'Black House' at Stake

Santiniketan : One of the most admired and historically significant art work of Santiniketan, the reliefs of the 'Black House' have been damaged on the eve of Basantotsav, this year. It's a shame that a brawl between the Vidya Bhavana and Kala Bhavana students of Visva Bharati led to this irreparable damage of the renowned Black House. Built under the surveillance of Nandalal Bose & Ramkinkar Baij during 1938, the sculptures and the reliefs on the well known 'Kalo Bari' comprise of thirty six pieces. The first group consisting of fifteen works covers the outer face of the massive pillars on the south verandah, most of them showing dancers or musicians. The second group comprising of eleven panels based on the details of the 'Marriage of Shiva' mural in the Mattancherry palace at Cochin and a Dwarpalaka figure based on Aihole sculpture is found on the wall of this verandah. The third group of reliefs on the north side includes copies of Egyptian, Assyrian, Indus, Barhut and Pallava art along with a few images from life. All the reliefs were made using mud mixed with cow dung, straw and tar. The pressing issue arising at this moment from the art fraternity of Bengal and from India is to make this Black House a national heritage building.

Appeal for Husain's return dismissed by Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court declined to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which recommended the Government of India to take steps to ensure the return of self-deported painter M F Husain to India and withdrawal of cases against him.

Husain had recently surrendered his Indian passport and accepted Qatari citizenship. He has been living in self-exile for nearly four years following a series of cases in India over his controversial paintings of Hindu goddesses. The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan rejected the petition filed by Jammu and Kashmir Panthers Party Chief Bhim Singh.

Bharat Ratna! Jewels of Modern Indian Art

Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) is hosting an exhibition of sixteen paintings by modernist and post-Independence contemporary Indian artists till August 22, 2010. The paintings belong to the private collection of Mr. and Mrs. Rajiv Jahangir Chaudhri, who have assembled some of the finest examples of Indian art. The show is named Bharat Ratna! Jewels of Modern Indian Art and the artists whose works are on display include Krishnaji Howlaji Ara, Maqbool Fida Husain, Syed Haider Raza, Francis Newton Souza and other luminaries of Indian art. This exhibition is remarkable in two different aspects because this is the first time that Mr. and Mrs. Rajiv Jahangir Chaudhri are showcasing their collection and this is also the first exhibition of modern Indian art at the MFA. The paintings created with vibrant hues and abstract metaphors reflect the unsettled period of artistic creation at the time when India struggled to achieve independence from British colonial rule.

Art world to witness the first closed end art funding across the globe

Anthea Art Investments, a firm based in Zug, Switzerland and comprising of professionals from the fields of art, investment banking and asset management industries is presenting Anthea I - Contemporary Art Investment Fund, a pioneering investment opportunity to attain long term capital appreciation through investments in contemporary works. The fund will offer a combination of investment prospective of contemporary art with the notions of asset management and portfolio diversification. It aspires to invest over four years in contemporary art such as paintings, sculptures, works on paper, installations, photographs and motion pictures produced from 1945 onwards. The investments would take place under three heads: firstly for major time-honoured post war artists, secondly for lesser known artists who participated in major art movements in the second half of the 20th Century and thirdly for young promising artists from Europe, USA and also from China, Russia, India, Middle East and Brazil. Portfolio liquidation will start at the end of the 4th year through auctions using the main auction houses like Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips de Pury & Company, through private dealings with collectors and institutions and through private transactions of larger parts of the collection sold to museums and foundations.

SMFA Traveling Scholars

Boston: The School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) will be giving the Traveling Scholarship this year to Lizi Brown, Wendy Jean Hyde, Cohen, Michael Bühler-Rose and Christopher Lamberg-Karlovsky. Lizi Brown, who traveled to Europe, presents a series of paintings forming a narrative. Photographer Michael Bühler-Rose, who spent time in India, explores issues surrounding the exotic. Liz Cohen revisited Germany to expand on her Bodywork project. Wendy Jean Hyde's installation is based on her research in Iceland and Christopher Lamberg-Karlovsky explored New England through his paintings.

SMFA has been giving this award since 1889 and the recipients comprise of Fifth year students and alumnus from the museum school. The exhibition will be on view from 10 April to 31 May, 2010 at the Foster Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. SMFA offers a scope for the young artists to nurture their creativity and pursue an enduring career in art.

The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today

Saatchi Gallery, London is hosting an exhibition titled ‘The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today’ comprising of works done by Indian artists and is on view till 7 May, 2010. The exhibition brings together works by established and emerging artists, most of whom have never been shown in the UK before. These include Jaishri Abichandani, Mansoor Ali, Kriti Arora, Huma Bhabha, Ajit Chauhan, Shezad Dawood, Atul Dodiya, Chitra Ganesh, Probir Gupta, Sakshi Gupta, Subodh Gupta, Tushar Joag, Jitish Kallat, Reena Saini Kallat, Bharti Kher, Rajan Krishnan, Huma Mulji, Pushpamala N., Yamini Nayar, Justin Ponmany, Rashid Rana, T.V. Santhosh, Schandra Singh, Tallur L.N, Hema Upadhyay and T Venkanna. Among these artists, Jaishri Abichandani, Mansoor Ali and Huma Mulji’s works have been showcased at the Gennext exhibition hosted by Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkata in 2009.

