Two exhibitions at Delhi’s Kiran Nadar Museum of Art touch upon unforeseen emotions and sensibilities

Bringing back life into the art space, two new exhibitions at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) will be open onsite after a year of Covid restrictions from March 23, 2022 at 145, DLF, South Court Mall, Saket. The two exhibitions ‘K Ramanujam: Into the Moonlight Parade…’ and ‘Atul Dodiya: Walking with the Waves’ curated by Roobina Karode, chief curator and director, bring forth recreations through an array of visual stimuli, as per the press statement. While both artists are spaced by distinct junctures in Indian art, they are connected through underlying chords of hope and resilience; An artwork by K Ramanujam (Source: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art)

Paying homage to K Ramanujam, an exceptional figure of Indian modernism, the exhibition ‘K Ramanujam: Into the Moonlight Parade…’ provides the audience a unique opportunity to view rare drawings and paintings of the artist including his awe-inspiring 13-feet panorama ‘My Dream World’ (1973); K Ramanujam's artwork (Source: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art)

A selection of works in a variety of mediums, such as ink and gouache on paper, unconventionally rendered by the artist, will constitute the display; K Ramanujam's artwork (Source: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art)

These works often portray Ramanujam himself proudly sporting a cowboy hat and English moustache, cheerfully drifting or lounging in the company of nymphs and sea monsters. But in reality, Ramanujam’s quest for love and companionship, not to mention social dignity and financial security, went in vain, forcing him to take his own life in 1973, when the artist was just 33 years old, notes the press statement; artwork from K Ramanujam (Source: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art)

K Ramanujam was a member of the largest artist’s commune in India – the Cholamandal Artists’ Village founded in 1966 by painter-pedagogue KCS Panicker; K Ramanujam's artwork (Source: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art)

K Ramanujam's untitled artwork (Source: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art)

'Atul Dodiya: Walking with the Waves' an exhibition with recent works of Atul Dodiya generated from the current pandemic will open parallel to K Ramanujam's show; Artwork from Atul Dodiya (Source: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art)

In what can be considered as mindscapes, these watercolours are quiet but playful introspections into the creation of spaces, forms, transmutations, and transformations. An attentive selection from almost 270 works from the series, the exhibition will introspect on the idea of this ‘space of innocence and freedom' as Dodiya puts it; Atul Dodiya's artwork (Source: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art)

The exhibition will look at a body of intimate and small-format watercolours produced by Dodiya during the past two years of continuous Covid crisis. As the world shut down in response to the epidemic, the artist also had to retreat to his inner world, his sanctuary; an artwork from Atul Dodiya (Source: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art)

The two exhibitions together will reveal intricacies and profundities that solitary creative minds can reach and bring out for the onlooker, by touching upon unforeseen emotions and sensibilities that can only arise from a period of great crisis and a subsequent respire brought in through healing, notes the curatorial note; an artwork from Atul Dodiya (Source: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art)