IN-FRA
IN-FRA is a bond , a collaboration ,an understanding of visual language in between two countries India & France. Cross Cultural Contemporary art foundation, Delhi had hosted this exhibition in collaboration with Alliance Francaise, Delhi .
The five French artists from an age old organization Le’Genie de la Bastille,Paris have participated in this show along with five Indian artists from C.C.C.A.F.which was a part of the exchange programme in between two countries.
When we see art works we feel multidimensional complex reaction in our body & mind .The colours, forms, spaces, create an aura with you ! Reacting to an art work is always depend on your mental status & your experiences of seeing visual arts .Pre occupied thought process is key point of appreciating art works .Ten years before your experiences were different & you were a different person .Today you are different ..you are more matured with many past experiences !
Your cognition & experiences make you confident! Somehow all of us are conditioned. we are not free from any preoccupied ideas or thought process! So one cannot neglect all of these while appreciating art works !
Now let us have a look on the exhibition for a virtual experiences of all art works :
The group show IN - FRA 2020 at Alliance Francaise from 14th Feb’20 to 23rd Feb’20 this is a collaborative show between Le Genie De La Bastille ,Paris & Cross Cultural Contemporary art foundation , New Delhi ,part of the exchange program . The same exhibition will be held in Paris in
September- October 2022.
Five contemporary artists from Paris & Five contemporary artists from Delhi are participation this cross cultural show.
I will start with French artists first :Artists from Le Genie de La Bastille, Paris :
____________________________________________________________________________
Anne Moser : She is a landscape painter inspired from Chinese traditional landscapes & modified the landscape pattern on paper in scroll format . She hangs her works as big long scroll on wall & when you stand in front of her works you feel a bird’s eye view. Her works take you the top of the arena as if you are flying on sky. Viewers are spell bound with her technique – she spreads the lucid colors sporadically with the flat brushes & sometimes she throws or sprinkles alcohol based inks on the surface of works carelessly but controls the composition in her mind . Translucent hues humid our experience – a serenity of nature you feel .
Anne Moser lives & works in Paris , France
Work by Anne Moser ( Category : Landscape. Medium: ink on paper )
____________________________________________________________________________
Danielle Loisel : Danielle dances with nature ! She loves the wild nature whether it is desert wind or sea waves . Every movement of drastic action of nature stimulates her mind to paint in a drastic way . Her fearless brush strokes remind us The Tagore’s line –“where the mind is without fear …”
Her paintings are the symbol of rhapsody of nature , a cadenza on canvas ! Where there is no boundary , no representation , no conventional conjugal analogy ! She breathes her own way & takes you to the rustic beauty of wild nature so that the same you can breathe!
An ecstasy of aesthetics she paints with mind & soul on the canvas –her every strokes controlled by action of nature as if we the son of the soil, daughter of the desert!
She looks at the sea not the back , she paints positive energy not the lack !
Danielle lives & works in Paris, France
Work by Dannielle Loisel ( Category: Abstract expressionist. Medium: acrylic on canvas )
____________________________________________________________________________
Istvan : Istvan an artist with his own vision ! His works are very expressionist & abstract in nature! Large canvases easily attract the viewers & when you penetrate in to the surface there are lot to see !As if an artist’s biography woven in to it !
When he starts painting He does not care about the aftermath! – a fearless hand & mind plays with colours & put all imprints on canvases with a significant visual analogy ! His entire body of works looking like deep dysgraphia or deep dyslexia - everything is there & you have to conquer !Metaphor of human psychology ,mapping the mind!
He sometimes throw colors on canvaes, use roller on it to get some desired effects – but not satisfactory results have come out ! Then tries to control some areas with flat brushes but then also yet to get some more .. pastes some piece of clothes then also the desired result is not there..! The artist is restless ! working process is on ..!The entire process of his work looking a destruction process is on before creation ! All together his every canvas is a visual of agony & ecstasy !
Istvan lives & works in Budapest ,Hungary .
