A Panel Discussion around the Book and Retrospective Exhibition Manu Parekh: Sixty Years of Selected Works

For Immediate Release

“Manu Parekh is the foremost expressionist in contemporary Indian painting.”

-Art Critic John T. Spike

NGMA and Ministry of Culture, Government of India in association with Avid Learning and Gallery Art and Soul presents a panel discussion around a retrospective exhibition and book launch celebrating Veteran Artist Manu Parekh’s 60-year artistic journey and practice.

Details of the panel are as below:

Known as one of India’s most inventive painters, Manu’s innovative practice and resulting book and exhibition will form the basis for this panel discussion with the artist and Cultural Theorist Nancy Adajania in conversation with Curator, Cultural Theorist and Poet Ranjit Hoskote.

Using this landmark exhibition and authoritative book as context, these speakers will dissemble Manu’s rich body of work, excavate his myriad inspirations and influences and discuss works from his most prolific periods. They will also discuss Manu’s place in the larger context of Indian Modern and Contemporary Art and his influence on markets and younger generations of artists today.

Read on below for an exclusive excerpt from the book’s opening note written by Adwaita Gadanayak, Director General of the NGMA:

In a career spanning nearly sixty years, Parkeh has been making artworks that hold a unique place in Indian art.

Manu Parekh: 60 Years of selected works at the NGMA, , brings together the full spectrum of his practice from the 1960s to the present. This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of artworks spanning nearly six decades of a long creative career that demonstrates the depth and diversity of Parekh’s practice. For this exhibition, the artist presents key series entitled Early Works, Ritual; Abstract, Animals Still Life, Head and Banaras Landscape. This show also includes a collection of drawings that illustrate his creative process. Manu Parekh is an important modernist known for his remarkable work related to the city of that reflects upon his knowledge of the landscape, mapping significant sites of personal and social importance. Various themes are explored through Parekh’s multi-faceted practice and this exhibition brings together selected works for the first time. His sketchbooks form an integral part of this exhibition which is like a visual diary of artworks that reflect the everyday world and documents personal records of the artist’s life, his inspirations, dreams and journeys. This comprehensive book featuring an interview published in conjunction with this exhibition provides an in-depth understanding of the artist’s work that extends beyond the scope of this exhibition.

Parekh has a close association with theater and he also spent much of his artistic career travelling, extensively and working in rural India with artisans and craftsman and this has certainly played a central role in his art. Parekh has also tirelessly worked for the development of artist and his projects include Orissa weavers, women artists from Mithila painters from Bagru, Rajasthan and many more. His art has been exhibited extensively in India and abroad at significant museums and galleries. He is a recipient of many national level awards including the Padma Shri which is one of the highest civilian awards of the Republic of India.

Do not miss this exclusive evening with some of the most authoritative voices from the art world including the maestro artist himself!

Where: The National Gallery of Modern Art, Sir Cowasji Jahangir Public Hall, M. G. Road, Fort, Mumbai, 400032

When: Wednesday, 14th March 2018 | 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM - Registrations and Refreshments | 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM – Discussion

RSVP: www.avidlearning.in/ [email protected] / +919769937710; prior registration required

Press Email / Call: Ayeshah Dadachanji on [email protected] / +91 9820155297

About the Artist:

Manu Parekh is among India’s best-known modern artists. He received his diploma in Drawing and Painting from J. J. School of Art, Mumbai, in 1962, and has held several solo shows and participated in a number of group exhibitions in India and abroad. He has been Member of the Society of Contemporary Artists, ; Member of the General Council, , New Delhi; and Member of the Advisory Committee, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. Parekh received an honourary Doctorate in Literature from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, in 2013. He was awarded the President of India’s Silver Plaque and the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Award, New Delhi, in 1972; the National Award from the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 1982; and the Padma Shri in 1992. The artist lives and works in New Delhi.

About the other Speakers: Nancy Adajania is a cultural theorist and curator based in Bombay. Her book, The Thirteenth Place: Positionality as Critique in the Art of Navjot Altaf, combines an art historical perspective with a politics of culture approach (The Guild, Bombay, 2016). It presents for the first time an elaborate historical analysis of the little-known Progressive Youth Movement (PROYOM) of the 1970s. She was joint artistic director of the 9th Gwangju Biennale (2012) and she co-curated ‘No Parsi is an Island’ (National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, 2016), which retrieves artistic positions that have been marginalised from canonical accounts of Indian art history. Her essays have appeared in various anthologies: The Curatorial Conundrum (Bard/MIT Press, 2016) and Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989 (BAK/MIT Press, 2016). She recently edited the Raza Foundation journal Aroop -- 'Some things that only art can do: A Lexicon of Affective Knowledge', 2017.

