Emerging anew
|
Udbhava, an art endeavour, wishes to reach out to one and all
|
SKILFUL: A work from Chandranath Acharya's Shepherd series
The two-day exhibition of artworks, ArtReach, organised recently at the Varanashi House by UDBHAVA (a forum for urban design, built heritage, architecture and visual arts), put on show about 150 paintings and sculpture pieces by nearly forty established as well as upcoming artists of the city. UDBHAVA's aim is to create an alternative mode of reaching out art to people, by offering a platform for artists and art lovers to meet in a spirit of informality, interaction and networking.
Art market
The organisers feel that the art market is getting increasingly formal and far too expensive for most. They reckon that an event like ArtReach — where there would be a direct sale of paintings, sculptures, etc. on cost basis, with no commercial intentions — could provide a rare opportunity to appreciate works of established artists under a single roof and buy them (if one wanted to) at reasonable prices to adorn one's homes and offices.
The display of works in the appropriate context of a house `designed with an eye for openness, earthiness and cost effectiveness' was yet another highpoint sought to be achieved by the event.
Among the works in the exhibition were Chandranath Acharya's skillfully rendered Shepherd series, Suresh Jayaram's unembellished depiction of nature, S. Prakash Babu's lyrical watercolours, Devraj's multiple images encased in individual frames, Bharatesh's abstracts, R. Raja's mixed media work on reversed acrylic sheet, Hiran's pen and ink drawings and M.S. Amarnath's architectural and design oriented extracts.
Also on view were Srinivas Prasad's fibre glass sculpture, Lalita Shankar's bronze and Balan Nambiar's aluminum works.
UDBHAVA's objective to organise ArtReach in a faraway suburb was not only courageous but also worthy of appreciation. However, the `uniqueness' seemed more in terms of a rather unusual physical setting for the exhibition than in presenting a set of truly expressive, inspiring or stimulating art works.
Lacking in any specific theme or common thread to bind the paintings and sculpture pieces, the display turned out to be a somewhat random accumulation of work. In the process, most of the works flaunted familiar styles, techniques and construct of individual artists. Further, the presentation in some rooms/corridors was cluttered denying the visitor of real viewing pleasure. One hopes that the organisers would, in their future endeavours, pay more attention to aspects like proper display, thoughtful cataloguing and curatorial discretion.
Accessible art
Udbhava, which plans to have more such projects, promises to take care of the organisational costs like networking, safe packaging, transporting, refreshments, making handouts and so on. This cost has to be reimbursed by the participating groups. As most of the participants are expected to be clients and friends, Udbhava looks forward to personal rapport overriding collector or corporate buying.
To cater to first time buyers the cost of most of the works is suggested to be below Rs. 10,000 while large canvases and "better known works" will be priced at Rs. 20,000. The works have to be in a ready-to-display condition with the titles of the work, the size, price and the artist's contact number attached to them.
For details call Satya Prakash Varanashi on 98450 16781.
ATHREYA
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
