Several aspects of creative communication were discussed with regard to literature and art, Silver Jubilee celebration of B.K.Art college a Review

B K College of Art and Crafts has completed its twenty-five years creative journey in Odisha and its existence resulted in the paradigm shift in art education and propagation both within the state and beyond. To commemorate the success, AlumniBKCAC and B.K. College of Art and Crafts are celebrating its silver Jubilee in Bhubaneswar.

The celebration begun with the inauguration of a public art and site specific art workshop, curetted by Jagannath Panda on the 20^th of January 2010. This National workshop was organized at the Lalit Kala Regional centre, Bhubaneswar along with various other public sites by the participating artists. The participating artists are Paribartan Mohanty, Prateek Sagar, Anjan kumar Sahoo, Helen Brahma, Kanta Kishor Moharana, Nityananda Ojha, Sudarshan Biswal, Sujit Mallik, Sambit Panda and Vejayant Das. This workshop would continue up to 27^th of January 2010.

The college event started with a national Symposium on Creative Communication. Prof. Kanchan Chakraverti, Art Historian from Santiniketan, inaugurated the symposium on 22^nd January 2010. Prof. Ganeswar Mishra, Prof. Sourindra Barik, Dr. Dinanath Pathy and Convened by Dr. Pradosh Mishra. Several aspects of creative communication were discussed with regard to literature and art. The participants focused on methods of communication and its relevance to art and how art needs to be communicated to the audience/viewer. The afternoon session was devoted to the audio-visual presentation by select artists like Ashish Pahi and Kanta Kishore which was coordinated by Dr. Pradosh Mishra.

On the 23^rd of January, an exhibition by the alumni of BK College of Art and Crafts was organized at the college campus on the foothills of the ancient site Khandagiri and Udayagiri. The Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik, who not only thoroughly viewed the works, but also had an intimate dialogue with the artists, inaugurated this exhibition. Dr. Pradosh Mishra briefed the Chief Minster about the displayed art works, present state of art and trends, while Jagannath Panda explained him of the national and international issues related to art. The curator of the show, Sovan Kumar assisted the Chief Minister to release the Exhibition catalogue. Ashok Nayak accompanied the Chief Minister to the annual Art Exhibition of the College. He also felicitated the Former Principal, Kala Bhawan, Santiniketan, Prof. Kanchan Chakraverti, for his contribution to the art historical studies in the eastern subcontinent, Dr. Dinanath Pathy, the first Principal of the college and Shri Adwaita Prasad Gadanayak, President, AlumniBKCAC for collaborating to the cause of art in Odisha. In his address, he emphasized on the rich cultural and art heritage of Odisha and its application in the contemporary art, defining a new approach of continuity. He appreciated the effort of the AlumniBKCAC for the entire event.

This programme was followed by an interaction by the faculty and alumni of the college, with the students under training, under the event title, My College: My Art. Dr. Dinanath Pathy, Shri D N Rao, Shri Baladev Maharatha, Shri Ramahari Jena, Shri Siba Panigrahi, Shri Adwait Gadanaik, Shri Jagannath Panda and Shri Ashok Nayak. As a continuation to the event, many of the passed out students and participating artists showed their creative video short documentations. Both the academic sessions was coordinated and convened by Dr. Pradosh Mishra.

In the evening, His Excellency the Governor visited the exhibition hall and was accompanied by the participating artists. His keen interest in art motivated the young and dynamic students for an intimate interaction. The Governor also felicitated the Teachers and staff of the college for their valuable contribution to the art education. The Governor graced the cultural programme at the college campus at the newly prepared amphitheatre, where Sakhinata, a traditional dance form of Odisha, Odishi, the classical dance form, and Sambalpuri, another folk dance form was presented before him.

The Silver Jubilee functions were supported by Subrat Mullick, Anjan Sahoo, Tarakant Parida, Veejayant Dash, Meenaketan Patnaik, Pratap Jena, Aparna Ray, Bidyutlata Patasahani, Sangeeta Mohapatra, Ramakanta Samantray, Sangram Moharana, Sudarshan Biswal, Projesh Mohapatra, Kirti Kishor Moharana and many other well wishers of AlumniBKCAC.

