The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Meet to discuss Geelani issue on Monday
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20
A meeting of the Managing Committee of Zakir Hussain College (Evening) has been convened on Monday next to discuss the situation arising out of the arrest of Abdul Rehman Geelani, a lecturer in the Arabic Department, for his alleged involvement in the sensational terrorist attack on the Parliament House on December 13.

Apart from the members of the Managing Committee, representatives of the Delhi University Teacher’s Association (DUTA), will attend the meeting, it is learnt.

The college authorities have already denied any knowledge about Geelani’s activities in connivance with terrorists.

The academic community in the Capital has reacted with shock after the security agencies arrested Geelani for conspiring with the terrorists in the attack.

IGNOU to hold workshop
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20
The School of Sciences of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is organising the UNESCO Regional Training Workshop on ‘Use of Electronic Media in University Science Teaching’ from December 20 to January 2, 2002.

Twenty-six university and college science teachers from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and India will be attending the workshop.

Cultural contest

Gurgaon, December 20
Students of various schools of the region participated in the two-day cultural competition for tiny tots organised by Summer Fields School on its premises here that ended today.

Students of various schools of Delhi, The Heritage, Delhi Public School, Global Public School (GPS) International, Tagore International, ITL Dwaraka International and Gurgaon-based Chiranjiv Bharti School, DAV Public School and Blue Bells Public School were among the participants.

CULTURE

A rebellious melange of abstract and realism
Rana A Siddiqui

Still Life with Vessels, 1962, oil on canvas

House on the River, 1991, acrylic on paper

Red Moon, 1966, oil on canvas

Very few artists call a spade a spade, or paint a spade a spade, if you will. Francis Newton Souza has become popular in Delhi because of his blunt style of painting.

Born in the land of scenic beauty, Goa in 1924, Souza is also a founder of Progressive Artists Group, Mumbai (1947). Winner of Guggenheim International Award (1947) and Kalidasa Samana (1998- 99), the artist is known for his maverick paintings.

His works of early fifties to the sixties are showing at Kumar Gallery, Sainik Farms.

Souza’s figures are too explicit, specifically when it comes to portray a female form. Like Picasso, he seems to know a woman well.

Being favourably inclined towards the Ajanta Alora female figures, his women also get the similar expression in his sketches and colours. You cannot dare see them eye to eye. They are too bold, unabashed.

The artist is obsessed with a few things, namely, Christ, women, houses and huts. Many of his artwork shows Christ being tortured.

His paintings have a mix of abstract and realism in human forms. The Christ paintings are a welcome change, done suitably in hues of black, brown and green. We also find various huts and townscape in his paintings.

The artist often reacts with emphasis in his paintings. He is even violent. He is “sticking to his guns and not donning the mask of dubious respectability…” says eminent art critic Keshav Malik.

He proves it through his NP (oil on canvas), a man with an aristocratic wear and a disfigured face in dark and bright shades. The meaning is conveyed well.

The artist also depicts forcefully that most well-heeled people are of dubious persona—don’t trust them!

He even says that he does not like painting. In his autobiographical statement, Words and Lines, he says, “Painting for me is not beautiful. It is as ugly as a reptile. I attack it.”

Blunt and clear as he is, he often paints Saint Assisi in hues of black and yellow.

The artist tries to teach no moral lesson. In fact, he probably attempts to hint at the suffocation, moral and societal degradation, captured well in his houses as in Indian jhuggis with Indian Ink and pen, unattractive `Fall’ landscape, and `Friends at Pub’ and `Priest.’

Though at times, he sits pretty and cool. So his ‘Head in blue’ is a mix of bright and dark shades, his blue moon (gouache on paper) is cool, overseeing various bright buildings and tress of unnatural colours like yellow and black. Through such bright homes, lanes and towers, this artist travels to his dreamland. He owes his allegiance to the small catholic enclave he lived in.

That’s why we find reoccurring houses, townscapes, priests and Byzantine church imagery in his paintings. Howsoever blunt, his red moon is impressive. It lends red colour to the entire environs of the city.

His ‘Still life with vessels’ is a play with wineglasses, containers of various shapes and sizes.

