Art for women’s sake

The Nehru Art Gallery at JNAFAU was bustling with activity due to the art exhibition, Viewpoint, which was a reunion of sorts for many. The artists were busy interacting with old friends and seniors. As part of the 75th anniversary celebrations of the university, the past met the present through this all-women art show.

It has always been a challenge for female artists to make their mark, and that was the driving force behind this entire exhibition, which was a brainchild of the HOD of the Arts department, Priti Samyukta.

Making one’s way through the gallery, you find yourself being taken back into the past and then brought back gradually to the present. That’s exactly what Priti wanted. “Female artists had a much tougher time than men. They had to take care of their family and most of them even gave up art for family. So when I put together this show, I wanted to bring back works of women who have been part of the university, ” says Priti.

From self-portraits to landscape to abstract, the art show had it all. But the most interesting aspect perhaps is the use of old mediums that one got to see. For instance in Hoor Girglani and Kusum Vishwanath’s artwork, egg tempura has been used as the medium, which is very rare now.

“Egg tempura is one of the oldest mediums that were used back then. The medium produces stunning results but is quite tough to master. The paint tends to dry very fast and can turn brittle, so working with it is a very delicate procedure. One of the reasons for displaying such artwork is that students will want to experiment with that medium; in a way it is teaching them,” adds Priti.

Since the show spanned seven decades, Priti had to get in touch with some of the earliest students and teachers from the department. “It took me close to seven months to get all the artists’ work together. Some of them aren’t even in the country. So for the work we couldn’t get, we got prints of the original artwork and displayed them,” she says.

The art show covered a minimum of eight artists from each decade. Kusum Vishwanath, from the 1981 batch, says, “It feels so nice to showcase our work alongside our teachers and students.”

Among the younger lot, artists like Priyanka Aelay, Karishma, Afza Tamkanat and others were part of the show.