Spotlight on an important 20th-century painter

Vasily Kandinsky, considered a pioneer of abstraction, believed that a painter’s job was to honestly reveal and convey his own inner world, instead of simply imitating the natural world.

The renowned Russian printmaker, painter, decorative artist, theorist and stage designer was one of the key figures in the development of 20th-century art, the transition to abstract from representational art, in particular. Kandinsky was known to work in a wide array of media. Also a teacher and theoretician, he spent his time mainly outside Russia. However, his Russian heritage remained a vital factor in his artistic development.

The painter had been closely linked to the Guggenheim Museum's history, as it proudly claims on eve of a new showcase. For instance, artist, art advisor, and its first director, Hilla Rebay, promoted non-objective painting above all other forms of abstraction. She happened to be particularly inspired by the writing and work of Kandinsky (born 1866, Moscow; died 1944, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France). The museum’s holdings have steadily grown to include over 150 works by Kandinsky, and focused exhibits of his artworks are regularly presented in the Kandinsky Gallery.

‘Kandinsky 1911–1913’, the current installation, highlights paintings completed at the moment he made rapid strides toward total abstraction and published his aesthetic treatise, ‘On the Spiritual in Art’ (1911, though dated 1912). Also featured are works by Robert Delaunay and Franz Marc exhibited alongside the work of Kandinsky and others in the landmark 1912 Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) show at Munich's Moderne Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser.

An internationally renowned art museum and one of the most significant architectural icons of the 20th century, the Guggenheim Museum serves both as a cultural center and an educational institution. Visitors can experience special exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, lectures by artists and critics, performances and film screenings, and daily tours of the galleries. Founded on a collection of early modern masterpieces, it has established itself as an ever-evolving institution devoted to the art of the 20th century and beyond.

Art lovers relish browsing works ‘virtually’

While nothing really will beat viewing a work of art in real life and real time, the ability of examining it virtually to a finer level of detail apparently seems to be prompting visitors to linger around, as the Google Art Project indicates. Roughly one minute is the time spent on an average looking at a painting hosted on the Art Project site in comparison to just under 20 seconds in a museum (according to studies). A blog post by Amit Sood of Google Cultural Institute makes the following points:

• Viewings of user galleries were in fact higher than any individual artist or painting. To date, 360,000 galleries have been created, 14,000 of which are public on the web. To mark World Art Day, we asked some of our partners to curate user galleries of their own. Take a look through the selections of eight museum directors here.
• Given the list above, it’s clear the classics remain popular with viewers, but there is increasing interest in modern art as well, with Dali and Klimt featuring among the most searched for artists. The Internet has also allowed users to explore multiple genres in a single destination. More than 30 different mediums co-exist on Art Project with oil on canvas next to over 5,000 objects including silk textiles, sculptures and furniture. There can't be many places where you can find Brazilian street art alongside Botticelli.
• Many partners who have contributed an art collection have also opted to put their museums on Street View. On average, visitors spend around two minutes exploring the interior of the buildings and viewing the paintings on display. The most-visited Street View destination on Art Project is The White House. As the majority of us will never get the opportunity to go inside, the Internet allows a rare glimpse into a global institution that also houses an extensive art collection.

With over 200 partners from more than 40.countries, Google continues its quest to make art accessible to professionals, students, amateur enthusiasts, and beginners. It also holds Art Talks series on its G+ page that looks to put people in touch with experts online.

Significance of the World Art Day

There are so many special days we’ve to celebrate all through the year: Peace Day, Women’s Day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Worker’s Day, Theater Day, Valentines’ Day, and so on. However, we didn’t have any special day for art, which would unite the realm of creativity. In April 2011, the 17th General Assembly of AIAP / IAA World, while holding a meet (World Art Associations formed in 1954) voted the proposal put forward by Turkey, co-signed by many of the world delegate countries to accept the Leonardo da Vinci’s birth anniversary (April 15) as the ‘World Art Day’.

The official WAD site notes: “Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is one of the greatest men of all times. Although he is known as one of the three most important artists of the High Renaissance, he has been a contemplative and creative thinker, an inventor as much as an artist, a genius by any standards.”

