Part Narratives Curated by Gayatri Sinha 13 August 2017 – 19 September 2017
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Part Narratives Curated by Gayatri Sinha 13 August 2017 – 19 September 2017 Nandita Raman, Untitled # 5 (Natraj), 2009, Archival pigment print 24 x 30 inches, Courtesy: Nandita Raman & sepiaEYE The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum presents, Part Narratives, curated by Gayatri Sinha. The exhibition is on view from 13 August 2017 – 19 September 2017. The exhibition is supported by: About the Exhibition In 2017, the Partition of India is marked by its 70th anniversary. Drawing on the readings of departure and partial histories, the exhibition Part Narratives commemorates this event, and brings the art production that surrounded it within museum and art discourse. At the same time it turns our attention to issues of migration as they beset the world at present, to the long shadow of Partition and its passage through time. As a subject of engagement Partition has generated painting, photography, drawings, sculpture, cinema, theatre, television productions and a multiplicity of oral testimonies textual writing on this major cataclysm in Indian history. Partition as a subject has persisted and leaked through the decades, extending from the eye witness sketches of the artist as diarist in the 1940s, to the conceptually universal art works of the present time. Over this period, the issues around Partition have been problematized and gained relevance beyond the actual event. As a discontinuous but distinct body of work, Partition as a subject is remarkable in its outpouring of a response that persisted, despite the absence of institutional support. The exhibition draws on three principal timelines of art produced around the event: art as testimonial, which comprises the artists' eye witness accounts of the event of the 1940s and 50s, art as residue in the decades of the 60’s to the 80’s, and finally the event as historic imperative that invites reflection and understanding even seven decades later. Gayatri Sinha Curator PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Anita Dube Annu Palakunnathu Mathew Arpita Singh Atul Bhalla Chittoprasad Bhattacharya Gigi Scaria K. M. Madhusudhanan Krishen Khanna Nandita Raman Nandalal Bose S. L. Parasher Sheba Chhachhi Somnath Hore Sonia Khurana Susanta Mandal Zainul Abedin Exhibition courtesy: Swaraj Art Archive Vadehra Art Gallery DAG Modern Akar Prakar sepiaEYE ANITA DUBE Anita Dube (b. 1958, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh) is an Indian contemporary artist. She completed her graduation in history from the University of Delhi in 1979 and a Master's in art criticism at the MS University of Baroda in 1982. Some of her recent solo exhibitions are Yours Disparately, Nature Morte, New Delhi (2014-15); Chance Pieces, Nature Morte, Berlin (2013). Some of her selected group exhibitions include After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary India 1947/1997, Queens Museum, New York (2015); Sparsha: Touching The Senses (Ritual And Contemporary Art), Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum (2014-15). Anita Dube is appointed curator for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 2018. ANNU PALAKUNNATHU MATHEW Born in Stourport-on-Severn, England and educated in India and North America, Annu Palakunnathu Matthew‘s photo-based artwork explores re-looking at cultural histories, identity, and memory. Matthew’s recent solo exhibitions include shows at the Royal Ontario Museum, Nuit Blanche Toronto, and sepiaEYE, New York City. She has also exhibited her work at the RISD Museum, Tang Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, as well as at the Smithsonian. Annu Palakunnathu Matthew is Professor of Art at the University of Rhode Island and Director of the Center for the Humanities. She is also the URI 2015-17 Silvia Chandley Professor for Peace Studies and Non-Violence. ARPITA SINGH Arpita Singh (b. 1937, Bara Nagar, West Bengal) completed her Diploma in Fine Arts from the School of Art, Delhi Polytechnic, New Delhi. Singh’s important solo exhibitions include: Arpita Singh, DC Moore Gallery, New York (2012); Cobweb, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2010-11), and at The Museum Gallery, Mumbai; Picture Postcard 2003-2006, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2006). She was honoured with the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2011. In 1998-99, she received the Kalidas Samman awarded by the Government of Madhya Pradesh. She is also the recipient of the Parishad Samman by the Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi. ATUL BHALLA Atul Bhalla has explored the physical, historical, and political significance of water in the urban environment of New Delhi through artworks that incorporate sculpture, painting, installation, video, photography, and performance. His recent solo shows include Adrift (On the Dvaipayana), LightBox Gallery, Harvard Art Museums (2016); you always step into the same river, SepiaEYE New York (2015); Ya Ki Kuch Aur, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2014). Bhalla is an Associate Professor at the Shiv Nadar University at the department of Art Design and Performance. CHITTOPRASAD BHATTACHARYA Chittoprasad Bhattacharya (b. 1915, Naihati, West Bengal) was a self-taught artist. In 1943-44, he experienced the Bengal Famine which resulted in his