S G Vasudev's involvement in the artists' village outside Chennai called Cholamandal and his life in Bangalore, in his home state of Karnataka, have given him a firmly rooted style which has developed independently of the commerce-driven patterns of artistic endeavour in India's metropolitan centres. He has worked steadily over the years, creating a distinct style in his work and in the way he chooses to live his life.

After completing his art education in Chennai, Vasudev found himself living at Cholamandal, the artists' village outside Chennai. "In those days, it was difficult ...

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Pipar is a tiny village just an hour's drive from Jodhpur. Few know that this sleepy village is the nerve centre of the natural-dye fabric industry of Rajasthan whose earth colours, indigo dyes and prints are a rage among the chic ethnic sophisticates in India and abroad. In fact, a large part of the production is exported. The colours are not fast and this seemingly adds to the fabric's ethnicity and preference.

In Pipar, whole families are engaged in the dyeing and printing trade, while others weave the rather coarse fabric that is used to create the famous Jodhpur prints. Unlike ...

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VISITING Vadodara is always a pleasure. A medium-sized town, it would seem to have the right combination of old world values and modernism, in a pleasant blend. Earlier known as Baroda, the capital of the erstwhile princely state once ruled by the Gaekwads. Much of the city’s development took place during the rule of Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad III — an enlightened monarch who modernised his poor feudal state into one worthy of a 21-gun salute. A visionary and a man of many parts, Sayaji Rao was a big game hunter, a cricket player, a patron of the race courses in India and Europe and a great ...

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This appears to be the right time to write about Tagore’s Santiniketan, the ‘abode of peace’, created by Rabindranath Tagore.

KALA BHAWAN, the art department of Viswa Bharati University, founded by Rabindranath Tagore, has nurtured many of India’s best-known artists — some as students and others as faculty. Among these are Guru Nandlal Bose, Benod behari Mukhopadhyaya, Ram Kinkar Baiz, Mukul Dey, K.G. Subramanium, Somnath Hore and countless others, whose works are scattered around the campus. Many of these priceless works lie open to the elements, ...

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When one takes a close look at one of his landscapes, one would notice trees, shrubs, a bit of sky and maybe grassy paths, but the palpable absence of fauna, birds or any human being only serves to reinforce a deep sense of fantasy and timelessness. Singh's canvases evoke dream-worlds: "the fruit of solitary sojourns in Nature's labyrinth".

In the serious art world, landscapes as a genre is critically considered somewhat lacking in depth as a form of expression. In this context, Paramjit Singh's landscapes continue to stand out for the freshness of his approach and his tremendous ...

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