Work by Istvan ( Category : Abstract expressionist . medium: acrylic on canvas )
____________________________________________________________________________
Millotte : At first Millotte’s work look like colour stripes with different shades of hues
Which has a greater influence on his works : the love of color or the desire to represent data from individual lives through his paintings! Probably both in equal measure.
The data always reflect the lives of real people—the artist himself or others. The most recent series, “Nights,” is taken from different people’s diaries, and reflects, over a six month timeline, whether the subject spent the night alone (black) or with someone (various colors).
These “statistical” paintings enable him to show what our lives and their particular rhythms can look like—colors and forms allowing a direct and intuitive understanding. But they also engender the surprise of a composition constantly renewed, existing in and of itself for the sole pleasure of our eyes.
Millotte lives & works in Paris ,France
Work by Millotte ( Category : minimalism. medium : digital print )
____________________________________________________________________________
Nadya Bertaux: Nadya experiments with thin wire & then makes a bigger art work . At first her work look like a giant net made of metal wire. She weaves wind with her delicate fingers to catch all emotions, love, passion ! She belives wind is a very important component in nature through which we take breathe & trees takes toxic carbon-dioxide from air & produces pure oxygen for us. All living creatures need air or wind .
In her own words: My work tries to signify the course of the wind, its course, its passage, the journey; poetic metaphor to talk about the cycle of life, and the inner breath. Time, intimately linked to the wind, is expressed by serial forms which affirm the importance of memory, knowledge and transmission. Some sculptures are kinds of sculptural libraries. The repetition marks a rhythm and defines sequences, slices of life. The fragility of existence is described in suspended installations, between heaven and earth. The movement is implicit and forces the eye to go back and forth and question its own history.
My work tries to signify the Course of Wind, his distance covered, his crossing, travel; a poetic metaphor to talk about the Cycle of Life and the Inner Breath. Time, intimately related to the Wind, is expressed by the repetition of forms, which emphasize the importance of Memory, Experience and Transmission. Some sculptures are like "sculptural libraries". The Repetition of the forms marks a rhythm and defines sequences, the sequences of Life. The fragility of Existence is described by hanging my sculptures, between the Earth and the Sky, like clung to the string of Life. The movement is implicit and forces the eye to go "back and forth" and therefore to constant questioning.
Nadya lives & works in Paris .
Work by Nadya ( category : Installation art . medium : metal wire )
____________________________________________________________________________
Our guest artist Sakti Barman :
Sakti Burman (born 1935 in Kolkata) is a contemporary Indian artist
He grew up in what is now Bangladesh, British India. He has lived in France for the last five decades, while maintaining strong ties with India, where he regularly exhibits his works
In 1951, Sakti joined a five-year course in fine arts at the Government School of Art (now Government College of Art & Craft) in Kolkata , For further study he went to France he got admitted at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris. In 1956.
He is the recipient of Knight of the Legion of Honour, Government of France, 2016 – The highest civilian award of France.
He won the Prix des Etrangers award in 1956. Some of the most recent solo shows of his work include a retrospective at the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, Mumbai, Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, and Dakshina Chitra, Chennai, in 2011 and 2012; Mumbai, in 2,009, 2011, 2006, 2001, 1990, 1988, 1977, 1970 and 1967; London and New York, in 2009; Art Musings, and Maison de I’Unesco, in 2008. Burman’s works have also been featured at an exhibitions in Los Angeles in 2001 and in New York in 2002; at the Rand Palais, Paris, in 1975 and 1994; and at the French Biennales in 1963, 1965 and 1967.
The artist lives and works in Paris & New Delhi.
“Ganapathy dressed as Harlequin” –a painting by Sakti Barman. ( medium oil on canvas ).
____________________________________________________________________
Artists from Cross Cultural Contemporary Art Foundation ,New Delhi :
Krishnendu Porel : My major concern is how to develop a visual language with the concrete cacophony. Architectural trajectory in urban landscape is prime subject in my current series of works. The pattern, the design, the construction and even the demolition all have taken shapes with their own desire in my canvases.
