JOIN USGet ready for a week-long celebration of Indian classical music and art. Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) is observing its foundation day with cultural programmes from August 5 to 11.
These include a beautiful painting exhibition ‘Ragas on canvas’ with daily classical music concerts in the same space at Lalit Kala Akademi, Ferozeshah Road.
The Akademi was conceived by Jawaharlal Nehru and inaugurated by the then education minister Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad on 5 August, 1954. Since then it has been serving an important role in promoting the creative endeavours of Indian artists and constantly redefining the sensibility of an entire culture falling under the visual arts spectrum.
Every year, the institution celebrates its birthday with gala events and this time, it has joined hands with Dhrupad Kendra of Ustad Alauddin Khan Academy Bhopal, to bring a mesmerising range of classical events. Ramakrishna Vedala, Secretary, LKA, informs us, “Lalit Kala is responsible for an interaction of all visual arts with the rest of the world and to develop inter-disciplinary relations with other arts like literature, music, dance and theatre. This is what has been reflected in our 59th anniversary programme.”
LKA has organised ‘Ragas on canvas’ - an exhibition of paintings on Ragas and Raginis of Indian classical music. While traditional Ragmala paintings represented Ragas in a definite formalised iconography, for example, Ragini Todi as a maiden playing the Rudra Veena surrounded by deers, some modern painters have taken the approach of representing them in abstract and semi-abstract forms. ‘Ragas on canvas’ presents seven such artists Om Prakash Sharma, Prafulla Dahanukar, Satyabhama Majhi, Nikhil Bansal, Ritu Gupta, Jayshree Patankar and Balbinder Kumar.
Yesterday, Ashish Mishra and Auchin Bannerjee gave a soulful Dhrupad performance followed by Hema Upasani (Khayal) and Pt Alok Lahiri on sarod. Today, there will be recitals by Dr Vishal Jain (Dhrupad), Zahid Khan on Rudra Veena and Ustad Aslam Khan, who will perform Khayal. Tomorrow, the audience can enjoy Dhrupad renditions by Prashant and Nishant Mallik and Ashish Sankrityayan followed by a violin recital by Anupriya Deotale, 6 pm onwards.
The painting exhibition will be on display till August 11 besides workshops for painters on depicting Ragas on canvas by varied artists. This one, is not to be missed by art connoisseurs!