“I don’t take notice of my body as I’m most often floating in the air. Anyone who wants to live long has to forget his body. Focus on what your mind wants and get involved.” – k g
Gaitonde. Guggenheim Museum, New York
V.S. Gaitonde. Shalini Saran
Photographs courtesy Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation, New York
In focus: the Gaitonde narrative Among Moderns, he is mythologized yet under-studied. Guggenheim offers a glimpse of his legacy through a retrospective
By: Sanjukta Sharma for Livemint.com
In December, at Christie’s first auction held in India, when a mustard-hued, resplendent work of oil on canvas by Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde fetched Rs.20.5 crore — an unparalleled auction price for an Indian artist — he made headlines. Before that, scholarship on and interest in Gaitonde’s art and life were limited. Around the same time, New York’s Solomon R Guggenheim Museum announced its retrospective of the artist.
Organized by Sandhini Poddar and Amara Antilla, adjunct curator and curatorial assistant, respectively, at the museum, the exhibition opens on 24 October with 45 works, including 30 works on canvas and 15 on paper—not a comprehensive show by any standard. Some of the works are not in the finest of conditions. But this is the first major platform through which Gaitonde will reach serious art lovers across the world.
Gaitonde’s fame in India is largely posthumous, and the major body of his work has not found a large enough platform for public viewing. A contemporary of the Progressives, “Gai”, as he was known to close friends such as F.N. Souza and Krishen Khanna, painted rigorously with a roller, and as such it is difficult to repair his works.
He is under-recognized and under studied, but mythologized in his country of birth. He is one of the most successful Indian Modernists at international auctions. His art defies categorization and can’t be understood merely as abstract or figurative art. In the most beautiful canvasses, his lines, swathes, colours intermingle to produce a deep, quiet and intoxicating expression of the self.
Poddar says the lack of bibliography was a challenge. She met various private collectors and visited public collections. “It was an opportunity to publish something substantial on him and bring a body of work together. We had to measure every painting ourselves, ensure the titles were correct. We found that the few books written on him are erroneous. So it was a mammoth undertaking, building a narrative from scratch.”
The show covers two periods of his life, the 1960s and 1980s, and it has works from Museum of Modern Art (Moma), New York, the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, the Devi Art Foundation and the Glenberra Museum in Japan, besides works from private collectors. After Poddar pitched the show to the curatorial team in New York, it took nearly two years before the show was decided. “We are committed to him as an unknown, someone who was such an important figure in his local art history but had not been valorized or studied and engaged on a global basis. Most big museums and art institutions in the West are now trying to achieve an in-depth understanding of certain artist protagonists from the non-Western world—taking up this revisionist history, of trying to fulfil gaps that have occurred in the canonization of art history,” Poddar says.
Meanwhile, his reclusive partner Mamta Saran, with whom Gaitonde spent the last few years of his life in Delhi, is working on a book on the artist, and Mumbai-based Bodhana, a publisher of books on Indian art, is bringing out another book to be authored by Meera Menezes and edited by Jerry Pinto. “Writing this book has been akin to piecing a giant jigsaw puzzle. At times I felt like a detective, ferreting out details and investigating leads. At others like an archaeologist, poring over shards and trying to make sense of them. Gaitonde’s reclusive nature engendered several myths about him and the few known vignettes of his life have been blown up to create an often misleading impression of who he really was,” says Menezes who first interviewed the artist in 1997. “Much is said about his reclusive and taciturn nature but he could also be gregarious with an impish sense of humour. He could be frugal but he also had an appreciation of the finer things in life. He loved classical music and was an epicure. He was also deeply spiritual.”
The Guggenheim show is a glimpse of the master—a repressed narrative finally finds utterance. Gaitonde’s legacy needs much more nurturing in the country of his birth. V.S. Gaitonde: Painting As Process, Painting As Life, from 24 October-11 February at Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York.
Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/DE8VxU7HMfWxghVyq9NRIN/In-focus-the-Gaitonde-narrative.html?utm_source=copy
The Bazaar Portrait – Ethnographic Photography Workshop
CONA कोना · Renuka Rajiv & Joey Behrens October 2014
7th Annual Photography Exhibition – 10th-15th October 2014 New Delhi
Announcing the 7th Annual Photography Exhibition 2013-14 from 10th – 15th October ’14! (11:00 AM – 8:00 PM)
Multiple Award-winning Indian photojournalist and an independent photographer, Pablo Bartholomew will be inaugurating the exhibition at 6 PM on 10th October and will also be sharing his extensive photographic experience.
Nam June Paik. Becoming Robot
Nam June Paik (1932-2006) is internationally recognized as the “father of video art.” Paik revolutionized technology’s relationship to both art and society through his efforts to expand the boundaries of visual language.
