The exhibition brings together important and unusual works of art that span a wide range of genres, forms, periods and styles. They are grouped by genre, of abstract art, figurative art, landscape art, portraiture and still-life. Each thematic arrangement features a select collection of artworks from the artist’s mature period, several of which are of substantial art historical significance.
The exhibition brings together significant works by Bombay-based modernists such as Jehangir Sabavala, K. S. Kulkarni and A. A. Raiba, and from the next generation, artists such as Gieve Patel and Navjot. New Delhi-based Satish Gujral is featured with a powerful work in response to the trauma of Partition, and pioneering printmaker Krishna Reddy finds representation with a large etching. Artists such as Avinash Chandra, P. T. Reddy, Laxma Goud and J. Swaminathan are featured with important explorations of their favoured themes.
A host of significant modernists from Calcutta form the core of the exhibition—artists such as Bikash Bhattacharjee, Nikhil Biswas, Bijan Choudhary, Chittaprosad, Prodosh Das Gupta, Dharmanarayan Dasgupta, Shyamal Dutta Ray, Biren De, Ganesh Pyne, Sunil Das, Prokash Karmakar, Jogen Chowdhury and Paritosh Sen. Jamini Roy and Sakti Burman feature with large and significant works in their signature styles and pre-modern Bengal is represented by a Kalighat pat and a beautiful Early Bengal oil work on the theme of Krishna and the gopis.
Academic realism finds substantial representation this time with a book of 175 sketches by artist M. V. Dhurandhar, a still-life by S. G. Thakur Singh, a Saraswati portrait by the Ravi Varma School, and portraits by M. F. Pithawalla, Olinto Ghilardi, and one of the Tanjore king by an anonymous artist in a style reminiscent of Raja Ravi Varma.
Calcutta-based modernist Rabin Mondal’s eight work set comprising his King series from the 1970s is a special highlight of the exhibition, as is a large, haunting portrait by Rabindranath Tagore, acquired from the collection of actor Victor Bannerjee.
Bringing together a phenomenal range of artists, styles and periods, this edition of Manifestations promises to be an exciting, significant collection of works presented under one roof. The exhibition is accompanied by a substantial, colour catalogue featuring art scholarship on the featured works, with special, additional material on several of the most significant works on display. The exhibition, and the publication, we hope will be of value to the discerning art lover and collector alike.