The celebrations started on April 15, 2012. The idea was to help spread ‘art awareness’ throughout the globe. The International Association of Art, IAA/AIAP, is an NGO in operational relationship with UNESCO comprising artists, who practise  painting, sculpturing, printmaking and  other forms of creative work in the visual arts.

The Internet giant, Google, also joined the World Art Day celebrations. An official blog post noted: “It's about two years since we launched Google Art Project. The Internet brings paintings to life and it seems that The Starry Night by van Gogh is the one that visitors to Art Project admire the most. In the past six months, this was the most viewed painting in gigapixel—an extremely high resolution painting which allows viewers to zoom in to brushstroke level.”

Google Art Project has no less than 40,000 artworks, and some of the ‘perennial favorites’ in user galleries are:

•    Botticelli: The Birth of Venus
•    Rembrandt: Self Portrait Drawing at a Window
•    van Gogh: The Bedroom
•    Manet: In the Conservatory
•    Bruegel (the Elder): The Harvesters
•    van Gogh: Sunflowers
•    Holbein (the Younger): The Ambassadors
•    van Gogh: Field with Flowers near Arles
•    Böcklin: The Isle of the Dead

‘The Starry Night’ is the most frequently included painting in user galleries, wherein individuals create and share their own virtual art collections.

A group show of Indian art in Dubai

Keeping in mind the cosmopolitan nature of Dubai, ProArt Gallery offers more than 200 artworks from 15 different countries. One can acquire lithographs, paintings and sculptures from masters such as Picasso, Dali, Chagall, Botero, Husain, Souza, Arman, Gen Paul, Dufy, Buffet, Hilaire, Marino Marini, Zao Wou-Ki, Romero Britto – just to name a few. 

Founded by the FAURE family, ProArt Gallery is providing an art market with unique types of works, which were not yet available in the UAE. Tatiana Faure, the director PROART, states:” An art Gallery plays a very important role in shaping up the society by providing people with proper understanding and appreciation of both creativity and culture.

In its endeavor to celebrate innovative art and collectibles, it just recently promoted the ‘Colors of Art Show of Indian Contemporary Art” that comprised the works of a selection of young Indian practitioners. The exhibition displayed over 40 art works and will showcase the paintings by over 15 Indian senior as well as known young artists like Ami Patel, Ompal Sasanwal, and Bhuwan Silhare to name a few to highlight how Indian contemporary art has spread its wings to a new display terrain where art connoisseurs and collectors are set for a visual treat.

A strong sense of design is also a characteristic of Indian art and can be observed in most of the artworks on display in different modern as well as in the traditional forms at the exhibition. Speaking on the eve of its new exhibition, the director elaborated:”This is the second year for an Indian exhibition and I’m sure once again our artists hailing from India would set a benchmark of high standards for its diverse cultural moorings and expressions.” The gallery is located at Palm Strip Shopping Mall on Jumeirah Beach Road. The Indian art exhibition was held in collaboration with Artland Gallery, Mumbai.

'Museums provide a touch of authenticity.'

Thomas P Campbell has been in charge of the world-renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2009. Among the most prestigious international art institutions worldwide, it houses close to two million exquisite pieces and works of art, spanning over nearly 5,000 years of global culture and heritage. The art expert was on his debut visit to the country. In an elaborate interview with Madhavi Rajadhyaksha of TOI, he spoke about the relevance and importance of museums in backdrop of the technological advances and his engagement with India:

• Technology is one of the most exciting things to have happened to museums today. However, one has to be careful about where one uses it. For instance, the internet provides an incredible opportunity for us to reach audiences around the world and further our educational mission. The Metropolitan Museum has all of the collections online, apart from the scholarly publications and catalogs since 1965.
  
•  Where you’ve to be careful is introducing technology in the galleries because you want people looking at the objects, not the video screens. You want people to be in heads-up, not heads-down mode. I think the notion that museums are under threat because of technology is a total red herring. On the contrary, we live in an age of 24x7 newsreels, ins-tant information from around the world.
  
• Museums are all the more important as places that can help explain the context of current affairs. They provide places of relaxation and inspiration. Most importantly, they’re a place of authenticity. We live in a world of reproductions — the objects in museums are real - a way to get away from the overload of digital technology.
  