depiction of human suffering in drawings and sketches made in pen and ink. These drawings and reports were published in People’s War, and culminated in his publication Hungry Bengal. Some of Chittoprasad’s important exhibitions include Chittaprosad, A Retrospective, 1915-1978, Delhi Art Gallery, Mumbai (2014), Manifestations V, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi (2011), Chittaprosad, Nandan, Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan (1994). He died in 1978. GIGI SCARIA Gigi Scaria (b.1973, Kothanalloor, Kerala) completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram in 1995. Scaria later undertook a Master of Arts at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Scaria’s solo exhibitions include Amusement park (Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, 2009), Difficult to imagine, easy to construct (Art Asia Miami, 2008), Site under construction (Videospace Budapest, 2008) featured video art that included interviews (fictional and non-fictional), documentaries and animation. Gigi Scaria has participated in West Heavens, Shanghai, the 54th Venice Biennale, the 3rd Singapore Biennale, Prague Biennale. K. M. MADHUSUDHANAN K. M. Madhusudhanan (b. 1956, Allapuzha, Kerala) studied Painting from Fine Arts College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and print making at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda, Gujarat. His work confronts India’s film history, her colonial period and contemporary war politics. Madhusudhanan’s installation of 90 charcoal drawings titled The Logic of Disappearance - A Marx Archive has been shown at the Kochi Muziris Biennale: Whorled Explorations (2014-15), and in a solo exhibition at Baltic 39, Newcastle, as part of the AV Festival (2016). The series Penal Colony has been shown at the Venice Biennale: All the World's Futures, 2015. KRISHEN KHANNA Krishen Khanna (b. 1925, Faisalabad, Pakistan) studied at the Imperial Service College, Windsor, England, and at Punjab University, Lahore. Khanna’s important solo exhibitions include: Krishen Khanna: A Retrospective (2010) at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; The Savage Heart (2008) at Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai; Solo Show (1965) at Egan Gallery, New York; Solo Show (1964) at Watkins Art Gallery, Washington D.C. He was awarded the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan in 1990 and 2011 by the Government of India. He received the Lalit Kala Ratna in 2004. NANDITA RAMAN Nandita Raman (b. 1980, Varanasi, India) works with a range of mediums including photography, video and language. Raman’s work has most notably been exhibited in Franz Josefs Kai 3, Vienna, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University and Columbia University. Her cinema hall photographs will be shown in George Eastman Museum in fall 2017. Raman’s work has been published in Harper’s Magazine, Conveyor Arts, The Sunday Guardian, Marg Magazine among others. She has taught in City University of New York and International Center of Photography. She is a recipient of Alkazi Foundation’s ‘Documentary Photography Grant’ for her ongoing project in Varanasi. NANDALAL BOSE Nandalal Bose (b.1882, Kharagpur, Bihar) trained under Abanindranath Tagore for painting. He joined the Government Art College, Calcutta in 1905 and then went to Santiniketan in 1914. Nandalal Bose worked with various mediums and also imbibed the wash technique used by Japanese artists. Bose’s work has been shown at Rubin Museum of Art, New York, Singapore, USA. Some of his exhibitions include Postcards of Nandalal Bose, Akar Prakar, Kolkata (2011), Manifestations VI, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi (2011), In Search of the Vernacular, Aicon Gallery, New York (2009). He died in 1966. S. L. PARASHER S. L. Parasher (b. 1904, Gujranwala, Pakistan) studied English literature at the Forman Christian College, Lahore in 1935. Subsequently, Parasher became a student of art under M. A. Aziz, and found a mentor and friend in Roop Krishna. In 1936, Parasher joined the Mayo College as lecturer and went on to become the Vice Principal. In 1952, he became the founding Principal of Government School of Arts and Crafts in Shimla. Thereafter, Parasher moved to Bombay to serve as the Director of the All India Handicrafts Board and settled in Delhi in the early 1960s. He passed away in 1990. SHEBA CHHACHHI Sheba Chhachhi’s lens based works investigate contemporary questions: about gender, the body, the city, cultural memory and eco-philosophy, through intimate, sensorial encounters. Chhachhi’s works often draw on pre-modern thought and visual histories, interweaving the mythic and the social. Her works are held in significant public and private collections, including Tate Modern, UK; Kiran Nadar Museum, Delhi; Bose Pacia, New York; Singapore Art Museum and National Gallery of Modern Art, India. Sheba Chhachhi has recently won the Prix Thun for Art and Ethics award (2017). SOMNATH HORE Somnath Hore (b. 1921, Barama, Chittagong, Bangladesh) studied at the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata. From 1974 onwards Hore began working with bronze sculptures along with paper pulp prints. The anguished human form has widely been reflected in Hore’s figuration. Hore’s work has been showcased in private galleries as well as at the Nandan, the museum at Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan.