"benaras.com" an exhibition of paintings by Rita Jhunjhunwala at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre (IHC), Lodhi Road > 20th-24th March 2013

click the image above for bigger view

Time : 
20th March : 6:30 pm - Inauguration by Meera & Muzaffar Ali
20th to 24th March : 10:00 am - 8:00 pm - Exhibition on View

Entry : Free

Place : Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre (IHC), Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003 
Parking : Gate No. 1 to 3 ( Cars ), Gate No. 2 ( Bikes & Bicycles )
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Stations - 'Jor Bagh(Yellow Line)Exit Gate - 1' & 'Khan Market(Violet Line)'
Area : Lodhi Road Area Events

Event Description : 'benaras.com' an exhibition of paintings by Rita Jhunjhunwala.

Says Rita Jhunjhunwala: “Benaras - to make acquaintance with it is privilege enough, to experience it viscerally is something else. The first rays of dawn bathing the ghats with molten gold; the dusk meeting the mighty Ganges at the vermillion horizon dotted with the silhouettes of boats and barges; and in between those perennial moments, a microcosmic cauldron of overflowing sights, sounds, smells and mystical experiences.....The ghats of the Ganges throng with multitude of pilgrims, their faces lit with devotion, palms cupped in hopes of salvation; the devout and the depraved eager to find prophesy in the browned scrolls of the fortune teller ; the ancient walls of the labyrinthine lanes frescoed with legendary figures; the old temples and palaces paying homage at the sacred river’s bank and the multi-pitched temple bells giving
music to the chanting of mantras ........all this is an assault of incredible force on the senses. And I have let myself be enveloped by the city that hymns to the Gods.”
It was about 4 years ago that Jhunjhunwala visited Benaras and has worked over the last two years to bring these vibrant images alive on her canvas. “Benaras has so much to offer an artist that I can continue to work with the same subject for several more years,” she says.
However, Benaras is not the only city that has inspired Jhunjhunwala, who also has to her credit several national and international distinctions, including a painting installed in Rashtrapati Bhawan. She has recreated the vibrant splendour of Rajasthan in an earlier series titled ’ Land of the Dunes’ that was shown in Delhi, Kolkata and Paris.
Nature in its myriad forms has always been her muse. Her last show in Delhi at Alliance Francaise in 2010 was titled In, But Not Of which beautifully captured the varied nuances of a lotus flower. “That show was inspired by ancient parable about acceptance and renunciation.” It’s the same spiritual bent of mind which reflected in a later show depicting the Buddha. “I am not a ritualistic person at all but it’s the zen thought in what I experience around me that inspires me to paint, whether it’s a lotus, a landscape and now Benaras.”
This inspiration of creating things of everlasting beauty might have been a constant in the last four decades – she was barely 12 when she started painting professionally and even won the prestigious Soviet Land Nehru Award for painting at that tender age – but Jhunjhunwala has constantly evolved in the medium she has used. A self-taught artist, she began working in watercolours, a natural choice for someone who was born and brought up in Kolkata, and moved to oils for sometime before zeroing in on acrylics as her favourite medium. “I have also worked in charcoal but find that acrylic is a hugely versatile medium. I can achieve a transparency with it that I would have wanted from a watercolour and I can make it dense for deeper textures as oil colours would have done.”
Rightly so, for when one looks at Jhunjhunwala’s canvases, it’s a feeling of serenity that washes over you – whether it’s the translucent play of light and shadow evoking the rising dawn, the never-ending steps of a lit up ghat, the humble obeisance of people in prayer or boats swaying gently on a tranquil Ganga…she has captured it all.

Website : www.ritartist.com

Related Events : Paintings & Drawing Exhibitions | Exhibitions