Decoding the visual approach of generations of Indian artists towards their themes and muses is the focus of an ongoing exhibition here.
Noble Ways of seeing, presented by DAG (formerly Delhi Art Gallery), the show that opened earlier this month, features 180 works by both female and male artists from generations, including Nandalal Bose, Amrita Sher-Gil, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Jamini Roy , among others.
According to DAG, the one-month program has once again put concepts such as “scopophilia” or the pleasure of looking at something or someone with reference to the observer and the gaze into focus “.
“The show explores the subtle distinctions in the ways that artists of both genders create and experience art,” the gallery said in a statement.
Sunayani Devi’s Entitled. (Photo: Public Relations Brochure)
The show has been divided into two parts; while the first presents “Women artists”, the other includes works that have “Women as muse.
Women Artists’ begins with the little-announced but important Sunayani Devi and Devyani Krishna and continues to showcase works by 26 artists in total, including Mrinalini Mukherjee, B Prabha, Madhvi Parekh, Anupam Sud, Gogi Saroj Pal, Navjot, Arpana Caur and Rekha Rodwittiya. .
While various works of art explore the nude body, including the male nude, the gaze is not greed, but rather intended to be part of a narrative that takes humanitarianism into account.
‘Women as Muse’ with 40 artists including MV Dhurandhar, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, DP Roy Chowdhury, George Keyt, KH Ara, FN Souza, Krishen Khanna, MF Husain and Jogen Chowdhury, focus only on their studies of women as a subject.
For the realization of this exhibition, DAG analyzed two aspects that define the gaze. Women artists, their examinations of their own bodies and the territories of art they occupy would have been incomplete without male artists and their vigilance of the female body.
Amrita Sher-Gil’s Trees (Photo: Public Relations Brochure)
“It was necessary to confine the work of these artists with reference to women, suggesting a bias that does not necessarily denote their canvas of work or broader gaze, but was essential to establish the confrontation between the male gaze and the female gaze as real and evident. ”Said Ashish Anand, CEO of DAG.
The period covered by the exhibition is parallel in both sections with artists born in the second half of the 19th century to those born in the middle of the 20th century, a time in which artistic practice in the country saw experimentation with themes, genres and media. which make it ideal for understanding the differences between the male and female gaze in both the artist and the viewer, the gallery said.
The show will continue until March 7.
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