The exhibition Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot will focus on the artist’s interest in “humanizing technology and looking at how the artist melded technology, fine art, and popular culture to really transform the way we view the world,” says curator Michelle Yun. This exhibition will not only showcase Paik’s progress and developments as an artist, it will also feature many works that have rarely been seen in the United States.
Viewers will be able to experience an interactive and engaging display, as Paik intended. Yun states that “viewers will really get a glimpse into Nam June Paik’s world and into his brain . . . to feel how dynamic and provocative he was.”
Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot will be on view at Asia Society Museum in New York City from September 5, 2014, through January 4, 2015.
Conflict and Compassion. Asia Triennial Manchester – Alnoor Mitha
The third edition of the Asia Triennial Manchester (ATM14), the only Asian Art Triennial outside of the Asia Pacific Region, launched on September 27 with a program featuring 54 artists from 12 countries across 14 venues throughout the City of Manchester.
ATM14 is an initiative of the Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University (MIRIAD) which aims to challenge stereotypical viewpoints of contemporary Asian practice by staging exhibitions, commissions, and interventions by UK and international artists.
The ATM14 theme of “Conflict and Compassion” investigates whether the role of the 21st century artist or curator involves providing a voice for the unheard, conveying a message to the dominant, or demonstrating some kind of sympathetic values.
According to Alnoor Mitha, Artistic Director of ATM, “ATM14 aims to challenge perceptions about Asia and with the recent challenging global events, makes its theme of Conflict and Compassion a timely one. This Triennial includes artists who live in, work in or address issues surrounding Asia as well as this Triennial’s artistic theme. “
To find out more about ATM14 and status of Asian art in the UK, BLOUIN ARTINFO got in touch with Alnoor Mitha and asked him a few questions.
Manchester would not seem the obvious choice for the location of a major showcase of Asian art. Why stage such an event in Manchester?
In my view Manchester is the perfect location to stage the Asia Triennial. Manchester has historical connections with Asia in the context of trade, historical migration routes, international exchange of students, and the growth of talent in popular music and fashion industries. Manchester is an important Northern cultural hub, it has a strong entrepreneurial past and a “can do” culture of making things happen. It boasts a diversity of people and over 150 languages are spoken in the city. All of this makes Manchester the centre for new growth and building new ideas where one can experiment through creativity. The creative spirit is part of Manchester’s strength.
What differentiates ATM from the other major Asian art triennials and biennials around the world?
The ATM is a very different and inclusive model of collaboration and working with key partner curators. During 2008, the inaugural triennial, the idea was to work closely with venue curators and bring them on board so we could work together. The ATM model is very simple: curators respond to the artistic theme that I have formulated and work with either an artist/s, artist groups or other networks to bring new ideas about contemporary Asian visual cultures. This gives new opportunities for research, knowledge and exchange of ideas. We meet regularly with my ATM freelance team who are specifically contracted to support the festival. The ATM team consists of a Project Manager, Marketing and Press Manager and a fundraiser to support the partners as well as generate a viable framework to work with. During 2008, we only had six partners including MIRIAD, Manchester Art School, part of Manchester Metropolitan University. From the outset it’s been important to have the university to support the project.
What was the inspiration behind the “Conflict and Compassion” theme of ATM14?
We are living in a challenging period – I mean we are literarily at War! The 21st century will always be remembered as a century that embraced both Conflict and Compassion. At the end of the day, we are dealing with human emotions, and the theme is very appropriate and emotive. Human beings are capable of killing each other, not least the horrific things that we continue to witness, be it war, children killing each other or an act of a violent crime. On the other hand we have also witnessed, extraordinary compassion often given to people in hospitals or people forgiving criminals who have committed terrible crimes. In many ways this makes us different to the animal kingdom?
Which artist/artwork was the starting point for ATM14?
I think the theme was the starting point, it created the perfect backdrop for artists to respond to a compelling subject matter. The Indian artist Nalini Malani was also an inspiration. I have followed her career for over two decades. Dwelling on the threshold between visible and invisible, recent history and its shadows, Nalini Malani’s work can be said to hold on to the mythological tradition at large; by appropriating both Eastern and Western myths, Malani transforms her own social and historical experience into the visual idioms of a language that is shared and personal at the same time.’ (Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, “In Search of Vanished Blood,” 2012, Hatje Cantz, p.8)
This work is the single channel version of Nalini Malani’s large-scale multi-media ‘video/shadow play,’ “In Search of Vanished Blood,“ 2012 that featured in dOCUMENTA (13). The latter work consists of six video channels with five rotating reverse painted Mylar cylinders. The artist is widely considered the pioneer of experimental video art in India and one of the foremost artists working internationally in the field of inter-media and inter-disciplinary practice. “In Search of Vanished Blood” further extends Malani’s considered exploration of violence, the regenerative power of myth, the feminine voice, and the geo-politics of national identity.
