inner resonance
A RETURN TO SAMAS G VASUDEV RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION
JANUARY 27 TO FEBRUARY 12. 2019
LILIT KALA AKADEMI | FORUM ART GALLERY | CHOLAMANDAL ARTISTS’ VILLAGEÂ CHENNAI
inner resonance
A RETURN TO SAMA
S G VASUDEV RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION
JANUARY 27 TO FEBRUARY 12. 2019
LILIT KALA AKADEMI | FORUM ART GALLERY |
CHOLAMANDAL ARTISTS’ VILLAGEÂ CHENNAI
Curatorial Note by Sadanand Menon
The retrospective of any artist who has consistently been at work for over five decades, is no longer about the artist per se. It also becomes the narrative of a nation, a region, a school, a style.
His retrospective then, becomes the occasion for an archaeological exploration into the multiple layers of social, historical and aesthetic accumulation that reveal themselves, as clearly as strata in stone.
As a leading contemporary modernist of post-Independence India, S.G. Vasudev’s work takes us into the thick of the debates and turmoil in the sixties within the College of Art, Madras – a pioneering centre for arts education that has received the least critical attention from our art historians. The products of the Madras art movement have, thus, remained confined to the margins of the narrative around mainstream Indian art. This is an injustice that needs to be swiftly corrected.
Vasudev’s work reveals the creative churn among the students and teachers at the Madras Arts College in the mid-sixties. The reputation of the school attracted students from all regions of the sub-continent – Bengal, Gujarat, Bombay, Andhra, Karnataka, Kerala and, of course, Tamil Nadu itself. It helped generate its own form of inter-culturalism. And an eclectic art practice grounded solidly in the play with line and surface, significantly absorbed and integrated from prevailing practices of traditional artisans and of ordinary people on the street.
An exposure to Vasudev’s collected work brings us to the centre of these preoccupations with evolving a local, native vocabulary that was, in itself, a critique of Western canons of spatialization and depth. Inspired by the critical indigenism of their mentor K.C.S. Paniker, Vasudev and a group ofÂ
young graduates of the college dared to break away from the then urban conventions of modern arts practice and create Cholamandal, an arts village on the outskirts of Madras. In the mid-sixties, this was a radical move.
The subsequent five decades has seen Vasudev go through distinct periods with specific themes – Maithuna, Vriksha, Tree of Life, Tree of Life & Death, Humanscapes, Earthscapes, Theatre of Life, She and He and Rhapsody – a journey that defines his preoccupations with relationships, transience, nature and ecological concerns, the fire of desire and performative aspects of life. He is now among a distinguished group of senior Indian artists whose work is much sought after and part of many important collections.
While the artist has stayed rooted to the medium of oil on canvas and drawings, he has also made significant departures in media like copper reliefs and tapestry, bringing a new dynamic to the media.
This Vasudev retrospective at NGMA, Bengaluru, has a distinct curatorial and design plan. Bringing together over 300 works by the artist, including some from the collections of the NGMA, the Lalit Kala Akademi and private collectors, the exhibition will map the inner rhythms that motivate the artist’s expression – much of it triggered also by his deep response to classical Indian music – and a sustained, spiralling resonance which, like a musical cycle, keeps returning to sama, before it spins off into the next avartana.
The exhibition design is executed by the dynamic Bengaluru-based dancer and designer Miti Desai and her mitidesignlab.
Making of the Exhibition
Cultural programmes gallery
Performance of Kalpa vriksha, a choreographic response to Vasudev’s work
Madhu Nataraj and Natya & Stem Dance Kampni – 6th February 2019, Friday 6pm
Open Air Theatre at Cholamandal Artists Village, ECR, Injambakkam, Chennai 115, Chennai 115
Artistic Connections’ – a conversation facilitated by Vaishna Roy
Geeta Doctor (writer), Mangal (theatre), Navroze Contractor (film), cp Krishnapriya (art) and Preeti athreya (dance).
Forum Art Gallery, 57 Padmanabha Nagar, 5th Street, Adyar, Chennai 600 020
Sanjay Subrahmanyan and party – Carnatic music Recital
31st January 2019
Open Air Theatre at Cholamandal Artist Village, ECR, Injambakkam, Chennai 115
Malavika Sarukkai – Solo Bharatanatyam Performance
8 February 2019
Open Air Theatre at Cholamandal Artist Village, ECR, Injambakkam, Chennai 115
Photo credits for paintings, drawings, copper reliefs, tapestries:
Mallikarjun Katakol
Navroze Contractor
K.N. Raghavendra Rao
Tanya Alexander
Rhea Saran
Bharat Vijay
Ammu Joseph