Our pride Possession: Chandrasekhar Rao (1940-2004)

Masters @ Ashok Art Gallery : Chandrasekhar Rao (1940-2004)
Chandrasekhar Rao was born in a small village of Polasara in Ganjam district of Orissa. As a Handicraft Designer, Chandrasekhar created 4000 creative designs from the existing patterns of the tradition. His association with the traditional craftsmen of different trades brought him near to their crafts as well as life. Chandrasekhar Rao was trained in the Indian Painting (Shantiniketan style) from Government Art College at Khallikote and possibly worked under the best of Gurus those were available in Orissa. While learning the art of painting, he was much into depicting the mythical subject matters to start with and later moved on into unexplored areas of human life, nature and their relationships.

Looking back at Chandrasekhar’s life, he seems to be comfortable with the immediate village environment and its habitants, and they are his chief protagonists through out, whether it is a rendering of Gita Govinda or Krishnalila; Village pond or a portrait or any subject matter for that matter. I am privileged to be with him, observing him closely, in life and on work. Every bit of experience is artistic; as he explains, ‘if you want to exaggerate a curve in a figure, just try it yourself to a maximum stretch and never beyond because bending, twisting, stretching or any thing of similar type should not affect the rhythm of the form, and it applies to a smile, yes’. One of the characters of his painting is line and one can see the beauty of an comprehensive line from one end of the tassar canvas to the other, breaking free- one rhythm, one stop respiration and the form emerges from it with tremendous force and energy - a real unique signature.

Colours and compositions were derived from Orissa and its several art forms. His introduction to the handicrafts, as being the Designer, helped him to acquire more knowledge and he transformed the cultural forms in contemporary art equally intelligently. Many artists, we have seen searching for the title after the composition and its validity, but Chandrasekhar always knew what he was doing. He never painted the elements or composed; he rather lived, enjoyed and interacted with the forms in the painting, making it a part of the entire scheme. Precisely, he was one of those painted characters who lived out of the canvas, with us and his family.

Many artists, toward the last phase of his life, started to criticise his work as a standard (as in ISI) falling short of understanding his ideas and creativity. Some have started to imitate him for livelihood and saleability even after knowing that his works cannot be replicated, but Chandrasekhar Rao was the one who lived above these petty state of affairs during his life, and will always remain out of reach of such traumatic human behaviour. He was with us all till 2004.

Chandrasekhar Rao’s achievements include, besides being the Handicraft Designer, an art teacher (for children too), the Chairmanship of Working Artists Association of Orissa. He has received Awards by State Lalit Kala for four times; Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta; AIFACS, New Delhi; Bombay Art Society, Bombay; SCZCC, Nagpur; and many more. He has exhibited in Museum of Fine Arts, Chandigarh; Rashtriya Lalit Kala Kendra, Bhubaneswar; Bajaj Art Gallery and Jehangir Art Gallery Bombay; Crimson, Bangalore; Birla Academy of Art, Kolkata and many more.
This special collection has came directly from his son Sri Tarakeswar Rao, collected and available at Ashok Art Gallery.

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, we 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 New Delhi.

Sajal Patra has experienced the nature intimately and successfully moulded the political and societal subjects with their own shifting character.

The trend of contemporary art is changing and several makeover trials are in place where artist reframe his ideas in the format of rediscovering the self. Artistic transformations happen naturally but it might just be enforced in order to achieve certain purpose, while in the later the risk is considerably high. Turning the course of imagery in order to produce effectively throws new challenges before the artist. Often in contemporary, what we have seen is the fresh interpretation of the common subject; the one that we are associated with closely and familiar with the environment very dearly; comes in as a refreshing surprise to many.
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Beyond The Border an exhibition of Sajal Patra showing the work Spiritual Journey is one such painting, which depicts a ‘key’ on the left wall of the ghat that was left by the spiritual guru that symbolises the key of the world. The key here refers to the key of the mundane world that remained with the person till his spiritual journey begins. This conceptually reminds one, of the renaissance painting The Delivery of the Keys by Perugino in the Sistine chapel. The only notable difference was the absence of the human beings in Sajal Patra’s painting and similarity is the significance of the key. This narrative is a symbolic representation of Indian culture achieved through the vitality in a contemporaneous way. Keys seem to have fascinated Sajal in many ways and Mother Key is the other of its kind, symbolising mother to hold the solution to all the problems that surround the family and its affairs. Mother Key is a story that is told with simplicity and subtlety in an explicit manner through visual representation.

