Showcasing a range of diverse art practices, DAG presents Indian Blue — From Realism to Abstraction, with the aim of exhibiting the cultural and historic significance of the colour blue in the Indian context. In fact, the significance of the colour has been used to not only represent depth of shadows, for instance, but also in portraits and landscapes alike. Works of artists including Jamini Roy, Nandalal Bose, Sunayani Devi, Jogen Chowdhury, Abanindranath Tagore, Ganesh Pyne, Ramkinkar Baij, the Russian artist Nicholas Roerich who made his home in India, F. N. Souza, M. F. Husain, S. H. Raza, Himmat Shah, Prabhakar Barwe, Satish Gujral, Avinash Chandra, G. R. Santosh, Jeram Patel, Paritosh Sen, Prokash Karmakar, Krishna Reddy, Manu and Madhvi Parekh, Devyani and Kanwal Krishna, J. Sultan Ali, Natvar Bhavsar, Jyoti Bhatt, Chittaprosad, Shanti Dave, Biren De, Rabin Mondal, A. H. Muller, K. K. Hebbar, K. Laxma Goud, Laxman Pai, Gogi Saroj Pal, Anupam Sud, Bireswar Sen; are featured in the exhibition at The Claridges in New Delhi till December 1.
La Berge (The Riverbank) by S.H.Raza. DAG
As DAG’s dossier on the exhibition pointed out, the blue from Roerich’s Blue Cliff to the Paniker’s blue of the river in an untitled work; to a rare abstract by Roy that is a far-fetch from his usual style — DAG’s curation of this series goes beyond the colour and delves into a rich background of symbolism and the legacy the colour encapsulated for the artists.
Evening Glow, Calcutta by Indra Dugar. DAG
“Among the most charming works in the selection is a group or family portrait by an unknown artist that depicts a group of five women of varying ages in their gara sarees seated as though posing for a photograph with a group of four children. Two of the women hold a walking stick and a diary or spectacle case. The painting draws interesting parallels with the development of photography and how it influenced portrait painting in India. Rhapsody in Time by Anupam Sud explores how the printmaker returns to images she had made earlier, adapting and morphing them for etchings later. In this case, the figure in the etching took 17 years to evolve,” the dossier highlights.
Nehru Series - Ashes by Devyani Krishna. DAG
“Even though all art deals with colour, we have never before examined a colour individually. Through Indian Blue, we discover that colour plays a central role in our lives, and the artists chosen for this exhibition establish our relationship with it in different ways. I hope this will be the start of a discovery of different colours and their hierarchies in an artist’s palette,” said Ashish Anand, CEO and MD, DAG.