SPECIAL
NEW DELHI 09
ON A
DGET
1-2 lakh? Apparently quite a lot, from
hread works to kinetic installations
small works by modern masters on
wing category to create a guide of
at are worth collecting
them to take a chance but not burn their
fingers,” adds Vijaymohan.
Whether or not these new collectors con-
tinue in their exploration of the art market
will define the trajectory of this segment in
the years to come—but that is for another
day. Meanwhile, Lounge takes a deep dive
into this category to see the vibrant tapes-
try of artists and mediums populating it, the
only caveat being that these practitioners
should have at least had one gallery show in
the recent past. On offer are hybrid draw-
ings, kinetic installations, paper sculptures,
new media, photographs and more. A lot of
p MANISH MOITRA
(KYNKYNY, Bengaluru)
The artist draws references from his immediate environment. This particular work is a collage of the various
scenes from his local market. “It is a space I grew up observing. My childhood perception of the market was
art in this category harks back to the Indian altered to a considerable degree as I matured as an artist,” says Moitra. To him, the space has come to repre-
miniature tradition, where the everyday sent more than a place for trade; rather, he bases his narratives on the relationships within the community
and the fantastical come together. This is there. ‘Market’, acrylic on canvas
not art for art’s sake; rather, these works are
informed by issues of displacement, cli-
mate crisis, memory and other socio-politi-
cal urgencies. According to Roshini
Vadehra of Vadehra Art Gallery, many of
the artists are now pushing themselves to
explore these issues in different mediums.
“There is a sense of urgency in their works,”
she adds.
avantika.bhuyan@htlive.com
p YASHWANT DESHMUKH
(Art & Soul gallery, Mumbai)
Born in Akola, Vidarbha, Deshmukh is a contempo-
rary conceptual artist. In a span of 30 years, he has
created works that are a cross between figuration
and symbolic abstraction. He chooses to accentuate
the lyrical and meditative elements of an object,
often gravitating towards the line and simple col-
ours. Untitled, mixed media on canvas (2011)
p OLIVIA FRASER
(Nature Morte, Delhi)
Olivia Fraser’s relationship with India can be
traced to her Scottish ancestors, the brothers
William and James Fraser, connoisseurs of art
who lived in India between 1801-35. But it was in
the 1980s, when she travelled to the country to
meet her future husband, the historian William
Dalrymple, that the artist encountered a whole
new style of painting. In spite of her initial train-
ing in the Western academic style, Fraser
apprenticed herself to the atelier of a master-
painter in Jaipur. She learnt the intricacies of
miniature painting, including making brushes
with squirrel hair and colours with natural sub-
stances. ‘Red Dawn’, screenprint on 410gsm Som-
erset tub-size paper (2012)
t SALAMAT HUSAIN
(Nine Fish Art Gallery, Mumbai)
The artist recently showcased an exhibition,
Not Allowed, in Mumbai, which started from the
idea of not being allowed to shoot in certain spaces.
Husain, the grandson of M.F. Husain, started off with
street photography and moved towards landscapes. “It
made me realize that there are spaces which are not sup-
posed to be open to urbanization. But it is happening any-
way,” he says. In his photographs, Husain wants to bring
out the experience of the journey and not just the beauty
of the landscape. “I veer towards expressionism, in that
sense,” says Husain, who assisted his grandfather on
the set of the film Gaja Gamini. In some of his work,
he creates images with double exposure and
prints them on glass. “That gives depth to
the visuals,” he adds. ‘In Between The
Densities’, double exposure
p SHALINA S. VICHITRA
(Gallery Art Motif, Delhi)
The artist’s work is about decoding the characteris-
tics of living situations. “Personal associations and
identities become part of a larger narrative about the
conflict and contradictions of urban living,” says
Mala Aneja of Gallery Art Motif. Vichitra draws
imagery from aerial mapping, the urban sprawl, con-
structed spaces, maps and more. “She likes to con-
struct-deconstruct, locate-dislocate, and peel layers
in her work,” adds Aneja. ‘A Space To Which We
Belong’, high fire glaze on stoneware and porcelain
p BHARAT SIKKA
(Nature Morte, Delhi)
Sikka features among the most distinguished
photographers in contemporary India. Starting
as a fashion designer, he moved to fashion pho-
tography before reinventing himself as a concep-
tually rigorous practitioner of the form. In a body
of work titled The Sapper, where this work comes
from, he explores his relationship with his father,
an army man who shaped his family’s dynamics.
Straddling the private and the public while push-
ing aesthetic boundaries, Sikka creates a delicate
montage. ‘Sapper 20’, Photo Rag 308 paper with
wooden frame (2019)
SATURDAY, 1 FEBRUARY 2020
p SUDIPTA DAS
(Latitude 28, Delhi)
The Vadodara-based artist interrogates the
realities of climate change and one of its most
important outcomes—migration. Das is
inspired by dakjee doll-making, which she
learnt during a residency in Korea. She shifted
from oil to paper sculptures to evoke the
fragility of the condition of climate change
refugees.
“In my hometown of Silchar in Assam,
countless people are displaced after floods.
They end up in temporary shelters. I have been
in Baroda for the past eight years and the flood
there last year evoked similar memories and
anxiety,” she says. She washes and dyes the
paper, crumples it and uses it like cloth.
Untitled, mixed media with Hanji paper (2019)
p GOURISHANKAR SONI
(CIMA, Kolkata)
Born in Jaipur in 1980, Soni works with a range of
media, but the heritage of Rajasthan informs the
core of his sensibility. “The influence of the minia-
ture tradition is palpable in his style,” says Rakhi
Sarkar, director of the gallery, “though he combines
it with a distinctly contemporary approach.” Unti-
tled, acrylic on canvas (2018)
t HARENDRA KUSHWAHA
(CIMA, Kolkata)
Coming from Arnaha, a village on
the Bihar-Nepal border, Kush-
waha’s artistic journey almost
follows a textbook template:
repeated failures in school, fol-
lowed by an odd job, a series of
fortuitous turns that took him to
art college, finally won him the
CIMA award, an initiative to
recognize young emerging art-
ists, in 2017. Invested in the tac-
tility of media, his process is
labour- and time-intensive,
involving cutting strips of paper
and weaving them to create
three-dimensional textured
objects. ‘A Piece Of Nothing—
Some Lines With Life And Time’,
Nepali paper (2017-19)
p PARITOSH SEN
(Galerie 88, Kolkata)
Born in 1918, the late Paritosh Sen is among the
masters of modern Indian art, especially in Ben-
gal, where his illustrious contemporaries
included Ramkinkar Baij and Prodosh Dasgupta.
In 1949, he went to study in Europe and was pro-
foundly influenced by the wave of avant-garde
that was sweeping the art world. Like Pablo
Picasso, he drew intimate, often acerbic, self-
portraits, drawn from the people and life around
him in his home in Kolkata. His eye for the tragic
and absurd remained ever alert, even months
before his death at the age of 90 in 2008. ‘The
Wonderer’, acrylic on paper board (2006)