Visual Art and Culture

  In 60s and 70s, tailors were very much in demand.    Ready-to-wear clothing was not available in small towns, and in fact, nobody liked to wear readymade dress in those days. To discover a good tailor and get dresses stitched properly by them was an uphill task.    With lot of hopes and dreams, one used to give the fabric material along with a page torn from the magazine, which carried the photograph or sketch of a latest fashionable skirt or top, in it.    Seeing the photograph, the tailor would nod and say he would stitch it the same way. He used to enter the details of measurements in a long note book, which had turned yellow with the passage of time and the pages at the corners had curled by constant usage. He would ask us to come after a fortnight.    Since we were in hurry, that fortnight seemed to be like a quarter year, stretching endlessly.    When the particular day approached, with all possible positive thoughts we ...

Sculptor Vilas Kulkarni [ first one from the right]                   When our show was going in the Jehangir Gallery,Mumbai , at the same time, in the same place, Delhi artists were exhibiting their works in the spacious auditorium gallery. In the auditorium hall, postbox sculptures made in the fiber glass medium stood as testimony to the bygone period and caught the attention of each and every visitor's attention since the post boxes are connected to everyone's life. Delhi based artist Vilas Kulkarni had this concept of post boxes in his mind since a long time but the concept got materialized when he was planning for his Mumbai show. When asked about these sculptures, he was emotionally remembering the olden days. The technology has smoothened the ways and people are getting news very fast today but the new gadgets cannot bring the warmth and emotional touch that the letters used to bring, the artist expressed. ...

     What makes the exploration of places interesting ?  It is worth visiting new places with glimpses of history, with the insights from literature, culture, and religion. A blend of ancient and contemporary cultural values presents a colorful canvas to the explorer.                 Historically, Ujjain is a very significant place located in the west central part of Madhya Pradesh, in India, and I wanted to see this place very much. Many times, I had come across this word called Ujjain in the pages of history, in the context of Mythology, in the context of  Kalidas  Literature, in the context of the important play named Mrichhakatika of Shudraka.    During the Mouryan period, Ujjain was a centre place for administration, politics, religion and culture.    Through the pages of history, we come to know that the famous king Vikramaditya ruled    his king...

                                                                During the passage of time, from generation to generation, objects get old and mature with historical and cultural significance. If the objects stand the test of time and survive, get the distinction as antiques. The antiques belonging to a particular genre of art or fashion usually have rare beauty and aesthetic value, and command attention and high price.    These are treasured, valued and passed on from one generation to another. The value of an antique - historically, culturally and economically - increases as it gets older and older, and becomes a rarity. An antique stands as testimony for time, generatio...

Artist: Gayatri Desai

Artist: Gayatri Desai * paintings for sale. Inquire through email

       Jahangir with Falcon       When we look at paintings, we slowly realize how these paintings communicate to us. Each line, each form, each colour, the spatial arrangement speaks volumes. By studying these paintings, we can realize what kind of culture prevailed during that period. The very word ‘culture’ itself denotes lot of things like material culture, the way of living, the behavioral aspect, tastes,  ideas, concepts and values. Keeping all these things in mind, one can have a look at these rich paintings for deeper understanding. When I look at these mogul miniature paintings in the backdrop of  fast growing urbanisation in recent years, which is a matter of concern for all of us,   these  paintings beautifully unfold before us the richness of vegetation, which the artists have captured in fine lines and colours. Now cities are growing both horizontally and vertically becau...

 Artist: Madhu Desai Untitled          6'x4'         Acrylic Monsoon Friends       4'x4'         Acrylic Monsoon friends        4'x4'          Acrylic

 Art has evolved significantly since the classical period and it needs a deeper look and understanding. Marcel Duchamp, who had worked in cubism, futurism and Dadaism, finally rejected the whole process as retinal art and turned towards conceptual art ­– which focused on mind – ideas. Like Leonardo, he was also interested in knowledge purely, so for many years he did not produce any work of art. One fine day, he keeps a man- made object namely Fountain as a piece of art, and that one art work revolutionize the whole art world. Vitruvan Man’s drawing represents the Renaissance Humanism, because the perfect measurements of human body and proportions have been got with the scientific approach     – through the combined study   of art and science. Humanism covered many aspects under its wing and tried to revive many    legacies like literary legacy, moral   legacy and   classical antiquity. During this period, grammar, rhet...

An old album containing several small and big snaps unfolds before me. I turn the pages passionately to catch the glimpses of my siblings, parents, relatives and friends.  With the passage of time, the pages of the album have worn out and become brittle; the photographs too have turned yellowish and look faded. The yellowed photographs frisk me from present to the past, with nostalgic memories flooding. The thin transparent papers alternating after each thick black sheet of paper have crumpled at the edges; some holes too have appeared in their fragile bodies. With the threads of space and time, these albums have preserved our memories and lineage gracefully over all these years. These albums stand as testimony for the evolving culture. Long skirt with a small top and a dupatta was the ideal dress for the grown up girls then.   Girls and women in their early thirties or so, sporting two plaits was quite a common sight. Slowly, the two plaits would turn into one pla...

Art is nothing but life. When a shift takes in life, automatically a shift happens in art too. Art history reveals how life has evolved over the years along with art, which is the inherent and creative expression of human being. Cave paintings are the examples of the first expression  of human being. Continuous evolving has led to refinement and sophistication in living and tastes. Ragamala paintings as a genre which combine painting, poetry and music, are very refined and sophisticated - linear, lyrical, infused with music - this style started way back in the 16 th  century, in northern India Change of seasons is always welcome as it brings changes into life through atmospheric change and many other related changes along with it. In an exotic and unique manner, Ragamala Paintings celebrate the seasons through fusion of lines and colors, which bring out poetical visuals.    Ragamala Paintings  based on  ragas  not only give   visual treat b...