Art and poetry
Ever since the Roman lyric poet and satirist Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) asserted in his treatise on poetics, ‘Ars Poetica’ (or Epistle to the Pisos c.13 BC  ) ‘ut pictura poesis’ –  ‘as is painting, so is poetry’,  poets and painters have sought inspiration from one another. Between 1760 and 1900 in England for example, there were some 2,300 paintings based on Shakespeare’s plays alone. Mind you, these Shakespeare paintings are only one-fifth of the 11,500 plus paintings inspired by literary works.

Poets who turned to art for inspiration include Berryman (Winter Landscape),  Lawrence Ferlinghetti (The Wounded Wilderness of Morris Graves), Randall Jarrell ( The Bronze David of Donatello), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (The Cross of Snow) and Allen Ginsberg (Cezanne's Ports) Brueghel had a special appeal to poets: Wislawa Szymborska, William Carlos Williams, Walter de la Mare and W H Auden are some of those who wrote poems around his work. Some art historians now contend Brueghel never painted Icarus falling. Ooh, these pesky art historians! I wonder what Samir Mondal would make of that! Mondal’s new show, Dhusar pandulipi - The Faded Manuscript is currently on show at the Jamaat Gallery. The show has its provenance in the poetry of Jibanananda Das who caught his imagination some 40 years ago. “His poems remind me of my childhood in a small village in West Bengal,” says Mondal who first thought of a series 15 years ago but began painting in earnest only last year.

The water colours possess a surreal quality, as Mondal reimagines the human and the environment negotiating with each other, creating metaphors.

Radical faction
Fact and fiction collide in the digital photoworks of Rameshwar Broota, artist extraordinaire and mentor. A select number of magnificent black and white and coloured images culled from his new preoccupation, are on show at the Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai. It is inspired artistry; Broota’s engagement with and affection for the new medium is apparent in the images on display. Broota juggles varied images to play agent provocateur.
Teapots, their spouts, fingers, machinery, hirsute limbs are both erotic and sublime in their interrogation of contemporary modes and mores.

Thukral and Tagra
You’d think they were peddling snakeoil at worst, a cough syrup at best. It was good to see some of my favourite artists at Lal and Chatterjee’s and I even wondered - maybe, it was the sight of Bose Krishnamachari that triggered the thought –  if it was a tribute to Bose. Silly me. It took a while before I cottoned on to the real meaning. A certain unprintable epithet - this is a family paper, my friends. The epithet could well be levelled at the myriad faces populating one of the artworks.

These guys from the country’s wheat granary, Tagra told me after asking me to help myself to the chocolate installation, these are the guys who will do anything to leave home and hearth, kith and kin for the Brave New World. (Amrika and Europa to you and me. The issue is touched on from another angle, women abandoned by their newly wed NRI husbands, in an incisive documentary shot in northern India and Canada which was screened at MIFF 2008)

 T & T could pass off for twins, long lost bros, separated at birth. They dress alike (in natty grey silk suits), look alike ( roughly the same build and height), speak alike. Even think alike. Or so they told me. But Tagra’s the younger of the two and both are happily married after artschool brought them together. Now, their wives have partnered. Nice.

Punshi’s homecoming
Acknowledged as the ‘conscious inheritor of a tradition’ by art critic and curator Ranjit Hoskote, Sudha Punshi returns to Mumbai with a collection at the Museum Art Gallery, of  green dominated canvases revealing her preoccupation with contour, colour, mass, chiaroscuro and texture.

After her 1997 exhibition ‘Quest’ in London, she moved to China where she worked with Professor Dai Ming De, a leading Chinese artist. 

 Lights, camera, action
Dilip Dhore is a young artist who earned his B F A from Sir J J Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai in 1998 and has won various awards including the 2001-2003 National Scholarship from the Govt of India. “I am not a Mumbaikar,” he says. “I detest politicians who divide people. But I am a Marathi man, born near Amravati. Do you know the place?” 

Like Walt Whitman, Dhore celebrates himself; his paintings and installation at the Birla-owned Gallery Articulate contains multitudes: he is yani, tapori, hero, Michael Jackson, a walking advertisement for certain brands.

‘Cause’ effect
The country’s oldest NGO, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) held its second Charity Auction of Contemporary Indian Art — Mission Greenscape 2 at the Taj as a part of  several fundraising initiatives for wildlife and nature conservation research. Last year’s auction netted a sum of Rs 80 lakhs, BNHS Vice president Pheroza Godrej told BNHS members at this year’s AGM at Hornbill House.

The collection includes works by Vrindavan Solanki, Vilas Shinde, Surya Prakash, Julius Macwan, Meera Devidayal. J S Munnolli and Ram Kapse among others. Prior to  the auction, the collection was displayed for a week at the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery.

In the 120 years of its existence, the BNHS’ commitment has been the conservation of India’s natural wealth, protection of the environment and sustainable use of natural resources for a balanced development for future generations. The Conservation Education Centre (CEC) the BNHS’ education wing at Goregaon is undergoing repairs to arrest the wear and tear of the building. If you’d like to help, please contact Dr Rahmani, at bnhs@bom3.vsnl.net.in or Dr V Shubhalaxmi, CEC In-Charge at vshubhalaxmi@bnhs.org. Or call  28402946 / 28421174.