Amidst the old, classic and glorious cupolas, the new, young straight buildings are popping up. It's been a big challenge to urban development told new one keeping the heritage intact. Not only the protection but there should be also equilibrium in design and pattern. My paintings focus on some futuristic
design of architectures in modern city which can smell an oneness in vision-remind it that today's concept is tomorrow's reality.
Being a society concern artist I felt the urgency to depict the situation, removing the eye pleasing surface, digging beneath the layers of our so called urban pleasures, glittering shopping
malls, beautiful houses etc. I deal with a sort of visual tension between aesthetics and the imbalance in socio political environment.
Cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization are today's global interaction which refers to the less cultural diversity. Corporate capitalism made our socio economical as well as cultural atmosphere very less diverse. My urban landscapes have become monochromatic. In the architectural trajectory of urban landscapes where my cybernetic vision of creative impulse does not allow taking colourful brushes or painting eye pleasing cityscapes.
Pollution is another major factor in my works. My sensitivity broke down at the immense downfall of air quality. People could not breathe properly…most of my works showing polluted sky with heavily textured surface. My traumatic impulses only allowed me to pick up the brushes dipped with grey brown & black.
The city also reminds me its glorious past, its historic monuments, tall minarets, and medieval tombs, colonial edifies and one just cannot ignore it not even my conciseness. My spontaneous fingers touch automatically the gold, copper to paint the golden era. The colours adopt the function of separation a function which sometimes reversed of the pick of our golden era. The effect of colours is nuanced by the socio political and environmental scenario of the metropolis. I do imbibe all the empirical experiences of the urban city life with my own colours, forms and understanding.
– Krishnendu Porel
Works of Krishnendu Porel ( Acrylic on canvas .Catagory – Architectural ,Geometric abstraction )
Krishnendu lives & works in New Delhi
____________________________________________________________________________
Kosal Kumar : In a world drowned in an endless mayhem of discord and hatred, I believe that it is only in love we can find our salvation. An embodiment of the hopes I harbor in my heart, the pigeon in my sculptures is the messenger of love and peace.
Encasing the very essence of resilience, devotion, and unconditional love, pigeons have always been the voice of peace and truce. The serenity of their beauty stimulates my heart and soul. The enchanting grace of their moments and the moving eloquence of what these birds stand for shape my sculptures. Growing up sharing an intimate relationship with nature, I have found pigeons to be an immeasurable source of the inspiration for my art.
Even amongst all the chaos of the present day. These birds are found spread all across the globe, as if their spell-binding beauty is reassuring us that there will always be hope of peace. Ever longing for the quiet comfort peace, my heart envisions the pigeon forms as the promise of live. I believe that a little love can help make this world a better place to live and this is the message my sculptures hope to connect with the viewers with.
Our actions have consequences. Our blind greed for progress has rendered us lost; like the countless birds are losing their homes to our insatiable avarice, so is the hope for a better and safer tomorrow. The pigeons in my art aim to voice these concerns, make you take a moment and breathe, and inspire you to think, reflect, heal, and believe in love and peace.-Kosal Kumar
Kosal Kumar lives & works in New Delhi
Work of Kosal Kumar( Category : Bronze sculpture)
____________________________________________________________________________
Madhu Basu : GODILLOT, the word came from the name of Alexis Godillot, a French shoemaker of laced military shoes who created that particular type of boots in 1869.Those boots, very solid, adaptable to different climates and being all terrain, the soldiers wearing those boots could move faster even on uneven roads and fields. In modern times those combat boots have become global and used by all types of soldiers. Even in the Navy and air force and in its urban form also in everyday life. My Godillots, bought in an American surplus store are real ones, could have been worn by a soldier. I have covered them with the national flags of almost all nations to illustrate our conflict laden time which we are going through often against our wish. They represent a double and contradictory symbol of our incapacity to tolerate others as well as to go forward together towards a peaceful and constructive world. Madhu Basu lives & works in Paris ,France .
Godilot” -work of Madhu Basu ( Category –sculpture . paper made National flags pasted on Styrofoam made boot ).
