On January 9, 2017, the Birla Academy of Art and Culture proudly inaugurated their fiftieth year anniversary exhibition. Their chairperson, Ms. Jayashree Mohta, conducted the evening’s program with an astute sense of history. The highlight of that evening was the chief guest Dr. Karan Singh’s remarkable discourse on art and culture.

Johnny ML conceptualized and curated ‘The Golden Bough’, an exhibition featuring sixty-six of India’s top-notch artists. Though most of the artists in his selection are from Bengal, he has included some from the rest of the country who are repeatedly in the public eye “to connect modern contemporary art with the grand traditions of visual arts in India.” This viewer would have liked the inclusion of folk art since some of the roots of our contemporary art are buried deep down in the rich soil of folk tradition.

Of the works of display some of the major pieces are discussed here. The bronze and stone sculptures of Sunil Kumar Das: King and Queen are both blindfolded and exquisitely rendered. Perhaps the finest Krishna in the exhibition hall is executed by S Nandagopal in welded copper, brass and enamels. Enveloped in a joyous mood, the relief work gaining in sculptural body is poised on a bell standing the test of balance. No show today is ever complete without works by Ravinder Reddy and KS Radhakrishnan as demonstrated by Woman Holding Hair and Mahisha on the Ladder respectively.

So much for the sculpture, now for the graphics and paintings. Anupam Sud’s etchings, one executed on steel and the other on zinc are outstanding. The Odd One was so unflinchingly honest, it gripped the viewer’s guts. On Sud’s stage, who isn’t a performer? Atul Dodiya’s Scribe on the Hill is a brilliant watercolor. Using metaphysical iconography with exposure of the skeletal structure, Dodiya reveals his deity on the hilltop, giving him the roll of a scribe. K. Laxma Goud’s predictable etching echoes the lifestyle of his native land and never fails to satisfy the viewer. Sudhir Patwardhan, perhaps the strongest artist on show, is represented by a powerful autobiographical work in acrylic and oil stick entitled The Odd Couple in which sleep has overcome the woman but the man cannot let go of his thoughts and anxiety.

Ganesh Haloi’s gouaches are subtle and filtered, always promising to please one’s aesthetic sense. Hiren Mitra excels in painting quality. His Scriptography must be seen, enjoyed and not described in words. Jogen Chowdhury’s exquisitely rendered prehistoric, predatory bird is to be savored at one’s peril while Lalu Prosad Shaw’s Bibis and Babus are the stuff Bengal is made of.

On January 9, 2017, the Birla Academy of Art and Culture proudly inaugurated their fiftieth year anniversary exhibition. Their chairperson, Ms. Jayashree Mohta, conducted the evening’s program with an astute sense of history. The highlight of that evening was the chief guest Dr. Karan Singh’s remarkable discourse