The second anniversary issue of the Art News Magazine of India is just out and this time there is a special focus on two artists - Sudarshan Shetty and Jitesh Kallat. Selected by the editorial board of the magazine, they will represent India at the Art in the World - 1998 exhibition to be held in Paris from April 29 to June 13, 1998. The exhibition is an unique effort by the French magazine Beaux Arts Magazine which has collaborated with 25 leading art magazines of the world to bring forward some of the best young artists who have a strong individual idiom. Shetty and Kallat, chosen in consultation with art experts, meet this requirement perfectly. Kallat's paintings are mixed media on canvas or paper where he uses materials as diverse as industrial paint, binders, textile powders and over-inked photocopies of photographs.His works, priced between Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000, have an attractive bruised, sand-papered look. Shetty, meanwhile, would rather not slot his work at all. Ifpushed, he reluctantly calls himself a sculptor. "My works are not meant to be a part of the decor, like paintings," he says. And bluntly adds that his works do not have a price range because not too many people buy them. "Though they might take a lot of space, people who have a passion for this kind of work will create the space,"he says. For more information on the artists, pick up the latest issue the Art News Magazine of India which has just hit the stands.
