Events And Gallery

Five students from grade XII CBSE and two students from grade X IGCSE Art and Design visited Kiran Nader Museum of Art, Saket for a guided viewing of three current exhibitions and a hands on workshop on 7th May, 2022. Three art teachers accompanied them.

The exhibitions were: Atul Dodiya’s Walking with the waves, K Ramanujam’s Into the Moonlight Parade and Somnath Hore’s Birth of a white rose.

Atul Dodiya’s collection was his lockdown series where he painted a picture a day, in watercolours. The rhythmic abstract humans capturing the artist’s random thoughts were a visual treat.

K Ramanujam’s Mythopoetic Universe was a reflection of his deeply troubled and depressed life, and how his art was actually his release mechanism. Students saw parallels with artists they learn about in school, like Vincent Van Gogh.

Somnath Hore’s paintings, etchings, wood cuts and sculptures were a window to his style of expressing the reality of his times, the wars, famines, poverty and pain. The works exposed us to the possibilities of the media, the experiments and outcomes.

The hands on workshop was a way to experience thinking intuitively like the artists. Students learnt Erasure Art, inspired by Atul Dodiya’s art works. They were given a script on a paper which they had to read and then identify words/ sentences that resonate with them. They needed to highlight them and draw on the rest of the written space, and erase with colour, leaving only the drawings and the highlighted words. It was a very Interesting activity, with each one of us veering towards different sections of the script and reacting differently to it.

Grade 12 saw the works of Somnath Hore, which feature in their textbook. They took good tips on rendering, composition, abstraction, transfer of emotions by the artist using form, colour, texture. It was useful for them. Art and Design students were also excited to find that the artists and their styles of expression could become a part of their current coursework. We took photos to add to their scrapbook, discussed how to integrate the artists with their theme. Both students have been asked to annotate their thoughts and come to class with a plan of action.

The trip was also beneficial to us three art teachers as we found ways to integrate with subjects, looked at the venue as a destination for Art week and also connected with the guides/educators to continue communication in future.

It was a well spent Saturday, with a big takeaway of creative inspiration.