Newsletter for Art Collectors & Aficionados

Weekly Collector Issue: IIMarch 2011

Copal The Leading Authority on Indian Art

Thought for the week:

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing”

~George Bernard Shaw

don't know almost anything about Hinduism.

Second, to show absolutely gorgeous Indian art — the very best material from collections all over the world, the most beautiful and rarest examples”

~ Curator Joan Cummins, Brooklyn MuseumSohan Qadri

Copal regrets the passing away of renowned artist Sohan Qadri. He breathed his last on March, 1 2011 in Toronto, Canada.

Qadri who died at the age of 78 in Toronto after a prolonged illness, began his quest for his true self through Tantric yoga and spent long periods of time silently meditating in remote temples in the Himalayas and Tibet. His isolation propelled his urge to paint and he has left behind him, a heritage of cultural affluence and legacy.

A poet, painter and Tantric yogi, Sohan Qadri was deeply engaged with spirituality. Qadri rhythmically serrated and punctured the surface of paper as part of his meditation 'Vishnu: Hinduism's Blue-Skinned Savior' is practice. His dye-suffused paintings on a new exhibit at Nashville's Frist Center for meticulously serrated paper reflect his the Visual Arts that is on till May 29, 2011 Vajrayana Tantric Buddhist philosophical which aims to introduce American art beliefs. Serenely composed, his works are audiences to the visual beauty of the intricate intended to arrest the viewer's thinking ways Hindus throughout time have rendered process and invite him or her to enter a their deities. metaphysical realm.

A watercolour, 'Krishna and Balarama as “Death is not the greatest loss in life. Naughty Children' (Punjab Hills, India, circa The greatest loss is what dies inside 1780) portrays the theft of the butter as

us while we live” Krishna's older brother distracts their mother ~Norman Cousins with a tug on her veil.

In another, Krishna, now a gorgeous youth, INDIAN ART'S INTERNATIONAL steals the clothes from a group of bathing

EXHIBITS milkmaids and climbs up a tree with them, refusing to give them back ('Krishna Steals

Introducing the US audience to the world's the Gopi's Clothes' Punjab Hills, circa 1775-oldest faith 1800).

“Hinduism is the world's third largest religion The exhibit, five years in the making, was and its oldest continuously practiced one, so organized by The Frist Center and includes it's somewhat surprising there has never been more than 170 paintings, sculptures, textiles a major museum exhibition on Vishnu, one of and ritual objects created in India, Pakistan its most important deities. and Bangladesh between the fourth and First, to introduce one aspect of a major world twentieth centuries.religion, Hinduism, to a largely uninitiated audience, we assume they are intelligent but The exhibition is on till May 29 before

moving to the Brooklyn Museum. Wales . There ' s been a genu ine reciprocation, which is an essential element of any good exchange”

Rajasthan Exchange Exhibition ~ Richard Cox, Arts Council of Wales

For almost 20 years, Welsh and Indian artists have been involved in a cultural The exhibition is on till March 26 at exchange programme for enriching the Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff School of cross country association and union of Art & Design.creativity in both the countries.

Source: Copal, Western Mail

Indian Art Exhibition opens in Helsinki

Art work from the Wales Rajasthan Exchange Exhibition

Valay Shende's work 'Nameless'Being two countries with very different histories and traditions, a major show An exhibition featuring the Indian unites artists from India and Wales that contemporary art was released at the Helsinki opens in Cardiff School of Art and Design Art Museum on March 4, 2011. The on March 4, 2011. exhibition called Concurrent India, features

works from a cohort of artists inspired by the An exhibition has already been displayed at changing environment in their home country. an international arts centre in Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur as well, which is the Subjects covered by the exhibition include second largest arts centre in Asia, and now the role of female saints and transsexuals, and it's time for Welsh audiences to view the the materials used to construct dwellings in work of the 18 artists – eight from Wales slums. Artist Hema Uphadyay is exhibiting a and 10 from India. The cultural exchanges range of works made from aluminium, which between Wales and Rajasthan began in is common in slums.1993.

