Though 17 of our very best artists were felicitated with the Lalit Kala Ratna for a lifetime contribution to Indian art, at least some of them decided to give the opening of Swarnrekha, an exhibition of the works of National and Triennale awardees, on at the Lalit Kala Akademi till August 22, a miss on Tuesday evening. Curated by Amrut Patel, the 357 works on display, 266 paintings and 91 sculptures, comprise one work each from all the awardees from 1955 (M.F. Husain, N.S. Bendre and K.K. Hebbar) to 2004 (Sarvani Roy).
“We started the process of collecting works for this show,” says Patel, “three months ago. All the artists have given their latest works, and we have sourced from the Gallery collection the works of those artists who are dead. I am very satisfied with the body of work on display, it represents the very best of modern Indian art.”
The exhibition, inaugurated by the Minister for Culture Jaipal Reddy, is one of the many events planned as part of the year-long golden jubilee celebration of the Lalit Kala Akademi, inaugurated by the then Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, to preserve the glorious artistic traditions of the past and enrich them by the works of modern artists. Earlier, the Kala Ratna Awards ceremony was followed by Images and Icons, a multi-media presentation choreographed by Navtej Johar featuring the works of all the 17 artists.