Mysteries of Chickpet

Bengaluru : 'I am looking for 35', 'Rare piece', 'Sold!' are the few words that Charu Sharma must have said a few hundred times in different tones on Wednesday 10th March at the Windsor Manor in Bengaluru. The Bid & Hammer auction created lots of excitements amid the antique lovers who gathered that evening to buy their bit of the 'Mysteries of Chickpet' and related objects. The actual Jain Temple is being dismantled to be rebuilt at a different location in the city. The Temple Trust decided to auction some of the artefacts. The proceeds of the auction will be spent for the construction of the new temple.

The auction started with a Pahari School Miniature painting of Lord Mahaveera that reached Rs 10 lakhs in seconds and set the record for the evening. A few minutes later, 3 aficionados fought for 8 vintage Art Nouveau Majolica ceramic tiles representing a beautiful pair of peacocks. The price doubled the maximum estimate and reached Rs 39,000. There was a superb fight on a Tanjore School painting.  The local lady who finally bought it had a great smile on her face. Towards the end of the auction, 2 lots of oleographs woke up the room.

Overall, the auction brought some life on the antiques market. More than half the lots got sold in the room and the buyers spent more than INR 65 lakhs. Everyone had lots of fun attending the auction and those who went back home with a piece of Chickpet are happy buyers today.

Art in Public Space: Waste or Wonder?

Kolkata: FICCI in association with Goeth-Institut, Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art (KMOMA) organized an International Symposium – 'Art in Public Space: Waste or Wonder?' on March 15, 2010 at Taj Bengal, Kolkata.

The speakers included Mrs. Rakhi Sarkar, Chairperson, FICCI Committee on Art and Business of Art and Managing Trustee, KMOMA, Dr. Reimar Volker, Director, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata, Prof. K.T. Ravindran, Head of the Urban Design Department at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, Vivan Sundaram, eminent artist, Mr. Arnab Roy, Municipal Commissioner, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Dr. Subesh Das, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister and I&CA and others. A delegation from Germany was also present on the occasion comprising of Dr. Christine Litz, Art Historian and Project Manager, Documenta 13, Mr. Gregor Schneider, Artist and Ms. Susanne Titz, Director Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg. The post lunch session was moderated by Mr. Aveek Sen, Senior Assistant Editor – The Telegraph, & the speakers included artists Jitish Kallat and Vivek Bharadwaj, CEO of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) and others. Some of the significant ideas that came out from the discussions say that the Government and civil society should take up public art in the urban cityscape seriously and remedial measures should be implemented in order to improve our cityscapes. The need for implementation of percent for public art, which mandates up to 2% of any urban public project to be spent on art in public space, greater focus needed on security, maintenance and preservation of existing public artworks and need for private sector support in implementing public art projects of non-permanent nature.

Bonhams to host launch featuring Poem by the late Queen of Nepal

Bonhams will host the launch of `First Sixty' --the Acumen Anthology, a celebration of 25 years of the best poetry featured by the magazine produced by Patricia Oxley, Danielle Hope, Glyn Pursglove, and William Oxley. At the launch event, there will be a short reading, a cocktail party and copies of the Anthology will be on sale at Bonhams' New Bond Street address on April 13th between 6.30pm and 8.00pm.

First published in 1985, Acumen Literary Journal is open to all and features works by everyone from the former poet laureate, winners of the Queen's gold medal for poetry, also poetry fellows, academics and writers who simply submit works via the post. There is even a poem in this new Anthology written under a pseudonym by the murdered Queen of Nepal who wrote under the pseudonym Chandani Shah before she was married. They were broadcast on Nepali radio but she died in the massacre of the Nepalese Royal Family and this poem is one of her few surviving works.

Patricia Oxley says: "First Sixty is an anthology of readable, meaningful poems which cause a reader to laugh, cry, think, agree, disagree, but, above all, enjoy.” The book includes work by 195 poets over 332 pages and reads like a poetic social commentary and a brief history of changing poetic forms and concerns, at the very reasonable price of £9.99.

Art Dubai 2010 Sees Robust Sales And Broad Community Engagement

Dubai: Art Dubai 2010 greeted almost 18,000 international and regional visitors during the four-day event. The fair was inaugurated by UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Over 70 galleries from 30 countries took part in Art Dubai 2010. The majority experienced strong sales, with buyers including members of the royal family, major international and regional museums, established and new collectors from Europe, Asia and USA.

Some of the sale highlights include The Three Graces by Pakistani artist Sadquain Naqqah, Snow White Without the Dwarves by Ghada Amer, Istanbul and others.