“In Search of Vanished Blood” is titled after the 1965 Urdu poem “Lahu Ka Surag” and references the novel “Cassandra,” 1984, by Christa Wolf as well as Rainer Maria Rilke’s book, “The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge,” 1910. The soundscape comprises collaged texts from Heiner Muller’s “Hamletmachine,” 1977, Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape, 1958 and Gayatri Spivak’s 1997 translation into English of the story “Draupadi” by writer Mahasweta Devi. While referencing the place of women in Indian society, this work translates across cultures and time to other contexts and conditions in its interrogation of issues relating to justice, gender, and their representation.
Born in Karachi the year before the partition of the Indian Subcontinent, Malani’s own history of displacement as a refugee deeply informs her practice. Her work is dedicated to the possibility of change in the uncertain and urgent space where social activism, history and artistic forces coalesce. Trained as a painter, Malani’s early studio practice saw her collaborate with theatre directors, dancers and poets, before studying philosophy and linguistics in Paris with Chomsky, Althusser, and Barthes. Malani draws on personal narratives as well as literature, theatre, music, song, poetry and the stories of individuals marginalised or excluded from the cannons of politics, literature and history. In her video/shadow plays, these intimate and often traumatic stories become entwined within a complex layering of immersive pictorial space that embraces both the memorial and the aural. The artist draws on early Italian Renaissance painting cycles and South Asian traditions of reverse painting, alongside more recent techniques of animation and proto-cinematic projection. Malani notes, “Memory is what you are, past is in the present and in the future.”(Malani quoted in Jyoti Dhar, “In the Heart of Darkness: Nalini Malani” in ArtAsiaPacific, 84, July/Aug 2013 p.63)
How has the Asian art scene in Manchester and the UK changed since the first Asia Triennial Manchester in 2008?
I think it’s made Manchester and the UK connect internationally with the Biennial/Triennial culture. We have received a lot of support from artists, curators, academics, students and audiences to bring the international to the local art scene. In my view Manchester has played an important role as the city for culture and the city that understand culture, embracing new artistic visual narratives and identities making the city an important tourist destination. I mean through the ATM, people can see art, architecture, meet local people, eat at our amazing restaurants, enjoy the night life and various other local country side locations. What more can you ask for! It’s simply Manchester magic!
Have you noticed any trends or common threads that link the artists in the exhibition, other than their response to the main theme of the event?
Yes, this year artists were invited to investigate whether the role of the 21st century artist or curator may be, in part, to provide a voice for the unheard, a message to the dominant, or even to demonstrate some kind of sympathetic vision of values through the visual. This theme provided a platform for artists to explore the ethical and political implications of war and conflict from an Asian perspective. In addition, we collaborated with the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art to curate an outstanding exhibition from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong to present over 30 artists. The remarkable point here was that although many of the artists were not able to communicate in one particular language be it English or the other, we were all able to connect with the visual cultures that was an amazing similarity. The power of Art and the power of presenting the works in different locations brought a distinctive newness to the ATM.
Which works in ATM14 are you most excited about?
I think this year we have surprised ourselves, as the ATM has been bold, and ambitious. With exhibitions at key clusters including Touchstone Rochdale and Bury Sculpture Centre, Manchester City Centre and at the IWM North in Trafford, it has been an extraordinary festival with 54 artists, from 12 countries and 14 venues! The most ambitious artist work that I curated is Bashir Makhoul’s installation, “The Genie.” It is provocative, with ordinary boxes almost suspended like a mountain of heaven or indeed hell for people who may live in these ordinary card board boxes, what does the artist say? I think this is Art at its most powerful point, the boxes are puncture with holes made by sharp knives, they remind us of destruction, the ongoing wars, the human conflicts, the sky attar and so on……
What do you hope to achieve with ATM14?
I hope people are able to look at the commissioned art, and see all the other events related to the ATM including the unique film programme at Cornerhouse. We are at war and artists are responding through the power of Art, please go and see it and make your own mind up……..
ATM14 is in Manchester until November 23. View the full program here.
Ranbir Kaleka – Bid to Build for Jammu and Kashmir
StoryLTD is hosting a charity auction in association with Aditya Birla Group, in and Habitat for Humanity: Jammu and Kashmir Bid to Build. The encourages people to step in and contribute to the cause of rebuilding the homes and lives of those affected in the recent J&K floods.
Bid on this beautiful artwork by Ranbir Kaleka : ‘The Great Topiarist’s Astonishing Dilemma’
View the catalogue and register here: http://goo.gl/pNEZih
Ranbir Kaleka
Nalini Malani – St. Moritz Lifetime Achievement Award
Congratulations to Volte artist Nalini Malani on winning the coveted St. Moritz Art Masters Lifetime Achievement Award created by Cartier.
open space art forum india 