SEEING the sad state of contemporary art, noted curator Sudhir Patwardhan, himself an artist, is organising a mega exhibition for art connoiseurs of Pune.
SEEING the sad state of contemporary art, noted curator Sudhir Patwardhan, himself an artist, is organising a mega exhibition for art connoiseurs of Pune.
This will be the first exhibition of its kind and will be inaugurated by noted political thinker and art critic Prof Ram Bapat at PGSR Hall in SNDT College on Karve Road.
Interestingly, Patwardhan is organising the exhibition, titled Expanding Horizons, in cities like Mumbai, Amravati, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Sholapur, Kolhapur and Nashik. According to him, contemporary Indian art is gaining recognition in the world today as a vibrant and significant movement.
"There is excitement and a sense of celebration about our art scene," he remarked. Patwardhan feels that the audience for contemporary art remains small despite the fact that art galleries and the scope and scale of their work is constantly growing.
"In an average middle class, college, the educated still remains woefully cut off from this contemporary visual treat," he opined. ''The reason is simple, they feel that this art is not made for them as they may not able to understand it."
According to Patwardhan, most writings about contemporary art are in English and this does not help the situation.
"Maharshtra has about 150 art colleges, but we are still deprived of artists," he said. This exhibition is an effort to promote the contemporary art sensibilities of 30 artists.
Artists
Francis Souza, Tyeb Mehta, Akbar Padamsee, A M Davierwalla, Ram Kumar, V S Gaitonde, Meera Mukherjee, Gulam Sheikh, Manjit Bawa, Nilima Sheikh, Arpita Singh, Bhupen Khakhar, K Laxma Goud, Zarina Hashmi, Prabhakar Barve, Sudhir Patwardhan, Gieve Patel, Rajender Dhhavan, Prabhakar Kolte, Jyoti Basu, Anju Dodia, Jitesh Kallat, Alex Mathew, Dilip Ranade, Subodh Gupte, Valsan Kolleri, N Pushpamala, Ranbir Kaleka, Atul Dondiya and N S Harsha.
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