expression of these human forms. Suspended in the humdrum of earthly life ,the body is treated as a sacred entity with philosophical notions of huger , desire , fulfillment , fertility , redemptive , short of extinction . Natural cycles of solar, lunar phases, vegetative cycles of trees and seasonal flow of river water , eternal rotations are symbolized as bright lush green of seasonal crop , white as purity of spirit and the warmth of brown earth and animal ,the blues of life giving water, the fiery yellows of the sacred fire, these are internalized in the body as cosmic energy .They are Lila , the divine play of lord Krishna with Radha . Innocent love, desire, reaching towards a higher self .


Dr .Avani Rao Gandra