Divine Faith With a motley jacket made of stamp-size flags of all the sovereign nations of the world, this exhibit of the Shiva Lingam (phallus) is, however, exclusive to Hindu religious culture. The linga image originated probably at the time of the Indus valley civilization in an abstract form of a pillar later given Vedic recognition as the Cosmic pillar which has neither end nor beginning. In course of time
this aniconic representation of divine power acquired mythical association with Lord Shiva, the most powerful god of the Hindu pantheon. Whether in its prehistoric appearance or in its later incarnation, this divine energy pillar took the giant form of an erect male organ with a stylised structure enclosing the base, conceived as the female genitalia. In this form it has survived in Hindu religious practice and is generally looked upon as an archetypal emblem of man-woman physical union hallowed with divinity by the primitive people because of the mystic associated with it of the generative power of nature. Though it comprises the totemic symbols of both male and female genitals, it is dominated by the phallic part prioritising the male role in the elemental act of generation.
The Hindus of all sects staunchly regard it as an object of worship. This is an emblematic image of male-female union but has also a highly philosophical interpretation of representing the union of Purusha (Man) and Prakriti (nature), a synthesis of perfect equilibrium and continuity. By showing the tiny flags, representing almost all the nations, all over this art work the artist makes a pertinent claim that everywhere in this world people of any faith follow this venerable symbol of the most basic and primal act of existence.
-MANASIJ MAJUMDER
:Art critic
“Divine faith” by Madhu Basu ( category Sculpture . Medium : Paper made stamp pasted on Styrofoam made sculpture )
____________________________________________________________________________
Santosh Verma
:Born and brought up in Varanasi countryside, my childhood flourished in regional tales and folklore. I grew up in the rustic backyards of an ancient city rich in religious myths and beliefs. The simplicity of village culture expressed a lot through visual communication where most religious figures and myths were translated into simple line based abstract forms. Add to it the light, shadows and colours of nature splashed all over my childhood.
This colourful world of motifs, symbols and abstraction lay deep within me. Painting abstraction over the years I found myself gradually drawn into the vortex of childhood memories. Hence I have started abstracting from those rich experiences as a child, consciously and unconsciously. My paintings reflect the colourful and playful world of an exploring child which in totality metamorphoses into a new reality.
Santosh Verma lives & works in Ghaziabad,U.P.
Work by Santosh verma ( Category : Contemporary art inspired by Indian folk art.Medium: Acrylic on canvas )
____________________________________________________________________________ 
Sanjay Kumar : Sanjay Kumar hales from Jhansi, where his pursuit for painting just started. He continuously drew on walls, spent hours under the sun learning watercolour, spent days and nights at local railway station just observing and sketching endlessly. Realizing the need of a professional art training to become part of mainstream contemporary art, he joined the College of Art.
Today, he is a proud recipient of an aifacs award in drawing. I often heard him saying, You guys are blessed to get some sort of guidance in college. This humble artist never needed a mentor or guide. The reason for that, and perhaps what sets him apart from others in this aspect is that the guiding star for Mr. Kumar in his journey as an artist is a careful measure of not only his immediate surroundings but also
the mother nature he is exposed to and more often than not his work is also inspired by the bits and pieces that he captures from the endless whispers of his mind.
Astutely he uses the colors that are derived from the subject of the art itself, the colors being vibrant but at the same time strangely balanced even, so much so that the work overall, though otherworldly, sits well with the observ-er's senses.
The colors have no rigid pattern, adhere to no inherent repetitive style and vary across the spectrum, even within a single painting. And yet they are in harmony with an amateur as well as an expert observer's expectations of awe and beauty. Mr. Kumar's works undoubtedly have the uncanny ability to reach out and communicate their message to the part of one's soul that is beyond the scope of words, they stand tall, mighty and undisputed over any possible attempts of spoken or written descriptions of their meaning.
Sanjay Kumar lives & works in new Delhi .
About the Artist ......- Anurag Choubey
Work of Sanjay Kumar ( Category : abstract Painting. Medium : Acrylic on canvas )
____________________________________________________________________________
Written , Composed & Compiled by Krishnendu Porel
Feb2021 , New Delhi
Post a Comment