Search results for: 'once upon a time in mumbai'

A journey through the decades post the 1950s in Pakistan with art historian Simone Wille, from the University of Innsbruck, exploring the works of pioneering artists who looked to history and tradition to develop new visual languages, while also creating dialogues globally through travel. 

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An online cook along with Bong Eats and Pritha Sen, a food historian to delve into the history of dishes, made by our grandmothers and mothers, that form a large part of the art that we experience in our day-to-day life, in the kitchen and on our plates.

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A paid opportunity for young students from diverse disciplines to participate in the exciting world of museums and arts organizations by introducing them to the whole gamut of activities that go into building audience engagement around an exhibition or programme.

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As printing technologies improved around the turn of the 18th century, a large number of cheaply reproduced printed pictures—illustrated books, almanacs and mythological images—became available to the common people. This became an important vehicle of social change because people could own, produce and disseminate images of all kinds—from their beloved deities and favourite fictional characters to political cartoons critiquing colonial authorities. Printmaking was equally treasured by artists for its aesthetic potential, as techniques like lithography, etching, metal engraving, viscosity, gave practitioners infinite opportunities for creative exploration. This landmark exhibition gives us a comprehensive overview of the history of the printed picture in India.

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In celebration of birds and the long relationship art has shared with the winged creatures, this exhibition brings together four folios to present portraits of Indian birds made in the early nineteenth century. While representations of birds date back to the Ajanta murals, naturalistic imagery reached its peak in Mughal art under Emperor Jahangir. In the late 18th century two connected developments emerged in Lucknow and Calcutta. While General Claude Martin provided imported European paper to the artists in Lucknow to prepare botanical studies and other natural history works, in Calcutta Mary, Lady Impey (wife of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Bengal, Elijah Impey) had a menagerie where she employed artists to portray variety of animals and birds. Dr. William Roxburgh, superintendent of Calcutta Botanical Garden from 1793, also added to the discourse of natural history by appointing local artists to make botanical studies of the specimens in his charge. The efforts of Martin, Impey, Roxburgh and their artists gave rise to a large body of Company Paintings dedicated to natural history.

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Indra Dugar, unlike his illustrious father Hirachand Dugar (1898-1951), did not have any formal education in art. Born in 1918 in Jiaganj in Murshidabad, West Bengal, he sub-consciously absorbed the artistic ambience of Santiniketan where he grew up; his father was one of the earliest students at Kala Bhavana at the Visva-Bharati University. Dugar acquired art skills from his father and considered Santiniketan his alma mater. He was inspired by his father’s mentor Nandalal Bose, who saw great promise in him. Learn More

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The DAG Archive has over 90,000 photographs taken by Nemai Ghosh, a bulk of which includes still photographs and behind the scenes images of films as well as candid and staged portraits of Satyajit Ray. In conjunction to these materials, DAG Archive has also acquired a set of two notebooks of Ray which contains the hand-written film scripts of <i>Ghare Baire</I> (The Home and The World, 1984) and Samapti (The Conclusion) which is one of the short films from the anthology, Teen Kanya (Three Women, 1961). Interestingly, both these films are adaptations from Rabindranath Tagore’s literary works.

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Shanti Dave’s abstracts resemble—at first—the familiar and the unknown. There are writings, figures, deities, forms and shapes that resonate with what we seem to know. If the language is indecipherable, perhaps it belongs to some ancient texts lost to history. Is this his ode to a civilisation that existed in the past, or a prophesy of one to come? Is it a world hidden underwater? Or perhaps one alien to us because it comes from some other planet? Are these tombstones, or markers, of some mythological or historical realm?

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Kripal Singh Shekhawat of Jaipur worked his entire life to bridge the gap between the vernacular and the contemporary, combining what was considered the craft of a kumhar—potter—with the fine art of miniature painting. He paved a new path for a pioneering social and aesthetic mode of life in twentieth century India.

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Shown at the Shanghai Biennale, exhibited in New York, widely admired for his consistency throughout his career, Rabin Mondal’s excoriating paintings are a savage indictment of social and political ills. A reticent, reserved artist, Mondal’s works offer a scathing commentary on the pursuit and abuse of power. A primal, primordial figuration describes his work in which people in positions of authority are rendered vulnerable because of the very power they aspire to. Their contorted features and clawed hands and feet represent their venality. Strong outlines, naked brushstrokes and potent use of green and red characterise most his work.

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An influential artist who is known for her richly detailed oils and watercolours, Arpita Singh was born in Calcutta in 1937. She studied art at Delhi Polytechnic (now College of Art) from 1954-59, and then joined the Government of India’s cottage industries restoration programme in 1959, which allowed her to meet weavers and artisans. Learn More