Emami Art is all set to host the works of artist N.S. Bendre in their latest exhibition titled ‘NS Bendre: Drawings, Sketches, Watercolours’, which will have 40 rarely shown artworks on paper from across the artist’s career, November 13 onwards.
Much of Bendre’s practice was drawn from observations of his surroundings and his reflections on them. Unlike his contemporary modernists, Bendre reflected and incorporated realistic styles in his paintings, in deviation to the usual styles of his times. His career was spent widely producing a body of drawings, sketches, and watercolours of the sites and people that he observed. “His frequent travels contributed significantly to his art — its unique sensibility, the vernacular charms in colouration and depiction of human figuration. He notably resisted the impulse of modernism, and used art to get closer to objects, exploring mimesis, which insists that the picture has an organic bond with the subject depicted,” says the dossier on the exhibition.
“It gives me great pleasure to present N.S, Bendre’s rarely shown works on paper from across his long and intensively productive career. Best known as a painter, Bendre had a lifelong habit of drawing from life and nature and produced a large body of drawings, sketches and watercolours in the academic style, a distinctive part of his oeuvre. The exhibition offers a glimpse of it. Unlike the modernists who abhor realism in art, Bendre strongly preferred it in his drawings. Bendre was also an avid traveller, and his brilliant early watercolours of various places are the show’s attraction. I hope everyone comes and experiences these beautiful works,” said Richa Agarwal, CEO, Emami Art.
On till December 12, catch this exhibition on the fifth floor of Emami Art at Kolkata Centre of Creativity.