When art was fab

PUNE, June 23: Have a wall, will display! Art follows this simple dictum and all shapes and sizes of paintings, drawings, lithographs, print...

PUNE, June 23: Have a wall, will display! Art follows this simple dictum and all shapes and sizes of paintings, drawings, lithographs, prints are produced to fit the bill 8230;er, wall in this case. The Cafe Sunrise on the Deccan end of JM Road, has minimal wall space but is used for maximal display effect.

The owner of the little wayside cafe, Mehdi Niroomand, believes in art for art8217;s sake. Very magnanimously, he lent the space to city artists Raju Sutar and Vaishali Oak last year who initially displayed their own paintings, changing them every month. Interested people visiting the cafe started taking notice, encouraging the duo to believe that the little joint could become a sort of mini art centre.

This year, starting June 20, Sutar and Oak have brought more Pune-based artists in the fold, who will get a good chance to exhibit their works for a long period of time. Every month two artists will hang their paintings on the walls till December. Starting with Anu Kelkar and Shreekant Kadam this month, the little cafe has really come alive with colour. Both Kelkar and Kadam have landed a great opportunity since they have just recently stepped out of the Abhinav art college. Both are into figurative paintings, though Kadam has experimented with surrealism and symbolism. They seem to have the potential to go a long way. The six-month continuous display has been titled Festival of paintings8217; in a bid to popularise the art for everyone concept. The cafe itself has become a meeting point for intellectuals, artists and art critics, who can exchange views on the subject, much to Niroomand8217;s delight, who feels art should come from the heart. The idea is reminiscent of the cafe culture in Europe.

The festival will feature Ajay Deshpande, Gayatri Deshpande, Supriya Wadgaonkar, Shakuntala Patade, Vaishali Pathak, Vikram Kulkarni, Sandeep Sonawane, Deepak Sonar, Vaishali Oak and Raju Sutar, each having his or her distinctive style of wielding the brush.

8220;Cafe Sunrise is indeed doing a great deal in bridging the gap between the connoisseurs and the amateurs. And giving a boost to contemporary art, which got caught in an elitist trap,8221; feel the artist duo who has worked hard at making it a cultural platform. And while one is at the cafe, the artists also endorse the mint cocktail,8217; a delicious concoction of mint, lime, pepper in water and a dash of vinegar.