A Diary of a Curator's Podcast

Behind the Scenes | The Fine Art of Fine Arts | Janvi Sonaiya, Editor, Vibes of India in conversation with Author and Curator, Chaitya Dhanvi Shah.

Find Out : How and Why did I write the book? How I became the seeker and the artist a giver? How did the conversation start as a casual chat and turn out to be necessary documentation for the art ecosystem? What does the book offer? What is Shyam Sharma as a person like? Can aesthetics be taught? The magic of thought process. What does it take to be an artist? How has the book changed my perspective toward art? How to see, read, and collect art? Why a Diary of a Curator?

Special Thanks: The Vibes of India
Book: https://drsartscompany.com/books

This podcast is about the exhibition Naam. Namak. Nishan. which is a tribute to the spirit and culture of Indian soldiers who are focused and dedicated to seeking the good name of our country and the regiment they belong to, loyalty to the salt they are indebted to their motherland and protecting the Indian flag along with their regiment's flag from the enemies.

Experimental by nature, Kashyap Parikh is a multidimensional artist who has many styles and does not limit himself to working with one medium. There are Prakaar (variants) in shapes, colours, medium, size, genre, tones, lines, and the list goes on. Prakaar is endless. This series is all about one artist and diverse Prakaar. To compose it short, one can say his body of work is interlaced with spirituality and humanity. It is about energy, nature, growth and power being a vital extension. There are certain artworks, which ask for your time. Parikh’s works demand that time. Only then, it can reward you with a wonderful feeling of being with ‘Yourself’. To introspect and to act!

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Can a city influence an artist and his art? Yes, it does. Sometimes, directly and many times indirectly. But, yes it does and that’s how Boys From Delhi came on the surface. In this case, apart from looking at the aesthetic value, the scale of artwork, visual beauty and investment opportunity, I was more interested in finding one common element in all the artworks that reflected the essence of Delhi. Just like there is diversity in people, the artist from Delhi offers diversity in style, subject and technique. But, that one quality that brings out true essence in their artworks is that of being Fearless. Starting from Faiyyaz Khan, he motivates us to be fearless and THINK. Artist Gurmeet Marwah inspires us to be fearless and LOVE. Works by Hukum Lal Verma encourages to EXPRESS oneself fearlessly and Sunil Yadav's works stimulates to UPGRADE in life. Vipin Singh Rajput's works energizes fearlessly EXPERIMENT whereas Vikash Kalra's works rouses the viewer to be BOLD in spirit. That leads us to the next question: How to look at art? What is so special about these artists and their works? Let’s find out.

Welcome to the show - In a minute with a diary of a curator. Thank you all for liking season 1. I hope you will find Season 2 exciting as well.

In season one my focus was on figurative artworks. In this series, I would like to talk about how execution is important in an artwork. In our day to day lives, every subject is seen before, every colour is used before, every emotion is felt before, forms, composition nothing is original in this world. There are millions of paintings in this world with the same animal as the subject, art related to music, abstraction in context to time and space, and sculptures portraying human figures and nature.Still, why do we find certain works very interesting even though we know they are seen before. It happens to many of us. In my opinion, the differentiator is the way an artist ‘executes’ his subject. It is their approach that makes their work stand out. Execution matters the most as it makes a simple subject powerful and a visual treat to the viewers.

What is that one thing which is common in this work? Considering the colour, medium, expression, and the object ie.the ‘Bull’, ‘Power’ is the keyword here. The use of black, free and rhythmic strokes, the depth of charcoal and the force of the bull symbolically gives a different ‘High’ to the viewer. The artist has wonderfully controlled the uncontrolled force of the bull. Another thing to be noticed here is how Avijit Roy has intelligently used the background with fast and bold strokes created with his own hand movement to show the 'bull in action' with ‘elan’. This work is the best example when you want to understand how justice to the subject can be given through colours, strokes, and medium.

There are few works that are abstract but have emotions in it. This work by Bhanu Shah is a fine blend cocktail of music and colours, harmony, and melody. I like to experiment by watching artworks in different ways. From my experience I can say, the most engrossing way to enjoy Shah’s this series is to view it while playing some Indian classical music in the background. This music gives an additional booster to ‘feel’ Shah's work. It gets you to that zone where a normal mind cannot go into the depth of such artworks. Here, Indian classical music is like what cheese is to wine. I wonder how neatly several colours and hues merge with each other maintaining the character of each tone from opaque to transparent.

What would the artist be thinking while creating this work? At times many of us may feel, how haphazard abstraction can be? No rules, no boundaries. Well, that's the beauty of an abstract work. Such works allow the artist and viewer complete freedom to paint, interpret, and feel the work from their own perspective. Shri Nerurkar has brilliantly used minimal forms and maximum space. What a treat to watch this kind of composition where vibrant and soft colours balance the unknown forms and make this ‘collectible’.

Just like music can heal the soul, can paintings do the same? Yes, it can. The way artist Manoj Kachangal has composed the work definitely takes the viewer in his ‘Antar Yatra’. The shades of orange and yellow gives the viewer a positive energy and hope. The repetitive patches I would like to depict as one’s thoughts. In a fraction of seconds, we think of 100s of situations. Some are like red which may be of concern to us while some may be progressive and give hope. But, in the end, the ‘golden’ thoughts are the ones which we go ahead with, and that only happens when we talk to ourselves. No one can give us better advice than ourselves. In such works composition and textures play a very vital role.