Artist Valay Shende made a dinner table on The exchange exhibition features work by which he placed salt cellars that contain ash the V-6 (Virtually Six) print-making group from the funeral pyres of cremated peasant from Cardiff School of Art and Design and farmers. Rural poverty has caused an upsurge Indian artists. The show also includes in suicides in the countryside, where a lot of photography and works on paper. the artists have their roots and from where

Shende draws his inspiration.“The artists from Wales went to India and came into contact with the incredibly rich The exhibition is on till May 29 at Helsinki culture and the artists from India with Art Museum.whom they exchanged ideas. I always felt like it was a terrific opportunity for artists from Wales as India is such an extraordinary place. But the artists from India who have been involved have got just as much out of it by coming to work in

Revati Singh Sharma exhibits in Hong India from my WindowKong

Having spent a large part of her artistic career abroad, artist Revati Sharma has returned to her country of birth (India) to continue her artistic journey. Having known to capture the warmth, depth and vibrancy of India and its people Sharma is the first Indian female artist to have her solo exhibition, 'My Own India' at the Kings Road Gallery in London. Her forthcoming solo exhibition is to begin in April 2011 at the Hong Kong Fine Art Gallery.

'Fortune Teller' by Ethel Kambourian

Blue Skies' by Revati Sharma

Converse about contemporary Indian art

Dhauladhar' by Umesh Bhatt

'India from My Window' Copal Recommended TV Santosh's multimedia sculpture 'Living An art exhibit at with a wound' Watchung Arts Center features more than 80

works in oil, watercolour, silk batik, acrylic and photography that reflect on the traditions, Artists featured in the exhibition 'In sacred images, architecture, people, Transition: New Art' from India are Ranbir landscapes and other aspects of India. It Kaleka, Reena Saini Kallat, TV Santhosh, presents pieces by 35 artists from New York, Sudarshan Shetty, Thukral & Tagra and Canada and New Jersey. The artists Hema Upadhyay. The exhibition, presented represented in the show are not just of Indian in recognition of the Year of India in Canada origin, but many artists who have developed a in 2011, continues at the Surrey Art Gallery to love for India despite having no roots there.March 27.

Exhibitor Umesh Bhatt's images capture the million. Art historians are still unsure exactly reverent beauty and magnitude of the how the carpet and the canopy were arranged Himalayas despite the encroaching together.commercialization. His pictures also attest to the skills he has gained under the tutelage of Nancy Ori — a Garden State icon of Miniature Indian Artphotography and the arts.

Also, another spectacular group of Indian miniatures highlighted by an Illustration to

INDIAN ART AT SOTHEBY'S the Gita Govinda: Krishna adorns his beloved Radha (estimated for USD 150,000 – USD 250,000).

Bejewelled Indian canopy to be auctioned in New York

A spectacular, rarely seen bejewelled, nearly 150-year-old canopy from India is expected to sell for as much as USD 5 million when it is auctioned on March 24, at Sotheby's New York.

An Illustration to the Gita Govinda: Krishna adorns his beloved Radha, Indian Miniature Painting, circa 1780.

The painting depicts a scene from the Gita Govinda (Song of the Dark Lord) composed by the 12th century poet Jayadeva. The verse is homage to the incarnation of the Supreme Being Vishnu as Krishna, the Divine Lover. Here Krishna is seen tenderly tying a jewelled girdle around the waist of his beloved Radha The Pearl Canopy of Baroda will go under the after their tryst on the banks of the Yamuna. hammer as part of a larger auction of Indian The Gita Govinda paintings are remarkable and Southeast Asian Works of Art.for the delicacy and perfection with which

It includes over 500,000 pearls, as well as they are rendered. Their fluent naturalism and

numerous diamonds, sapphires, rubies and mellow grace create a magical world that is

emeralds sewn on silk. Floral 'Persian-style' imbued with an inner consciousness of the

vines made with coloured beads circle the communion between nature and man at their

canopy. This piece is a continuation of the most beautiful. The largest group of these

golden age of Indian art from the Mughal paintings was formerly in the collection of

period, with Persian influences.Maharaja Manvindra Shah of Tehri –

The canopy dates from around 1865, when it Garhwal. The album originally comprises was commissioned by the Maharaja of over 140 paintings.Baroda, in the present-day Indian state of Gujarat. It is believed that the piece was Source: Sotheby's, Art Dailyintended to be donated as a gift to decorate the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed in Medina, in what is now Saudi Arabia.

