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Contents Contents 11 Editor’s Note – Bhavna Kakar Title: Photo Essay 116 Author: Ronny Sen 13 Guest Editor’s Note – Ina Puri Title: Photo Essay Take / Bengal 120 Author: Raghu Rai Title: City in Suture: Thinking Kolkata with Bapi Das Title: The Politics of Polarisation: Art in Bengal 124 Author: Diksha Gupta and Samira Bose 014 Author: Samit Das Title: Family Tales: Conversation with Chittrovanu Mazumdar 022 Title: India and the Modern in the Art of Pre-Independent Bengal 128 Author: Kunal Ray Author: R. Siva Kumar Title: The Collector’s Narrative Artist: Jamini Roy 132 Author: Shobhaa De interviews Dilip De 028 Author: Sona Datta Report Artist: Ramkinkar Baij 030 Author: Anshuman Dasgupta Title: Land of Exhile Author: Julian Spalding Title: Kolkata: The Fertile Land of Artists and Educators 136 032 Author: Argha Kamal Ganguly Title: Outside Art 138 Author: Ajai Vilasini Artist: Abanindranath Tagore 038 Author: Sanjoy Kumar Mallik Title: Exploring the Archive: A Vignette 140 Author: Najrin Islam Artist: Abanindranath Tagore 040 Author: Premjish Achari Title: Conversation with Tarana Sawhney 146 Author: Sitara Chowfa Artist: Nandalal Bose 042 Author: Madhuvanti Ghose Title: Kolkata Centre for Creativity 152 Author: Paroma Maiti Artist: Nikhil Biswas 044 Author: Nishad Avari Book Review Artist: Somnath Hore Title: Jangarh Singh Shyam: A Conjuror’s Archive 046 Author: Indrapramit Roy 154 Author: Shilpa R. Title: Real within the Real - Women Artists in Bengal till the 1970s Title: Jitish Kallat 048 Author: Dr Nandini Ghosh 155 Author: TAKE Team Title: In Search of the People International Review 056 Author: Adip Dutta Title: Staging Possibility: Reading India at the 58th Venice Biennale Title: The City and its Architecture 157 Author: Annalisa Mansukhani 062 Author: Jawhar Sircar Title: Recent Works by Prabhavathi Meppayil Title: Bengali Drama 160 Author: Rahul Kumar 068 Author: Ananda Lal Review Title: Though Not by Roots Alone 072 Author: Manasij Majumder Title: Connecting Threads: Textiles in Contemporary Practice 162 Author: Monisha Ahmed Artist: Bikash Bhattacharjee 076 Author: Deepanjana Klein Title: Through the Eyes of an Intimate Outsider 163 Author: Oindrilla Maity Surai Artist: Murtaja Baseer 078 Author: Diana Campbell Betancourt Title: In a Bizarre World: Adbhut Lok 164 Author: Oindrilla Maity Surai Title: A Historical Overview of Printmaking in Bengal (1900-2000) 080 Author: Dr Nirmalendu Das Title: Prabhakar Barwe-A Forgotten Master Artist: Ganesh Pyne 166 Author: Kunal Ray 086 Author: Deepanjana Klein Title: Art on a Two-Way Street: 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale Title: Reimagining Ganesh Pyne: The Reclusive Artist 167 Author: Dilpreet Bhullar 088 Author: Veena Bhargava Title: Refected Imaginaries: Chennai Photo Biennale, 2019 Artist: Sri Gauri Chitrakar 168 Author: Suryanandini Narain Author: Madhuvanti Ghose 092 Graphic Strip Title: Lens on Craft 094 Author: Kunal Basu Title: Trollspector 170 Author: Sarnath Banerjee Title: Food in Bengal Art 098 Author: Nilanjana S. Roy Title: Emerald Apsara - The Adventures of Professor P.R. Mazoomder Title: Mrinalini Mukherjee Animate Nature 176 Author: Orijit Sen 102 Author: Emilia Terracciano TAKE Pick Title: Earth as Haven: Under the Canopy of Love Title: Launch of Archive as Medium - Exploring the Performative Body 106 Author: Roobina Karode 144 Author: TAKE Team Artist: Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray 110 Author: Debraj Goswami Title: Launch of TAKE Fashion 172 Author: TAKE Team Title: Here to Stay 112 Author: Shahidul Alam TAKE ON INDIA 06 Issue 3, Volume 4, July-December, 2019 TAKE ON INDIA 07 Issue 3, Volume 4, July-December, 2019 International Review International Review Placing the generous onus of interpreting art on the viewer, reception of her exhibit. She places an evocative prominence ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’ traces an associative to materials and process. Even her choice of pigment, white, / LONDON albeit winding narrative outside narrativisation. The act of 02 delinks her works from the associations of color. The arbitrary witnessing is a central verb here, multiple and positioned frmly mark making, in a grid-like format, are delicate yet induce a in the present - across pavilions and individual works of art, the Recent Works by Prabhavathi Meppayil sense of infnity. ‘The prepared gesso panel is like a surface to past is scrutinised and held somewhat accountable. As a viewer, paint on, yet it is an object. This ambiguity is interesting for one could wish for a lot more self-refexivity (contemporaneity Rahul Kumar me,’ she adds. is not as forgiving as one might think) and most defnitely, a lot more physical space to contemplate the art on display. The only source of color