Tuesday, March 21, 2023
  • SIGN IN
SUBSCRIBE
Pravasi Indians Magazine
  • Home
  • Books
  • Business
  • Culture
  • Diaspora
  • Spaces
  • Interviews
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Books
  • Business
  • Culture
  • Diaspora
  • Spaces
  • Interviews
No Result
View All Result
Pravasi Indians Magazine
SUBSCRIBE
  • SIGN IN
Home Arts & Culture

THE ART OF INTERROGATION

THE ART OF INTERROGATION

SHAURYA KUMAR, a Chicago-based art teacher who passed out from Delhi Art School raises issues of history through his art works shown at a recent exhibition in New Delhi

BY PARSA VENKATESHWAR RAO JR

It was deeply stirring to view Shaurya Kumar’s solo exhibition provocatively titled “There is no God in the Temple”—a line taken from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem—at Gallery Threshold in New Delhi over November 2 to December 21, 2022. It was not about viewing the paintings and installations and admiring the aesthetics of it. Kumar, who teaches at the reputed School of the Art Institute of Chicago, grapples with questions of art and art history through his paintings and installations. His art can be termed ‘conceptual art’, where he is keen to express ideas and questions more than just colours and figures.

There are two Rajasthani-style paintings showing episodes from the stories of Rama and Krishna. Kumar has collaborated with a Rajasthani-style painter to convey his ideas. There is the painting showing Rama, Sita and Lakshmana going to the forest. What we see in the paintings are three trees. What is not there are the figures of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana. This should not be taken to mean that the trees represent the three figures. We know that in early Buddhist art, the Buddha was shown through the symbolic tree, meditating under which he had attained Nirvana, or the wheel showing the ‘dharma chakra’. In this Rajasthani painting, Kumar is indicating the plain absence of the three figures.

Similarly, there is the painting showing Yashoda with a rod in her hand ready to chastise boy Krishna for stealing the butter from the homes of the Gopikas or the milk-maidens. Krishna in this picture is out of the frame, and Yashoda with the rod in her hand is looking outside the frame, and the milk-maidens are standing in a group at this end of the frame. The concept is clear: the absence of God. To convey his idea, Kumar collaborated with an artist who was adept in the Rajasthani style of painting while the ideas were his own. He adopts an unorthodox approach.

There is a sculptural frame with broken limbs. Kumar says that when he went to the National Museum, he saw parts of broken or missing sculptures in the warehouse of the museum and was trying to reconstruct the lost or broken sculptures of which the remnants were a part, and it leads one to connect with the history of art, where through the ravages of time and history, art objects have been left denuded. Kumar is contemplating the history of art through the assembly of the limbs in a single sculptural frame, and is inviting the viewer to do the same.

Then there is the installation showing the ancient board game of dice, and in some of the squares are placed sculptures. And there is a dice next to the board. The throw of the dice raises the question of who possesses the art piece, of those who lost the pieces through the throw of the dice. It is a stark reflection of the antiques bazaar where the pieces stolen and smuggled are sold and purchased. And those who come to possess the antique piece assert their own power. It is a comment on how so many of the Indian and eastern art pieces are found in different countries, either in museums or private collections, and which were not acquired in a straightforward fashion.

Kumar thus sets up a different kind of conversation between the artist and the viewer. It is not a passive act on the part of the viewer, appreciating the work of art and through it the artist’s creativity. It is interesting that Kumar is an art teacher and he seems to be continuously motivating his students to get a debate going in the classroom. And he seems to adopt the same pedagogical style through his art exhibition.

An alumnus of the Delhi School of Art, 43-year-old Kumar says that he was mentored by the well-known artist, Anupam Sood, and though he moved to the United States in 2004, living in New York for many years before he moved to Chicago, where he has spent more than a decade, he has not lost interest in issues concerning Indian art. He curated an exhibition of Indian artists living in the United States in Chicago, which was on from September 2021 to March 2022. He said that though the number of artists whose works were on display in the exhibition was not too many, the talent that was showcased was immense and diverse. He is engaged in teaching at the reputed School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he is also the Chair of Faculty in the Office of the Dean of Faculty.

Tags: #expatindians#flavours#india#IndianDiaspora#indianeconomy#indiansabroad#interiordesign#magenta#news#pantone#pravasindians
ShareTweetShare

Related Posts

THE ART OF INTERROGATION
Arts & Culture

THE ART OF INTERROGATION

January 27, 2023
“Vishwarang provides centrality to Indian languages, and Bharatiyata”
Arts & Culture

“Vishwarang provides centrality to Indian languages, and Bharatiyata”

December 30, 2022
“It’s a misconception that without English one cannot become a global citizen”
Arts & Culture

“It’s a misconception that without English one cannot become a global citizen”

December 1, 2022
Get Set Parent Children’s Festival concluded on a creative note
Arts & Culture

Get Set Parent Children’s Festival concluded on a creative note

December 5, 2022
“There is a scope for adding many more countries to Vishwarang”
Arts & Culture

“There is a scope for adding many more countries to Vishwarang”

November 29, 2022
“Web series are reflections of society”
Arts & Culture

“Web series are reflections of society”

November 27, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • SWA AS THE CORE OF INDIAN NATIONHOOD
  • WEALTH : WHITHER IT MUST GO
  • LOBBYING FETCHES OSCARS
  • LITTLE THINGS COUNT
  • Ajay Banga: Climate changa

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • February 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020

Categories

  • Arts & Culture
  • Books
  • Business & Economy
  • Cover Story
  • Culture
  • Diaspora
  • E-magazine
  • Economy
  • Environment
  • Food and Travel
  • Guest Article
  • Heritage
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Mixed Bag
  • Musings
  • Perspective
  • Philanthropy
  • Publisher's Note
  • Society
  • Soul Connections
  • Spaces
  • Special Feature
  • Spotlight
  • Travel
  • Trending Now
  • Uncategorized
  • Wellbeing
  • World
  • Young and Restless
Remember Me
Register
Lost your password?
Pravasi Indians Magazine

Pravasi Indians has become the voice of millions of overseas Indians spread across diverse regions of the world. A joint venture of M/s Template Media and GRC India, this magazine is the first publication exclusively dealing with a wide gamut of issues that matter to the members of Indian diaspora.

Contact Us

M/s Template Media LLP
(Publisher of PRAVASI INDIANS),
Rudraksha Apartment (Top Floor),
Opposite Ambience Tower,
Kishangarh, Vasant Kunj,
New Delhi-110 070
www.pravasindians.com

Connect with us at:

Mobile: +91 89209 54252
Email: info@pravasindians.com

Categories

  • Arts & Culture
  • Books
  • Business & Economy
  • Cover Story
  • Culture
  • Diaspora
  • E-magazine
  • Economy
  • Environment
  • Food and Travel
  • Guest Article
  • Heritage
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Mixed Bag
  • Musings
  • Perspective
  • Philanthropy
  • Publisher's Note
  • Society
  • Soul Connections
  • Spaces
  • Special Feature
  • Spotlight
  • Travel
  • Trending Now
  • Uncategorized
  • Wellbeing
  • World
  • Young and Restless

Quick Links

  • About Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • Archives
  • Our Team
  • Support Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Contact Us

Copyright @ Template Media LLP. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Books
  • Business
  • Culture
  • Diaspora
  • Spaces
  • Interviews

Copyright @ Template Media LLP. All Rights Reserved.