The canopy is part of a set which included four large rectangular jewel-encrusted carpets, of which only one remains. One of the rectangular carpets was sold at an auction in Doha, Qatar in March 2009 for USD 5.4

ART OF 'INDIAN HIGHWAY' 'prehistoric' vehicles are unlikely to go TRAVELS WORLD unnoticed either. One of them, the

'Autosaurus Tripous' (2007), is a skeleton model of an auto-rickshaw, the green-and-yellow three-wheeler that is ubiquitous in urban India.

Bharti Kher who is also highly recommended by Copal showcases her fibreglass, heart-shaped sculpture. The exhibition as it stands today in Lyon, seems more coherent than it was when it first started: not only is the art on show strictly contemporary but the focus on themes like Subodh Gupta, 'Take off Your Shoes and Wash Your Hands', 2007.

urbanization giving it a sharper edge. This is unlikely to be any time before 2013, It took over two years for the exhibition though fixed dates are yet to be set. Around 'Indian Highway' to reach Lyon from September the show will move from Lyon London, where it started and may take even to Rome's MAXXI contemporary art longer than that before it gets to Delhi, its museums, and will then head east to final destination. But this exhibition of Moscow, then further east to Singapore and contemporary Indian art does more than Hong Kong before leaping over the Pacific just travel: it takes a new spin with every to Brazil's São Paolo.stop it takes.

Source: Wall Street JournalA show opened at MAC Lyon, a contemporary art museum in France that is on till July 31, brings together the work of FORTHCOMING EVENTSaround 30 contemporary Indian artists–including Nikhil Chopra, Bharti Kher and Subodh Gupta–and the theme, COPAL DIALOGUE SERIES XVIII m o d e r n a n d c o n t e m p o r a r y a r t representative of a whole subcontinent, is reinterpreted each time to fit changing venues, make room for new works and satisfy curatorial whims. The show found its first home in December 2008 in a crammed Serpentine Gallery in London before unwinding in Oslo, then in the Danish city of Herning, and now in Lyon, France. 'Indian Highway IV', which started late last month, will be hosted in the French city's contemporary art museum through July.

One of Indian Highway IV's highlights is Copal Recommended Subodh Gupta's 'Take off Your Shoes and Wash Your Hands' (2007), a 25-meter long stainless steel installation featuring cooking utensils stacked on shelves. This is a reference to the everyday life of India's middle class, a recurring theme in Mr. Gupta's work. Other

'Two Girls' by Amrita Sher-GilCopal Recommended artist Jitish Kallat's

thThe forthcoming series of the 18 Copal Dialogue will have Rakhee Balaram, specialist in modern and contemporary art will speak on 'Fearful Symmetry: Amrita Sher-Gil's Two Girls'. The talk is scheduled for March 26, 2010 at India International Centre, Annexe, Delhi.

Copal's Chairman and also a distinguished poet, critic and art lover Ashok Vajpeyi would preside over the discussion. The event will begin at 18:30 hrs followed by cocktails.

We would appreciate an attempt of your presence and guidance, to take the industry, which is in its nascent stage, to a global platform, creating more awareness and knowledge amongst art lovers.

LISSON GALLERY, LONDON

Rashid RanaMarch 30- April 30, 2011

The artist's work is a juxtaposition of beauty and the macabre forces the viewer into an acknowledgement of the politics of the piece. A work that appears on one level to represent a notion of ideal beauty is in fact based on a more troubling examination of the increasing detritus and decay of the city.

Rashid Rana

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Special Contributions by: Ashok Vajpeyi, Ajay Seth, Devesh GargEditor: Saguna Ahluwalia Contributing Editors: Mithila Kapoor, Nikhil Khandelwal, Ricky Seth, Sahitya Prakash, Sharan Seth, Swati Sharma, Mahendra NayarCoordinator: Sanjiv Choube