Art Events : Kolkata
JANUARY 2010

January 2010 in Kolkata was jubilant with a number of spectacular exhibitions. The year is also significant in terms of the history of art in the city. 'Society of Contemporary Artists' the Kolkata based artists' group completes its 50-years of existence during this year. To mark its golden jubilee, two important exhibitions were held. The first was a large group-show hosted by Birla Academy between 8 and 27 December 2009 featuring the paintings and sculptures of all the artists who were associated with the group at different phases. The other was a show of sculptures titled 'Not So Long Ago' by all the present artists of the group, who worked together in a workshop as a part of golden jubilee celebration. The show was hosted by Aakriti Gallery from 14 to 31 December.

Victoria Memorial, Kolkata in collaboration with Victoria and Albert Museum, London presented at Victoria Memorial a grand show titled 'Indian Life and Landscape by Western Artists' from 20 December to 31 January. It was displayed in two parts. One was from the collection of Victoria Memorial. The other was 'Paintings and Drawings from the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum, 1790 - 1927'. The show featured the naturaturalistic paintings of the British artists of eighteenth and nineteenth century like Charles D'Oyly, George Chinnery, T and W Daniel, Emily Eden, Francis Balthazar and many others.

CIMA presented from 9 December till 9 January 'In Search of Context', an exhibition where contemporary artists reinterpreted the celebrated works of other artists of the past and present in the context of the present time. A solo of the paintings by Samir Aich titled 'Nomadic Detours' was held in the same gallery from 15 January to 6 February.

74th Annual Exhibition of Academy of Fine Arts ended on 3 January. 43rd Annual of Birla Academy was held between 9 and 31. Annual of Gallery La Mere was held between 7 and 17. This month is memorable as 52nd National Exhibition organized by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi has been held in Kolkata from 8th after about 25 years featuring works of 95 artists from all over India.

Till January 16, 'Experimenter' presented an unconventional show 'Freedom is Notional' featuring works of Shilpa Gupta, Bani Abidi and Naeem Mohaiemen from India, Bangla Desh and Pakistan respectively. Solo of Jayanta Roy titled 'B-Swarga' ended on 3rd at Bose Pacia. Gallery Sanskriti hosted a retrospective show of Surya Prakash titled 'Abstract Reality' from 6 to 16. Gallery Exposer presented 5th solo of paintings by Sumana Ghosh titled 'Intimacy' between 7 and 17. Romain Maitra curated 'Pretty Ugly' an exhibition of works by Rabin Mandal, Jogen Chowdhury, Jaya Ganguly, Samir Roy, Samit Das, Shridhar Iyer, Nidhi Agarwal and Sutanu Chatterjee at Bose Pacia from 11 January to 7 February. Rangotsav on line Art Gallery presented at Academy of Fine Arts from 14 to 20 'Bengal Paintings: Search for National Identity, Pre-modern and Modern'.

These were some of the important shows among many others held during the month.