The exhibition, called Ruminations on India: A trail of artworks on paper, at New Delhi’s Bikaner House, Living Tradition Centre, offers a classic treat for art aficionados and aesthetes. Presented by Apparao Galleries, it displays over 100 artworks by artists who shaped the narrative of Indian modern art while defining the visual expressions of various schools of art in the country through associations that birthed the Bengal school of art, Progressive Artists’ Group in the formerly Bombay (now Mumbai), Baroda school of art, Madras school of art and other cross-cultural art networks of post-liberalisation India.
On display is an artistic concoction of varied styles and mediums, ranging from Raja Ravi Varma’s chromolithographs of deities and Jamini Roy’s folksy figurative art on gouche on paper to M V Dhurandhar’s soft pencil portraits on paper and G S Haldankar’s water colour on paper pasted on board. “I have been an artist for 39 years and we thought we would do this exhibition as a lead up to our 40th year. I chose Delhi is because I had been working in the city for over 30 years and I thought it was inevitable that I should do a nice big show here because of the visibility,” says Sharan Apparao, director and founder of Apparao Galleries, which is based in Chennai and Delhi. The exhibit showcases artworks by 96 artists, including Arpita Singh, Anjolie Ela Menon, Somnath Hore, SH Raza, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Amrita Sher-Gil, MF Husain, Raja Ravi Varma, Nicholas Roerich, Manjeet Bawa, Jamini Roy and Tyeb Mehta.
Sharan claims to have worked and talked with almost every artist featured in the exhibition, except Jamini Roy, Sawlaram Haldankar and Mahadev Vishwanath Dhurandhar who were not alive when she started working. She adds, “My aim was to portray these artists within the context of the evolution of Indian art, simultaneously anchoring my association with them along this historical timeline. It’s worth noting that I even had the opportunity to meet M V Dhurandhar’s daughter while sourcing a collection of artworks for a collector. Additionally, I’ve sourced numerous exceptional works for various collectors, even those by artists who were no longer alive. Nevertheless, I’ve sustained a connection with each artist featured in this exhibition, at some point or another, as they encompass not only a significant aspect of artistic history but also hold a place within my personal journey.”
This exhibition, she says, is a fundraiser for an educational foundation, Apparao Art Foundation, she is building “most probably in Chennai, which will be finalised eventually”. She asserts, “This show was planned to fund the corpus for this foundation. Not all of these works were from my collection or were given to me by artists. A lot of them came from collectors, other galleries and other colleagues of mine, so this is really a huge collective effort, and it also proves to you and the public that this art community actually is quite strong.”
The exhibition is slated to be held between August 19 and 26 at Bikaner House, Living Tradition Centre, Behind Haldiram - Gate 03, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi 110003. Artworks are priced upwards of ₹75,000.
