JOIN USMy mother was a very good painter. When I was a 12-year old, I used to see my mother paint incessantly.
I saw her using colours on canvas with passion but suddenly one day she stopped painting. Because nothing was going out of the house. I believe if her talent had got recognition then, she would have been a known painter today. But I don’t want the rest of the similar talented lot to lose out like her,” shares Annurag Sharma, director, United Art Logistics, the brainchild behind the recently concluded biggest art fair in India, United Art Fair at Pragati Maidan.
If anyone had seen the crowd the events drew over the last weekend, he would be left amazed at the quantity and quality of talent available in India. There were more than 500 artworks put up on display which filled up the streets (named after renowned artists) and had almost everything ranging from the traditional watercolours to abstracts, sculptures, installations and even a bookshop on the subject.
From Rabindranath Tagore to M.F Husain and Tyeb Mehta, the gigantic exhibition had the presence of artists big and small. While installations of white painted cars were a major attraction, the sculptures found their own set of admirers. The Hanuman Series by the renowned Malayali artist Sadanandan was an absolute delight. Sadanandan says, “We all see Hanuman as a servant of Lord Ram but overlook that he is also very knowledgable and one of the Astha (eight) Chiranjeevis. My attempt was to show Hanuman in his learned form.” It took the artist a month to complete his entire series.
Vaibhav Sharma whose work titled ‘To Be or Not To Be’ was painted on a canvas recreated as boards, says, “My work depicts the basic human nature of doing what is prohibited - like cheating. The boy standing on a toilet seat is cheating, which is a common technique in educational institutions and is still not talked about. This shows that the system is empty wherever it exists. But I am not labelling illegal or immoral.”
Tabinda Rizvi, a fourth year student of BFA, Jamia, was really excited to see so many different works under one roof. “Some of the displayed works are extremely beautiful and the thought behind them intriguing. Being a student of Fine Arts, I can relate more to the artworks which project the artists’ thought.”
The final 550 artists were chosen from around 3,850 entries. “We have surely missed some but it is for them that we are having a second edition,” says Annurag. He also informs that the visitors and art lovers can look forward to “live cave art, tribal and miniature art in the next edition of UAF.”