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists, became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India Mumbai and India Art Summit Delhi

‘Renewed Intensity’ is an idea to bring back serious passion and attitude towards a new art form, public and site specific art.

Renewed Intensity

On the occasion of the silver jubilee celebration of BK College of Art & Crafts, we are attempting to broaden our own horizons by re-introducing some of young and talented artists who are earlier graduates and have earned recognition. Some guest artists are also participating the event by invitation.

The city of Bhubaneswar has become a busy metropolis where both modern and traditional art and culture co-mingle. It has undergone vast developmental changes, shifting the historical & ecological map of the city in the last few years. The point here is to understand the coexistence of the past and the present.

‘Renewed Intensity’ is an idea to bring back serious passion and attitude towards a new art form, public and site specific art. Worth noting inherent in local culture lies this notion. This is first of such a workshop that we have planned: where artists will create the works with multiple approaches and u different medium, exploring art out of unconventional forms or ideas. It will also explore the possibility of varied aesthetic influences and expressions based on Interactive, Performance, Installation and so on. These artistic activates will attempt to understand inter-relationship of nature, culture, city, politics, fictional text and vital inner life. This workshop will create an environment of diverse art forms for the new viewer/audience. In these eight days, artists will produce art works in relationship between ecology and art in public spaces.

While engaged in the workshop, the participating artists will respond to collective cultural needs, developing active roles in environmental and social issues. Some artists will focus on the role of art in encouraging ecological awareness and social activism amongst local people. We sincerely hope our efforts will bring about a constructive change in the art situation in Odisha.

Jagannath Panda

Public art fits a much broader definition than art in a gallery or a museum. In simple terms, public art is any work of art or design that is created by an artist specifically to be sited in a public space. It can tower several stories high, or it can call attention to the pavement beneath your feet. It can be cast, carved, built, assembled or painted. Whatever its form, public art attracts attention. By its presence alone public art can heighten our awareness, question our assumptions, transform a landscape, or express community values, and for these reasons it can have the power, over time to transform a city’s image. Public art helps define an entire community’s identity and reveal the unique character of a specific neighborhood. It is a unifying force.

The impact of public art on a community is priceless and immeasurable and once experienced it only appreciates. Public art has the power to energize our public spaces, arouse our thinking, and transform the places where we live, work, and play into more welcoming and beautiful environments that invite interaction. It enhances the quality of life by encouraging a heightened sense of place and by introducing people to works of art that can touch them and generations to come.

Site-specific art is artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork.

More broadly, the term is sometimes used for any work that is (more or less) permanently attached to a particular location. In this sense, a building with interesting architecture could be considered a piece of site-specific art.

In 1966 Robert Barry said:

“(site installation) is made to suit the place in which it was installed. They cannot be moved without being destroyed.”

In 1989 Richard Serra said:

“The works become part of the site and restructure both conceptually and perceptually the organization of the site.”

But later, the concept and relevance of the artwork in relation to the site have evolved.

The artwork in a specific site still explores themes and relationships with its surroundings. However its site can be moved and the artwork can still be relevant.

It’s a battle between ‘what is Public Art’ and ‘what is Site Specific Art’. The art can become site relevant in a conceptual way, yet it doesn’t have to be physically nailed to that exact place. The concept plays a big part, because it can be a very wide subject/theme, which could be relevant in many places. Most importantly it involves the viewer of the work, as they are present on this ’site’. Site Specific Art then becomes audience relevant.

But, this workshop intend not to define the meaning of the terms but more relevant to the celebration and prepare and produce work of art along with the community.

