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“From Buddha to Nanak”
at
Arpana Fine Arts Museum
Arpana
Caur’s subjects range from Ecology, communal violence,
socio-economic disparities, Time, and the spiritual way. For
this exhibition relevant works have been selected from this
permanent collection. A deep humanism pervades her works, which
render the figure with the degree of abstraction that is very
contemporary.
For the
spiritual in visual art we have thousands of years of precedent
imagery. To adapt this contemporarily is the challenge. Take her
‘Green Circle’ as an example. If Sita’s circle was drawn around
her she today draws it herself, a green circle for she was a
daughter of the earth, and the earth needs saving. In the Baba
Nanak, Kabir, and Budha series the departure from the calendar
imagery is obvious. The black background offsets and enhances
the luminosity of their being, however unconventional this may
seem.
The Yogi
and Yogini’s search is for the Beyond, beyond Time and beyond
the reality of flesh and bone.
In the
love legend of Sohni and Mahiwal the Sufi view of all forms of
love connecting one to the Divine is symbolized by the plug.
Scales symbolize worldly parameters, for the Search transcends
all measures.
An effort has been made to integrate the
old and eternal with the new, much like the reality of
our times, the here and now with the Beyond.
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"Miniatures an Indian
Tradition"
at The Miniatures Museum
The nearly 400 paintings in this Museum are the exclusive
collection of Ajeet and Arpana Caur, registered with ASI, restored
by Deepshikha Kalsi and compiled in a 261 page book by P.C. Jain.
The Museum has a very rich section of Sikh paintings mostly
Janamsakhis, the life stories of Guru Nanak. There are also Mughals
and Decani,
Kashmir,
Rajasthani and Pahari paintings, the Company school, and a section
of popular prints.
Arpana Caur who seeks for her own paintings themes, forms
and inspiration in tradition, often of miniature painting, believed
that this invaluable treasure would inspire, benefit and delight
many artists, art connoisseurs and scholars, and hence deserved to
be displayed. Whatever incidental conservation, documentation,
mounting, framing… necessary was accomplished before the objects
were put on display. Not many private collectors, individuals or
institutions, are known to have such a unique treasure, impressive
display and documentation of this level.
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“A Panorama of Sacred Images”
at
Tribal and Folk Art Museum
Our rural art and craft tradition has been alive, in
anonymity, for centuries. Some who were wall painters adapted
to paper for the need of the day under the guidance of very
few patrons and intellectuals in post independence
India.
The past decade has seen growing recognition of these
threatened art for me through the setting up of a handful of
museums by the government. The more individual efforts there
are, the more will be the sustenance to these threatened forms
pulsating with life and energy. So here is a 30-year old
collection documented and set up as a museum with 600
paintings and sculptures on permanent display. From the beaten
metal human and animal, to Dhokra casting, to even
contemporary themes like Tsunami, Aids Hiroshima, Osama and
even the great Hindu epics painted with great reverence by
muslim artists, to the strange Budha heads of Cambodia to
Egyptian and Turkish vessels. The Academy of Fine Arts and
Literature gives yearly scholarships of at least three folk
and contemporary artists simultaneously, for these are truly
the magicians of the earth.
Academy
of Fine Arts and Literature, founded in 1975 by eminent
Punjabi writer Ajeet Cour began with free vocational training
classes for underprivileged women and children, which are run
without any sponsorship. These skills that enable them to get
jobs quickly include stitching, embroidery, beauty culture,
textile printing, computers, etc, beside painting and dance.
There is a free library and reading room with books in English
and Indian languages, a highly subsidised cafeteria, a large
temporary exhibition space and three Museums, of Miniatures,
Folk and Tribal Arts, and Arpana Caur’s work. Two decades ago
the Academy pioneered the first ever SAARC Writers Conferences
in India and SAARC countries, which have become a popular
meeting ground, at least six in an year, and publishes a
quarterly journal ‘Beyond Borders’ besides books of SAARC
writers. It held the first SAARC Folklore Festival spread all
over the city in 2007. Since over two decades, last Saturday
is a poetry meet ‘Dialogue’, in English and Indian regional
languages, and also with visiting international poets. The
Academy activity engages in protection of monuments in Delhi.
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"The Buddha in Beijing & Dharamsala"
an exhibition of modern Tibetan
paintings by Sonam Lhandup – Samchung
Sonam was born in
Kham, eastern Tibet, in 1976. He received his education in China
from elementary to high school. As an Art Major, Sonam studied art
theory, oil painting, Chinese calligraphy, painting and poetry at
the Central University for Nationalities (Beijing) from 1993 to
1997. He continued his studies at Sichuan Normal University from
1997 to 2001 in oil painting, western art history and philosophy. He
has been in Dharamsala since 2003, studying Buddhism, Tibetan
language and Tibetan art history while he devotes himself to art
creation.
Sonam has
participated in numerous group exhibits during his years as a
student in China and has also held solo exhibits in Tibet and India.
He currently has a major exhibit at the Tibetan Pavilion in
Auroville, Pondicherry.
See some of his work at
http://www.bodpa.com/gallery.php
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“Everywhere and Nowhere”
an exhibition of American artists that investigates the spiritual and religious temperament in current American art.
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