Art connoisseurs in Goa had the opportunity to view paintings by internationally famous Indian artists at the group show of paintings and sculptures of the collection of Sneha Art Gallery, Hyderabad, which previewed at Museum of Goa, Pilerne, on October 29, 2022.
The show was curated by artist and versatile sculptor, owner of Sneha Art Gallery, Dr Snehalata Prasad (PhD Fine Art) and Sundeep Murgaonkar, from Goa.
The reason Snehalata chose Goa to have this show in Goa was, “Previously, we did an international art camp and curated 3 exhibitions in Goa, and got a very good response from Goan artists, art lovers and buyers. After seeing the response, I decided to exhibit my collection at Museum of Goa, Pilerne, which I felt was the best place. It has taken about ten years to collect these works. Most are from the gallery collection, but a few of them have been acquired from art collectors.”
ABOUT THE ART
Several artists are on exhibit, including 21 masters – Thota Vaikuntam, Anjali Ela Menon, Akbar Padamse, Amol Pawar, Arti Singhvi, Babu Xavier, B Prabha, Badri Narayan, FN Souza, GR Santosh, Gopal Ghose, Harender Das, Jogen Chowdhury, Jamini Roy, Krishen Khanna, KG Subramanyan, Jatin Das, Leela Dewan, MF Husain, Mullai Rajan, Madan Meena, NS Manohar, Nandlal Bose, Paresh Maity, Ram Kumar, Ramkrishna Baij, Ramesh Gojrala, Raja Ravi Verma, Renu Bala, Sanjay Kumar, Shakti Barman, Sunil Das, Sanjib Gogoi, Snehalata Prasad, Vibhuti Pandya, Hriday Koshal, Vijay Shanka, Sanjay Kumar, Smitha Srivastava, Shiv Nandini Makali, Sarbani, Kailash Chand.
Many old masters are no more, and recipients of state and national awards works have been auctioned at Sotheby’s and other international and national auction houses. Their works are still sought after and continue fetching high prices.
Generally, artists have a mission – analyzing forces within human beings, conscious about traditional culture and technical innovation. Several are influenced by memories of colours of India, nature, day-to-day life, flora and fauna, portrayed in intangible narrations of spirituality, society and environmental degradation, victims of sexual violence, juxtaposing mythological elements in serious tones, tinged with subtle humour, with elements of collage in a multi-hued palette, abstracts, semi-abstracts, semi-figurative paintings with monochromatic and decorative backgrounds.
Brushstrokes and splashes of colours, textures, dominant technique of adding white pigments and colour highlights, dominant and monochromatic colours of the background, organic and geometric figures, stimulation of light play, all capture stable reposes inventing another vision between the creator and the work.
All of this jointly gives life to dreamscapes in acrylic, oil, watercolour, charcoal, pen and ink, pencil, on canvas and paper, in individualistic distinctive styles. They explore form and formlessness, mortal and divine energy and desire, combine figurative and abstract elements, in fluid engrossing narratives that tap into the innermost self of the viewer, in paintings ranging in price from ₹ 6k to ₹ 5lakhs.
The highlight of the show which attracted most of the viewers was the Kutumb series of sculptures and the longest painting of 32 feet named as the ‘Golden Era of Indian Art’ by Snehalata.
Goa is the first venue to exhibit this collection, and plans to show them in Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Singapore are on the anvil.
The paintings will be on exhibit till November 6, 2022 at Museum of Goa, Pilerne Industrial Estate, Pilerne, Bardez.