Participating Artists:

Guest:

Paribartana Mohanty (Delhi)

Prateek Sagar (Delhi)

Alumni of BKCAC:

Sujit Mallick (Delhi)

Sudarsan Biswal (Delhi)

Veejayant Dash (Bhubaneswar)

Assisted by

Satyabhama Majhi,

Samarjeet Behera,

Niroj Satpathy,

Satyajeet Das

Nityananda Ojha (Baroda)

Anjan Kumar Sahoo (Bhubaneswar)

Bujing Rao (Bhubaneswar)

Kanta Kishor Moharana(Bhubaneswar)

Assisted by

Smrutisai Mishra,

Manas Moharana,

Somnath Rout

Sambit Panda (Delhi)

Helen Brahma (Bhubaneswar)

Information:

Activity: Public Art and Site-specific Workshop

Commemorating Silver Jubilee Celebration of B.K. College of Art and Crafts (BKCAC)

Concept: “Renewed Intensity”

Date: From 20th to 27th January 2010

Artist Presentation: 25th January 2010 at 5.00 pm

Initiator: Dr. Pradosh Mishra

Chief Guest: Prof, Deba Patnaik and Dr. Dinanath Pathy

Guest of Honor: Ramakrishna Vedala,Ramahari Jena, Adewata Gadanayak

Public Display: 26th to 27th January 2010, 11am to 8pm

Venue: Lalit Kala Akademi Regional Centre, Unit III, Bhubaneswar,

Coordinators: Sudershan Biswal, Veejayant Dash, Pradosh Mishra, Ashok Nayak, Anjan Shaoo,

Curator Jagannath Panda

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists, became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India Mumbai and India Art Summit Delhi

Review: Commentary in Three Dimensions by Himali Singh Soin

KANTA KISHORE MOHARANA

Ashok Art Gallery

D-1/31, Rear Portion, Model Town-II, 110009 New Delhi, India

December 11, 2009 - January 11, 2010

Eerily realistic, thought-provoking, rebellious and skillfully crafted: Kanta Kishore Moharana’s mixed-media installations refreshingly bridge conceptualism and formalism, birthing work whose message is embossed within the geometry of the marble, fibre, and bronze of which it is made.

The magic of Moharana’s works is its uncanny realism despite his use of permanent, heavy materials to depict that which is perishable, light, and functional. He sculpts, for example, newspapers from marble—an everyday, perishable item made permanent, heavy—and chisels out real headlines to shape a commentary on society’s ills: words literally ‘set in stone.’ In ‘Restoration,’ he carves a cardboard box being eaten by cockroaches from marble. The weightless, disposable quality of paper and cardboard is ironically effaced by its own depiction as the artist crafts immovable objects from perishable subjects.

This confrontation of our conventional perception of material objects urges the viewer to come closer. But this is an online exhibition, thus hindering the interested from really finding the desired detail in form. Kanta Kishore remarkably does not see this as a disadvantage. “I think it makes my work universal,” he says, “and accessible worldwide.” His background is humble: born to a family of stone carvers in Orissa, he has learned form and technique from his forefathers, yet injected his own ideas to appropriate the work into today’s socio-political and artistic context.

Kanta Kishore’s work with marble is not a traditional sculptural practice that mimics reality. Instead, he utilizes other media to make installations that comment directly on poverty, globalization, exploitation, hunger, and revolution. In his piece, ‘Exploitation,’ Kanta Kishore presents tiny bronze men who are trampled by a giant, red, 6-foot long, ornamented, Arabian shoe. The bright scarlet shoe comments on our contemporary classist society, on capitalism’s fissures in distribution, and on the inhumane manner in which workers, children and adults are treated. Compositionally, each element is carefully balanced in geometry, size, space, weight, color and concept. The specifically Arabian identity of the shoe, however, also implies a potentially provocative interpretation of crowds trodden under the force of the Muslim world.

“There are two aspects in nature:/ The perishable and the imperishable./ All life in this world belongs to the former;/ The unchanging element belongs to the later,” says the Bhagvat Gita. In flipping our perceptions of that which is permanent and that which is temporary, Kanta Kishore provokes us to think more deeply about the meaning and importance of the Absolute in a cruelly relativist world.

-- Himali Singh Soin

(Images from top to bottom: Raw Vision 3; Truth 1; Exploitation. All images courtesy of Ashok Art Gallery and the artist.)