is through the embedded wires and India’s return to the Venice Biennale is promising as a nascent these change over time. Metal wires are exposed to atmosphere demonstration of our heterogeneous art scene. Circling back resulting in slow oxidation. Iron rusts into orange and copper to where it began, with a call for resistance and recuperation, turns blue. Meppayil is comfortable with the possibility of their one can only remain hopeful of an imminent healing. There is complete corrosion causing for the wires to disappear in a few also a prayer for retrieval – of agency, direction, and sensitivity, decades. but more specifcally, of a future. Descending from a long line of goldsmiths, she has an inherent References interest in the traditional tools used by jewellers. ‘I fnd the Thekkuveettil, Adira, and Amarnath Praful. ‘Field Notes on Othering: A Critique of discarded molds of goldsmiths very intriguing. Placing them Prabhavathi Meppayil, eighteen one zero-0525, Concrete and copper, Soham Gupta’s Photobook “Angst”.’ Photography Ethics Centre, Photography Ethics 30 × 30 x 30 centimetres, 2019. Image copyright: Prabhavathi Centre, 15 August 2019, in a linear grid pattern creates a new dimension to these found Meppayil. Thomas, Skye Arundhati. ‘How the Venice Biennale Reveals Problems with objects,’ explains Meppayil, pointing to a large installation that Nationalist Art Patronage.’ How the Venice Biennale Reveals Problems with Meppayil’s works, through her geometric and grid patterns place Nationalist Art Patronage, 27 August 2019, https://caravanmagazine.in/ took the center stage at her show. The play of light and shadow perspective/venice-biennale-reveals-problems-nationalist-art-patronage. on the objects spoke of timelessness. Thinnam is used to etch themselves comfortably with the modern and contemporary Thomas, Skye, et al. ‘Gandhi Is the Central Protagonist at the Indian National delicate patters on gold and other precious metal sheets is what vocabulary. At the same time, they straddle across traditions of Pavilion in Venice’. Hyperallergic, 6 June 2019, https://hyperallergic.com/502753/ gandhi-is-the-central-protagonist-at-the-indian-national-pavilion-in-venice/. she uses for the repetitive geometric textures on the surface of embellishment and ornamentation, also referencing the trade ‘Our Time for a Future Caring’, led by Roobina Karode, 11 May - 24 November her works. Magnifed versions of these in concrete and layered of her family. 2019, India Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Arsenale. The India Pavilion is organised copper sheet were placed on the foor of the gallery. by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India in collaboration with Kiran Nadar Prabhavathi Meppayil, 26 April - 25 May 2019, Pace Gallery, London. Museum of Art and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). All images are courtesy of Pace Gallery and credits to Damian Griffths except where mentioned. Exhibition view, ‘Recent Works by Prabhavathi Meppayil’ at Pace Gallery, London. Monochromatic and minimalist abstract works of Prabhavathi Meppayil had a quiet presence at her recently concluded solo show at the Pace Gallery located in the premises of the Royal Academy of Art in London. In the third exhibit of Meppayil in the city, she continues with her explorations and experiments with modernism. Her works are not painterly, neither are they sculptural. The white-on-white gestures originating from pointed indentations on thickly applied gesso or linear metal insertions through embedded metal wire in gesso provide for a graphic structure that is often geometric in her works. “Meppayil’s works seem to be driven by a latent desire to leave behind the parameters of pictorial space and its supporting surfaces, reaching for an ultimate sublation of the painterly rectangle in a numinous architectural space,” says Benjamin H.D. Buchloh in catalogue text he authored in 2014. And this intent is further accentuated by the way she chooses to title her work, for instance 1/hundred thirty six, devoid of any representational reference. ‘My process becomes repetitive and tedious. I work in layers, often as many as ffteen. It is a very disciplined approach to the medium. It becomes critical to wait Shakuntala Kulkarni, Of Bodies, Armour and Cages, Cane armour for the right consistency and frmness of the gesso. If its too and accessories, 2010-12. wet, it does not stick and if its too dry, I cannot manipulate Exhibition view, ‘Recent Works by Prabhavathi Meppayil’ at Pace Gallery, London. All images are courtesy of the India Pavilion Archive. it,’ says Meppayil as we walked her show at the opening TAKE ON INDIA 0160 Issue 3, Volume 4, July-December, 2019 TAKE ON INDIA 0161 Issue 3, Volume 4, July-December, 2019.

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