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Classics Or Kitsch?

Published: Volume 13, Issue 4, July-August, 2005

Anchored in the melas of small towns and villages, bazaar photography – essentially an Indian tradition – supplied us with snapshots of people who modelled in front of what they considered to be fantasy or aspirational backdrops!

Inspired reinterpretations of a master and light-spangled landscapes…abstract art and acrylic creations....Deepali Nandwani revels in the multi-hued offerings on show

Verve Close Up
Raja Ravi Varma
The Museum Gallery

Almost a century after he died, contemporary painters rediscovered Raja Ravi Varma, the master of the Raj-inspired academic realism and figurative paintings. Within this last century, Varma has been applauded for his fine works, run down for being nothing more than a calendar artist, ultimately to be resuscitated and reinterpreted by modern artists.

Raja Ravi Varma: a Tribute to Realism, an evocative show put together by Raghu Vyas, Delhi-based painter, film-maker and sculptor, had artists like Thota Vaikuntam, Jaideep Mehrotra, Suhas Roy and Nayanaa Kanodia reinterpret Varma’s art by using imagery he often used, but in their own peculiar style. “Realism is often ignored by contemporary artists and Varma’s paintings still get some of the highest bids,” states Vyas.

Rajeswara Rao
Sakshi Gallery

Artist, Rajeswara Rao, lives on the periphery of Hyderabad, where, in the last few years, paddy and rice fields have made way for fancy farmhouses. The change that sudden money creates in the lives of simple people formed the crux of this fascinating show, titled Incognito. Painted on the reverse side of acrylic sheets, the works were actually inspired by bazaar photography, a style in which gaudily dressed men and women posed next to tacky cut-outs or backdrops of a car, bike and sometimes, even a dilapidated Mughal monument. Anchored in the melas of small towns and villages, bazaar photography – essentially an Indian tradition – supplied us with snapshots of people who modelled in front of what they considered to be fantasy or aspirational backdrops!

Verve Vantage View

Twelve artists put together works that represented the changing Mumbai landscape, where the dream of turning the city into another Shanghai is ensuring that people who live in slums are pushed out, to the fringes of the metropolis. Titled Mumbai to Shanghai and held at the Kalakriti Art Gallery, the exhibition, which included paintings, photographs and installations, took a light-hearted view of Mumbai politicos’ current obsession. Prashant Hirlekar’s paper installation, crafted from shocking pink and silver coloured mithai paper, masquerades as kitschy roadside ads.

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