Ranjit Hoskote is a cultural theorist, curator and poet. He is the author of more than 25 books, including Vanishing Acts: New & Selected Poems 1985-2005 (Penguin, 2006) and Central Time (Penguin/ Viking, 2014), and the monographs Zinny & Maidagan: Compartment/ Das Abteil (Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/ Walther König, 2010) and Atul Dodiya (Prestel, 2014). Hoskote has translated the poetry of the 14th-century Kashmiri mystic Lal Ded as I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Ded (Penguin Classics, 2011). With Ilija Trojanow, he has co-authored Kampfabsage (Blessing, 2007; in English as Confluences: Forgotten Histories from East and West, Yoda, 2012). With Nancy Adajania, he is co-author of The Dialogues Series (Popular, 2011), an unfolding programme of conversations with artists. With Maria Hlavajova, he is editor of Future Publics: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art (BAK, 2015). Since 1993, Hoskote has curated 30 exhibitions of contemporary art, including two monographic surveys of Atul Dodiya (Bombay: Labyrinth/ Laboratory, Japan Foundation, Tokyo, 2001; and Experiments with Truth: Atul Dodiya, Works 1981-2013, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, 2013), a lifetime retrospective of (National Gallery of Modern Art, Bombay and New Delhi, 2005-2006), a historical survey of Indian abstraction, Nothing is Absolute (with Mehlli Gobhai; CSMVS/ The Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, 2013), a survey of 150 years of art by Parsi artists within the narrative of an emergent Indian modernism, No Parsi is an Island (with Nancy Adajania; NGMA Bombay, 2013-2014 and NGMA Delhi, 2016), and Unpacking the Studio: Celebrating the Jehangir Sabavala Bequest (CSMVS, Bombay, 2015). Over 2000-2002, Hoskote co-curated the trans-Asian collaborative project, ‘Under Construction’ (Japan Foundation: Tokyo and other Asian centres). Hoskote co-curated the 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008) and was curator of India’s first-ever national pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2011). He served on the jury of the 56th Venice Biennale.

About Partners:

The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) Mumbai, Ministry of Culture, Government of India is a repository of the cultural ethos of the country and showcases the changing art forms through the passage of the last 160 years starting from about 1857 in the field of Visual and Plastic arts. The first NGMA was opened in New Delhi at the historic Jaipur House, in the presence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and artists and art lovers on March 29, 1954. The National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai was opened to the public in 1996. It hosts various exhibitions and also has its own art collections comprising paintings, sculptures and graphics with a focus on Indian and International artists. It is located in the precinct of the former auditorium the Sir Cowasji Jehangir Public Hall and the Institute of Science. This architecturally marvellous building was designed and built by the famous British architect George Wittet which has been completely redesigned keeping only the facade edifice that was Public Hall. It has hosted eminent artists like, K.H. Ara, F. N. Souza, Gaitonde, S.H. Raza and M.F. Hussain and contemporary artists like, K.G. Subramanyam, Sudhir Patwardhan, Nalini Malini, Atul Dodiya and Sudarshan Shetty. The NGMA in Mumbai is run and administered as a subordinate office to the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, which has two branches one at Mumbai and the other at Bengaluru.

Art & Soul is an art space in the heart of Worli, Mumbai and enjoys the privilege of working with a huge cross section of artists. Founded in 2004, Art & Soul is recognized and acknowledged by the artist community for its varied programs, uniquely conceptualized, frequent and well executed art events. This is reflected in their large database of artists and the gallery showcase of works of over 100 established artists, spanning 8 decades. The artist relations are fostered through reputable tie-ups in the domestic and international art scenarios. Art & Soul’s responsibilities to their clients are met by raising art consciousness and awareness amongst primary investors, through consultations, workshops and dialogue with artists, art historians and art critics and through a unique format of social initiatives involving artists of different genres.

Avid Learning, a public programming platform and cultural arm of the Essar Group, has conducted over 850 programs and connected with more than 95,000 individuals since its inception in 2009. Driven by the belief that Learning Never Stops, AVID’s multiple formats like Workshops, Panel Discussions, Gallery Walkthroughs, and Festival Platforms create a dynamic and interactive atmosphere that stimulates intellectual and creative growth across the fields of Culture & Heritage, Literature, Art and Innovation.

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