A Walkthrough Of The Incredible Displays At India Art Fair This Year

Whether you’re an enthusiast, admirer, collector or newcomer, art is and should be for everyone. The 10th edition of the India Art Fair is upon us it is truly the most wonderful time of the year. Under the leadership of the new fair director, Jagdip Jagpal, it promises to be bigger and better than before.

Taking place in the national capital, the Fair has grown over the years to become the leading platform for the discovery and exploration of modern and contemporary art from South Asia. Here, everyone is provided access to what was once an elite cultural space, to indulge in experimental art installations and video projects, admire the revival of tribal art forms and sit in on discussions by the art world’s great thinkers.

This year’s edition has brought onboard art galleries, artists, institutions, private foundations, artist collectives and art charities from across the region, putting together a magnificent and enriching programme for 2018. Running from February 9 through 12, Jagpal has a clear vision for the Indian art scene that goes beyond IAF, and that is to develop Delhi as a cultural and artistic hub. In this vein what IAF is doing for the first time is listing events that are going on across different places in Delhi and other cities of the country on their website as well. Speaking to Live Mint, she said, “So, while we want people to come to the art fair, we also want to inform them about what is happening in Delhi. For instance, there is immersive theatre experience by CROW (Gujral Foundation) or Vivan Sundaram’s exhibition at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Riyas Komu’s opening at the Vadehra Art Gallery. We want people to visit our website and get a whole picture of what’s going on in the art scene. We want people to feel that Delhi is a cultural city, it’s an arts city. If the website becomes a one-stop shop, I would be the happiest person in the world...”

What You Can’t Miss Out On

I. The Book of Arts – DAG reading room & bookshop

DAG Modern

This is an Indo-French initiative by curator and art expert Dr Alka Pande and publisher Mr Marc Parent; DAG will display a selection of its books at this meeting that aims to bring together young readers and art enthusiasts. The aim is to turn this into an annual meeting and navigate the future of art books and publishing, looking at digital innovations. It’ll be an enriching experience for anyone who attends, being taken through the changing boundaries of art in modern India (and the world).

II. Umrao Singh Sher-Gil

The Sher-Gil Archives

PHOTOINK

Dismissed by some and revered by others as a pioneering artist and icon, Amrita Sher-Gil has left behind a multi-faceted and colourful legacy that’s constantly re-imagined but few offer a perspective vastly different from the other. It’s only when we peered at her life through her own father Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia’s eyes (or in this context, his lens) that it felt like there was an opportunity to learn something new about Sher-Gil.

Umrao Singh began taking photographs in the early 1890s, a time when cameras became available to the upper class as a leisurely toy. Her transitions through life, her experimentation, exploration of identity and artistic developmental stages are best remembered in these rare photographs by her own father. With hundreds of pictures of his wife and daughters through the years, a family album evolved into an archive of life in the first half of the early twentieth century for an Indo-European family.

III. ‘Reading Indian Art: Texts & Contexts’

A Talk by B.N. Goswamy, Ashok Vajpeyi, and Rosalyn D’Mello

Presented by Oxford University Press

People say you can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’re coming from. In this talk, the speakers take us through the complex history of India’s many art forms, including the diverse practices, iconographies, artistic theories and analysing the changing relationship between artists and patrons through the years - from lords and noblemen to the audience of today. Putting together a linear growth is challenging with the lack of documentation in India, leaving people to heavily rely on oral narratives and piecing together texts in a coherent manner.

The talk addresses the need to look into art history and how art has changed over the years, especially addressing the patrons, viewers and artists of today. “Does this reading, this engagement with the past, prepare us to negotiate the present?”

IV. Hema Upadhyay

‘8x12’

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art

We lost Hema Upadhyay, one of the most vibrant voices of Indian art on a global scale but her legacy lives on through her incredible work. Dharavi, among Asia’s largest slums, features often in her work and in this installation viewers are able to step into the word she has created. In a literal 8x12 space (which is usually the size of a house in Dharavi) with three walls, you see a sprawling aerial view put together by Upadhyay with incredible intricacy. You become a part of that space, its tin houses and shanties, tarpaulin roofs, electric wires and antennas sticking out.

Upadhyay presents a microcosm of the slum with the most meticulous of detail, capturing the pure essence of the locale within the confines of an 8x12 enclosure. You’re almost waiting to hear a bustling crowd, car honks and sounds of children playing on the streets as you momentarily enter this new world.

V. Riyas Komu

‘Holy Shiver’

Vadehra Art Gallery

Riyas Komu’s work is a response to our nation’s current political thought and its conflicting nature with that of our founding fathers and the foundation on which the country was built. Instead of inclusivity, we’ve grown more communal and rigid, closing up entry to anyone perceived as outsiders.

The title alludes to how quick we are to jump to the defence of our communities, our instant kill or die trying mentality.

VI. Subba Ghosh

‘The Flow’

Anant Art

Subba Ghosh’s project address the ongoing refugee crisis. Taking place inside a maze, your path is highlighted with painted panels that highlight the fluid nature of borders, as people continuously pass through, driven out of their homes.

The path emulates the essence of being a refugee – each person has a story to tell, a life they’ve left behind, but the past and longing for home are diluted by the present urgency of survival.

Click here to view the entire public programme.

Courtesy of The Sher-Gil Archives/PHOTOINK