• We’ve just signed an MoU with the Indian ministry of culture that will hopefully be the umbrella under which we work on a number of projects with India. One of the first initiatives involves bringing conservators from Indian museums to the Metropolitan to train and work on areas of mutual study. We've had exhibitions involving Indian art like 'Wonders of The Age' showing Indian manuscript paintings. We did up the new Islamic galleries that have plenty of Indian art.

Contrivance promotes contemporary art and artists from West Bengal

A group from Bengal promotes contemporary art and artists

A group exhibit of paintings, graphics, sculptures and drawings done by the 'Contrivance' members was just held at the Nehru Centre Art Gallery, Mumbai.

'Contrivance' is a group of several talented contemporary artists fro, the state of West Bengal. It has come to be known as an innovative and creative coterie from Kolkata, revolving around contemporary art practices over time. 'Contrivance' celebrated 35 years of its fruitful journey through this show at Nehru Centre Art Gallery.

The artists who participated in this show were Ajay Das, Bikas Mukherjee, Avinash Biswas,  Dipankar Mukherjee, Malay Dutta, Mohi Paul, Joydeep Chatterjee, Nirmal Kumar Mallick, Pradip Sur, Srimanta Das, Nripen Nath, Sudip Saha, Swapan Denra, Sushanta Roy, Tanushree Ghosh, and Swarup Nandi.

The exhibition, as mentioned above, showcased work done in different forms, techniques and media by its members all presented on a common platform to let the viewer understand their vibrancy and diversity. They stood for myriad and mystical artistic expressions in oil, acrylic, watercolors, and charcoal apart from sculptures done in bronze and marble

Contrivance is a group of enthusiastic and multi-faceted artists who come from contrasting backgrounds and cultures, albeit with a common aim. Its founders and other members organize painting and sculpture shows in different galleries so as to promote art and artists. The nine enthusiastic young members who have effectively propagated art are Ajay Das, Dipak Ghosh, Bikas Mukherjee, Gopinath Roy, Mohi Paul, Kamal Sen, Pradip Sur, Tarun Ghosh, and Samir Mandal. They all have made immense contribution to this timeless and fruitful journey.

A TOI news report highlighted key features of the group and the show to mention that the works on view encompassed the spirit of modernism and Indian ethos, exuding both elegance and lively expressions.  It added: “These works encourage the understanding of modern art vis-a-vis the varied facets of contemporary art in different mediums and styles - for realistic work, abstract, landscapes, figurative works, portraits etc.”

Life and of Manisha Gera Baswani

Having done her post graduation (Fine Arts) from the Jamia Millia Islamia University, Manisha Gera Baswani later studied in Paris on the French Government Scholarship. A National Scholarship recipient for young emerging artists, she also secured Junior Fellowship. Between 1994 and 96, she worked as a Senior Artist at IGNCA (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts) for a Multi-Media project under the supervision of Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan on Jayadeva’s 13th century poem, Gita Govinda. The project was hosted at some prominent museums around the world.

About four years ago, the artist was instrumental in launching a creative hub in New Delhi, called ‘Manthan. It envisioned a periodical event that would focus on bringing together professionals across diverse creative fields to share their ‘process and methodology’ so as to initiate a cross-cultural dialogue in.

She has also been photographing fellow artists in their creative spaces now for 9 years .Her project artists through the lens was shown by Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, during the concluded India Art Fair in 2012. Apart from a solo exhibition at Gallery Espace, New Delhi in 2012, she has shown her work at Palette Art Gallery, Delhi (2007) and Gallery Chemould, Mumbai (2005) to name a few.

The act of painting for her is a 360 degree exercise, allowing for meditative time, a structured discipline and immense personal gratification. She loves to explore different scales and mediums. After painting in the miniature format for a while, she has also worked on large scale canvases. Her oeuvre encompasses gouache and watercolors, oils and dry pastels that render themselves to different textures and sensibilities. She is more concerned with the deeper spiritual reality than the mundane existence of things. In the process, there is a range of worlds she creates. Her experiences are episodical – threaded together by a language, personalized through memories, beliefs and values.

In a series of works hosted at Gallery Espace in 2012, she took the viewer through one curious chapter of her life wherein she was seen juggling between the roles of a professional (artist) and a homemaker. They offered a peep into her life as an artist, wife, mother and homemaker.