The interplay of dominant orange shades with blue/red seems to be the status of mind when wine is consumed. Interestingly, various figures of humans, homes and windows peep through these glasses, making them all the more symbolic.

Surprisingly, all his paintings adorn the walls of Kumar Gallery at Sainik Farms—a place far from the main city. Why keeping the artist’s admirers away from his paintings? “Because of security reasons. These paintings are priceless and private collections.

Some of them are borrowed from close friends, and are not for sale. These cannot be exhibited in unsafe places,” says Mr Virendra Kumar Jain, the gallery owner.

But, despite being at such a place, Souza’a admirers are regularly coming to visit the gallery, says a visibly satisfied Vinit Kumar Jain, the Director of the gallery. The exhibition is on view till December 23.

ARTSCAPE
Defence Colony emerging as an art corner

Go to the Defence Colony and you will find many art galleries springing in its ‘D’ area. D-23, is Krishna's Collections, Vadhera at D-38, D-39 is Om Gallery, D- 42 is Gallery-42 and one more emerging in the same area. All have come up recently and doing good business.

Is owning an art gallery a lucrative business these days? Can anyone who just have an extra well-furnished room in a posh area, be a curator of the art works and earn? What are the requirements to convert a room into an art gallery? What is the guarantee of their permanency?

Like any other challenging work, it takes a lot to convert a room into a gallery. You have to meet the artists whose work you want to display. Select his work carefully, as many of his works might not be up to the mark. Fix a commission with them. Equip the room with air-condition, arrange for proper lights and hygiene and spend a lot on postage stamps, cards and photographs for publicity and then finally get the commission on the sold paintings.

Owning an art gallery is of course, commercially viable, says, Mr Vinod Seth, owner of the Gallery Om. His curator daughter, Divya Seth, started this gallery four years ago. "In the beginning, we made no profits because of the slump in the market. But later, it went smooth. We get 20 to 33 per cent as commission depending upon the article sold and its price," said Mr Seth. But, in the same breath, he adds that out of the commission received, a lot is spent on postage and invitations. So the gap between expenditure and profit is very slim.

While Krishna's Collection's owner Mr Sharma has a different opinion. "You just cannot open a gallery for just money. You have to have a genuine love for art. Otherwise, the gallery cannot be continued for long. Take for example, the Modi's Group's Art Gallery, opened a few years ago at India Habitat Center. It was closed for this very reason."

The commercial factor is important for both the gallery owner and the painter. But here, the aesthetic factor dominates. The painters do not like to put their precious artwork at any gallery where they find the interest is lacking. They feel uncomfortable with the gallery owner who do not honor them and their work, he says.

Two-year-old Krishna's collections have hoards of paintings from both the renowned and obscure artists all over India. From time to time, it has encouraged young and first-time artists. "I have got tremendous response from both the visitors and artists. "They love exhibiting their works here. I honour both. I never send a genuine art lover empty-handed, nor do I disappoint painters who do not mind leaving their works with me with no time constraints," says Krishna Sharma, a self-taught artist and interior designer.

Vinit Kumar, the director of the famous Kumar Gallery, echoes the same feeling. "Art is not a public statement. It is an individual expression. So an artist must have a proper breathing space for his creations," he says. He finds the up-and-coming galleries, thematic and curated shows, quite encouraging for the artists, but at the same time, laments the genuine interests being replaced by spurious exhibitionism.

"Many people visit the galleries these days, for it has become a fad. Now anything sells. This is dangerous for the young artist. It must be checked so that the young artists keep aesthetic sense more in mind than the commercial factor," he asserts. But he accepts that more and more people are coming towards it as owning a gallery has a lot of interesting activities behind it.

So, Defence Colony, though emerging as an art corner, still lacks the genuine love for art. The gallery owner often does not know anything about the artists whose paintings are being exhibited. Sometimes, they do not even have the contact number of the artist, let alone the knowledge of colours and fabrics.

But there is a way-out, suggests Mr Kumar, “A bold and honest critical review of the paintings in various media will curb the young group of painters who come up with just anything every six months, keeping in mind the figure of Rs 20,000 to 20 lakhs. A restriction on a 'hurried work' will definitely help emerging better galleries with more better works.”