SOURCE: Art Slant


The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists, became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India Mumbai and India Art Summit Delhi

Nicholas Forrest's prediction is that art investment will continue to gain credibility and new avenues to invest in art will open up

I have been watching the art market very closely over the last year and have to say that I was actually quite pleased with what I saw. The more scholarly and connoisseurial approach to fine art that emerged in 2009 has temporarily re-focused people’s attention on the historical, cultural and artistic value of art as opposed to the social and financial values that dominated the contemporary driven market of the boom period. I say temporarily, because although the glitz and glamour of the contemporary art market has taken a huge hit, and there is no doubt in my mind that the phenomenon that is contemporary art will shortly return to the position of power that has made it a force to be reckoned with in the past. Perhaps sooner than we may think!!

The scholarly and connoisseurial trend of 2009 still has a bit of juice in the tank and should continue to play a major role in the 2010 market. Take for the instance, the work of the rather mysterious Dutch Baroque still life painter Adriaen Coorte, whose work is little known outside the scholarly world and went largely unrecognized until he was rediscovered by a Dutch art historian in the 1950s. Works by Coorte rarely comes to market so when two small paintings came up for auction at Sotheby’s on the 2nd of December of 2009, it was predicted that there would be considerable interest, but not anywhere as much interest as there ended up being. The first painting, a still life of strawberries in an earthenware bowl was fought over by six bidders who pushed the sale price to 1,520,750 Euro which was not only more than ten times the 150,000 euro high estimate but was also a new auction record for the artist. Next on the block was the second work by Coorte which broke the auction record set by the previous painting when it sold for 1,576,750 Euro against the same estimate of 100,000-150,000 Euro. Both paintings were acquired by the same European collector.

Marcus Aurelius Root, Anthony Pritchard, 1850, quarter-plate daguerreotype

Another artist whose work is little known outside the scholarly world is that of Marcus Aurelius Root. An early work by the renowned Philadelphia daguerreotypist of Anthony Pritchard was a feature of the October 8 Miller-Plummer Collection of Photographs sale and reached the astonishing world auction record price for the artist of US$350,500 against an estimate of $20,000 – $30,000. The sale of this work by Root is another example of the current trend that has seen connoisseurs and scholars drive up the demand for works of cultural and historical significance. Root’s photo of Anthony Pritchard is not the only example of antique/vintage photography that has exceeded price expectations; the whole market for antique/vintage photography has experienced a continuing surge of interest as the importance of photography in an art historical context is further realised. 2010 should see a continuation of the interest in antique/vintage photography as collectors and museums vie for the top works in a niche that is still in it’s infancy, and that still presents opportunities for collectors and connoisseurs to acquire works of major cultural and art historical significance at potentially bargain prices.

As a result of the reduction in the demand for contemporary art, emerging markets such as South Africa, Indonesia, Turkey, Poland, Singapore, Iran, Greece, etc. have become a focus of dealers and auction houses in an attempt to generate new revenue streams. A deciding factor in the decision of which emerging market to penetrate has been whether or not there is a strong enough force of wealthy European/Western expats to fuel demand for souvenirs of their temporarily adopted homeland. Former expats of emerging markets are also being targeted by market forces in an attempt to encourage a sense of nostalgia that will result in the purchase of a memento of their time abroad. 2009 saw a concerted new ground being broken with region specific auctions, particularly with those of emerging markets such as Greece and Turkey – a trend that I predict will continue gaining momentum in 2009.

With owners of what are considered to be the most desirable and valuable works of art tending to sit on their assets while the art market bottoms out I predict that 2010 will see the slow return of those modern and contemporary works that tend to send the market into a flurry of excitement. Another prediction I will make is that art investment will continue to gain credibility and new avenues to invest in art will open up. A sign of the continuing acceptance of art as a viable alternative asset is the fact that Israeli billionaire Arnon Milchan recently told Forbes magazine that art is the best investment to own. In his words “If you have triple-A art, I’ve never seen it really go down. Great art is the best thing to own. We’ve seen recently the art market picking up fast. The last Sotheby sale broke records.”

Wishing everyone a great 2010 !!

Nic Forrest

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists, became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India Mumbai and India Art Summit Delhi.