EXHIBITION "Unsullied” A Solo show of Artworks by Rita Jhunjhunwala at Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise De Delhi, 72, Lodhi Estate > 22nd to 25th September 2016

Time : 11:00 am to 7:00 pm  Add to Calendar 22/09/2016 11:00 25/09/2016 19:00 Asia/Kolkata EXHIBITION "Unsullied” A Solo show of Artworks by Rita Jhunjhunwala Event Page : http://www.delhievents.com/2016/09/exhibition-unsullied-solo-show-of.html Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise De Delhi, 72, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi - 110003 DD/MM/YYYY - Exhibition on View

Entry : Free 

Venue : Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise De Delhi, 72, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi - 110003
Landmark : Next to Annexe building of India International Centre
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Stations - 'Khan Market(Violet Line)' & 'Jor Bagh(Yellow Line)'
Area : Lodhi Road Area Events

Event Description : EXHIBITION "Unsullied” A Solo show of Artworks by Rita Jhunjhunwala.

Lotus in all its myriad shades and frames light up Delhi-based artist Rita Jhunjhunwala’s canvas in a show titled Unsullied, to be held at Alliance Francaise from Sep 22 -25, 2016
New Delhi: Delhi-based artist Rita Jhunjhunwala could have succeeded even as a Sufi poet. She speaks tenderly and pauses delicately between sentences while sharing her writings that accompany her art. And her art, like her persona, reflects the same serenity and composure both in its treatment and subject. The Lotus flower, which never fails to enchant, in all its varied hues and frames, is the leitmotif in her current body of work titled UNSULLIED which will go on view at Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Francaise, Lodhi Road, New Delhi from September 22 to September 25, 2016, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Including 30 works in paper and canvas, the show is largely inspired by Jhunjhunwala’s trip to Kumarakom in Kerala’s backwaters, where the myriad lotus ponds attracted the avid nature lover to paint these semi-realistic naturescapes.
“I am also deeply attracted to the philosophy of the lotus. It grows in such dirt and filth and yet, retains its pristine beauty and purity. In today’s trying times, perhaps that is how we have to live, keep ourselves unsullied despite the chaos around us,” says Jhunjhunwala, who graduated from Calcutta University in 1977 and has undergone extensive training under eminent national artists and art professors like watercolourist Indra Dugar, Ashesh Mitra and Chitra Mazumdar of Calcutta Art College and Bimal Dasgupta of Delhi College of Art. “I have always been inspired by the ancient parable about acceptance and renunciation. Even though I am not a ritualistic person, it’s the zen thought in what I experience around me that inspires me to paint, whether it’s landscapes from Benaras and Rajasthan and now the lotus.”
Earlier in her art practice, she has painted a series on the Buddha where the lotus has made an appearance in some works and she says she wanted to “expand on the idea”. Hence, in the current show, with some of the works titled as Elation, Steadfast, Verve,Exaltation and Poise, we have the immaculate lotus shimmering in the golden rays of the sun or blushing in its own reflected glory, some in buds, some in full bloom. Combining reality with dreams, light with shade and staying clear of abstraction, Jhunjhunwala’s canvases reflect bold yet measured brush strokes. The colour palette in her works is in muted tones, keeping in mind “the ethos of the subject”, but it is the sheer transparency she achieves even in the acrylics that they look as ethereal as watercolours. In some works, she has used charcoal and gold foil to give a layered and textured feel to the paintings.
Nature, in fact, has always been her muse. Her last show in Delhi was about the resplendent landscapes of Benaras and another show depicted Rajasthan in full glory. The inspiration to create pure art, free of gimmickry and drama, has been a constant in her life, ever since the time she started painting at the age of 12. She has also won the prestigious Soviet Land Nehru Award for painting at that tender age, but Jhunjhunwala has constantly experimented and evolved in the medium she has chosen.
She began working in watercolour, a natural choice for someone was born and brought up in Kolkata – her paintings retain a feel of the Bengal School – but she moved to oil for some time before zeroing in on acrylics as her favourite medium. “I work in mixed media as well using charcoal and gold foil but acrylic is a really versatile medium. It gives the transparency I want from watercolour and I can impart it with deeper, denser textures as oil colours would have done.”
Indeed, when one looks at Jhunjhunwala’s canvases, it’s a feeling of serenity that one experiences - whether it’s the translucent play of light and shadow in the work Contemplation depicting red-hued lotuses, the sublime blue-waters surrounding the flowers in Pristine or the tranquility she has captured in Silence, a painting depicting the faraway horizon meeting the edges of a lotus pond!

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