The 49th annual exhibition of the Delhi College of Art is now under way. It is an event collectors and galleries look forward to. It introduces new artists stabled by old ones who have given us a good record of their form, such as Sailoz Mookerjea and the centenarian, Bhabesh Sanyal; Anupam Sud, Vijay Mohan, Jai Zharotia, Abhimanue and Ramesh Bisht who have taught there; artists such as Neeraj Goswami, Sukhvinder Singh and Paresh Maity, who have made their name as contemporary artists all over the world. So there is every reason for collectors to come and see who is emerging under this tutelage.
Earlier, artists such as Dharmendra Rathore, Mohan Singh, K P Sudesh and a number of others emerged on the scene as talented artists with a future. Today, if this exhibition is anything to go by, we have emerging young artists such as Mahendra Singh Baoni, descended from a long line of the court painters of Rewa; Shweta Goel, Kiren Singh, Dinesh Vedwal, Veena Karki, Manish Kumar Rao, Vijeyta Bhamri and Surendra Kumar Sharma, among painters; and Kaushal Kumar, Ram Bali Chauhan, Sumit Roy, Shiv Raj Singh and Om Bahadur Khatri, who show exceptional talent in sculpture. This is a relatively strict reading, taking into account a track record over time.
Among young emerging artists there are many, such as Thyagraj Soni, Rakesh Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Dhaneshwar Shah, Surendra Kumar Sharma, Amrik Singh, Amit Sharma, Vidhi Tayal, Onai Najibullah, Sushma Yadav, Nilanthie Weerasekhara, Rohit Kumar and V Samynaden, to name only a few.
Among the more accomplished artists, we have Mahendra Singh Baoni, whose watercolours and glass paintings at Rs 4,500 each and canvases at Rs 12,000-20,000 are one of the best buys in the exhibition. The way in which Baoni is able to integrate visual images of industrial society with those of rural migrant labour and give a feel of the coexistence of the highly industrialised and backward in our society and distance himself from an idealistic image of rural life is both creditable and original. Baoni is indeed an artist to look out for.
Apart from Baoni, we find the works of Sweta Goel also handling the coexistence of the modern and the traditional, as in her painting of a milkman?s cans hanging from the bars of a railway carriage. But her most original blend of these two worlds is her work, The Show, where she integrates elements of design as fabrics at a fashion show. Here one can see how the decorative can have a place in art if it is portrayed as in life. This handling reflects the aesthetic maturity of the artist, and in a work priced at Rs 14,000, it is definitely worth buying. Similarly, Vijeyta Bhamri?s Mute Discussion (Rs 15,000) and Dinesh Vedwal?s watercolour landscapes at Rs 10,000 are worth as buy.
Among the prints, Thyagraj Soni has sold no less than five copies of a series of six. This should be a matter of record, as even though there is a considerable growth in the print market, such a sale is rare for the work of a student. There are a large number of prints, including a couple by Onai Najibullah, that are all below Rs 2,000 each.
Among sculptures, a wood carving of Kaushal Kumar at Rs 20,000 is well worth buying as is the very modern work of Sumit Roy, which evokes the sequence of the film medium in an assemblage format.
Indeed, the success of this year?s art exhibition at the College is based largely on a high standard of sculptures, paintings and prints with teachers influencing their students very little. True, one can detect the style of Anupam Sud, Natraj Sharma and Neeraj Goswami in some of the works, but the influence is neither undigested nor stifling. On the contrary, it provides a spring-board for better things to come. This is definitely an exhibition to visit.