Sajal has experienced the nature intimately and successfully moulded the political and societal subjects with their own shifting character in time. Beyond Border is another example that cleverly finds a puppetry arrangement to the Indian border issue. It describes the cultural affinity that India has with its neighbour Pakistan and how politics overplays the issues. This demonstrate how human feelings turned slave through the containment of human values by the leaders (so called). The story is not fresh and it is believed to have been addressed by all medias, but the pathos Beyond Border contain, speaks of the suppressed truth somewhere touching the human life. Mother and Child is a unique combination of calf and trucked mother’s (dairy) milk. This interesting subject directly deals with the trading of milk that has somehow left the calf wondering for her mother. Somewhere down the line it seems while managing he man’s need, man has forgotten the nature of the animals that needs attention too.

Sajal’s journey from Ranchi through Bhubaneswar to Delhi has been equally interesting and it has impressed him with multi-faceted experience and exposure to the environmental conditions and the visual cultures too. His interaction with variety of people through this part of eastern India has intelligently placed in the visual version. Sajal Patra has matured with every trick of the trade and these works reflects his conceptual interpretations wonderfully well. Represented by Ashok Art Gallery , his works have been showcased at all Indian major art festivals and fairs, some of his works has been collected by international art collectors, as per his dedication towards creating Art works and on the value of his supreme artistic skill one can effortlessly say that he will be one the future perspective of contemporary Indian Art for sure. Sajal Patra works and lives in New Delhi, India.
Dr. Pradosh K. Mishra(art historian)
Associate Professor BHU



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 , 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 New Delhi.

Kanta Kishore has picked the popular slum with a different perspective that essentially deals with the core of the subject

KANTA KISHORE

Slums in Neighbourhood

Artists are exploring new media and techniques to convince the viewer in the present day. The range of subjects that the artist deals with today is intriguing and relevant. Indian art seems to have transformed from modesty to market and the journey has been interesting too. The turning points of art here depend heavily on the attitude of the artists and what we have noticed is the increase in the intellectual input with passing time. This has carried us forward from the agreement of the narratives in mythology and epics to negotiating society to human awareness of several factors. Our surrounding and social concerns have always motivated us to a new high. Kanta Kishore is no exception.

Kanta Kishore has picked the popular slum with a different perspective that essentially deals with the core of the subject. The effort by the dwellers to construct the beautiful and magnificent in the city remains in the most neglected part of the earth. Their struggle for existence depend on adversities of life and in the process, they sometimes smile up to their success, which is rare, and rest of the times, lament over their survival. In all these conditions, a pair of sleepers perhaps allows them to retain the honour of human while addressing the rough patches leading to life. The chaos of arrangement also depicts the lifestyle of people inhabit. However high or low they might go individually but collectively they remain intact to the nails that bind them to the ground. The insiders story of constructing a world imagined for the other rightly develop the concept of living.

The composition has deliberately caught our concern for the slum and its dwellers. The symbolic is apparent, expressive and transformed; it suggests the simplest of material in high coordination with installation art. The painting complements to the installation by making it look obvious and illustrative. Kanta Kishore has seemingly taken a defensive position in portraying the subject though several aggressive pointers are available to us. The approach to the subject is worth admiration. The awareness to uplift the downtrodden needs more application both politically and socially. The change is coming at a slow pace and it would appear significantly in future. The makeover through the artistic expression is to the concern is remarkable.
Sculpture Review by Dr. Pradosh Kumar Mishra(Art Hostorian)
Watch out for this growing talent in Art Expo India: Kantakishore Moharana


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.
Last year we 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 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.