Visual treat

Manpriya Singh

The meeting ground of colours, canvas and creativity has told many a story—at times abstract and at times absolute; from the artists’ flight of fancy to still life. However, it doesn’t take an aficionado to appreciate what’s visibly aesthetic. “One does not need to be an art connoisseur to enjoy the art exhibition. Art is for everyone to appreciate,” shares Baani Sekhon, the curator and the exhibiting artist at the 3rd edition of Ocher Art Show.

Apart from the 60 art works by 9 selected Indian contemporary artists, there are about 60 canvas fine art prints of old masters. From the Claude Monet to Vincent Van Gogh, take your pick. “These reprints give a chance to art lovers to own art without forking out a fortune. Some well-attempted reprints of classics have always done very well in the online art market as well,” she makes the case in point.

While the reprints vary from Rs 5,000 to Rs 12,000, the works by contemporary artists start at Rs 15,000 and go up till Rs 100, 000.

To begin with, there is a larger-than-life work by Manoj Das and the ever-explored ghats, the bazaars of India. Ramchandra Pokale’s acrylic-on-canvas series captures Krishna in various avatars, playing a flute to while prancing around trees.

Moving on there’s a boy playing around and hanging by the tree branches, a girl on a wing, a woman in muse.

There are also some more figurative works by Nawal Kishore, and landscapes and still life works by Jaskiran Baath, Uday Bhan and Aveena Sekhon.

What appears to be a Monsoon series by Somnath Bothe explores the effects of showers on a rainy night, on the streets and the like. Chandigarh-based artist Pramod Arya’s works perhaps bring about the perfect blend of abstract and landscape. There’s a riot of colours and some shapes emerging out of the colours; a tree, some branches, rocks…while most of the works are self-explanatory the habituated eyes still look around for captions or titles. Shares Baani, “Most of the works were untitled, so we let them be.” Moving on, there’s Gautam Buddha, Sai Baba, Shiva and Parvati and several spiritual themes explored by Baani. “I believe Sai Baba hasn’t been explored much by the artists, so I would really like to try my hand more at such artworks.”

Then there are also selected few masterpieces from different art forms (impressionism, pop art, symbolism). If there are works by Gustav Klint, there’s also the Marilyn Monroe.

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(On till December 14 at the Government Museum and Art Gallery—10, Chandigarh)