Love and Hate

Two canvases set the tone for “Jashn-Osianama”,an exhibition of artwork from Osian’s archive and library collection: the first shows the defeat of Tipu Sultan and the second is a Raja Ravi Varma in which the maharaja of Travancore welcomes the visiting British governor-general with a handshake. “There can be as much violence in a handshake as in a war. The Last Effort and Fall of Tippoo Sultan was made by Henry Singleton a month after Tipu’s death ,while this Raja Ravi Varma is among his most expensive works,” says Neville Tuli,who has curated the exhibition that traces 500 years of violence and non-violence in art.

“Jashn-Osianama” opened on a grand scale at the Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai on June 26 and comes to Delhi in a pruned avatar. “Delhi doesn’t have a similar space in which the public can enter an art show and not feel out of place,” says Tuli. Nonetheless,they have tried to create a similar visual impact through a studied display of 140 works,including paintings,sculptures and films,with one theme separated from another by barriers and walls. There are mythological representations of the genesis of violence — a painting and a sculpture each of Rahu and Ketu in their customary tussle,and a Nandalal Bose painting that shows Shiva drinking the poison of the world.

A second enclosure is about Crucifixion,with the works of Jamini Roy and FN Souza. There’s also a dedicated space for Prakash Karmakar,apart from a selection of the early works of Satish Gujral,among others.

Violence is also explored in Vivan Sundaram’s Emergency-related work on Indira Gandhi,in Manjit Bawa’s painting on the death of Safdar Hashmi and in Wasim Kapoor’s painting from his burqa series showing a mother and a daughter in veil. Amid these rests KCS Panicker’s representation of death made a few days before he died,as well as several works of Ganesh Pyne which explore the end of life. There are also the disturbing work of Ranbir Kaleka called Boy without Reflection and hand-coloured etchings by Surendra Nair.

“Jashn-Osianama” will be held at the Visual Arts Gallery,IHC,till July 21. Contact: 43662024