C S N Patnaik young at 92

Visakhapatnam: He proves that old age isn’t a barrier when the fire of passion keeps burning bright. Renowned sculptor and painter C.S.N. Patnaik tuned 92 on Tuesday. Despite suffering a back injury recently, his passion for art gave him the strength to visit an art exhibition conducted by young artists the city to mark the occasion.

He was amazed at seeing thought provoking contemporary art works exhibited by 17 artists at the Patnaik Art Gallery at MVP Colony. “It’s really inspiring and I appreciate the work of the young artists here as they have tried to portray something new through different art media rather simply working on the traditional style,” he said. Sandhya Chowdary Patnaik, curator of the exhibition, said Patnaik was an inspiration for all artists and the 17 young artists, who had completed their masters in fine arts from various universities, had come together to put up their best works.

The art works reflected emotions, thoughts and social issues that many would be hesitant to express. The art work of Mrudula Kunatharaju, ‘Unforgettable Sins’, portrayed a pomegranate with a hole in it and a crow next to holding a pomegranate seed in its beak. “The pomegranate symbolises the vagina and the crow is like people exploiting girls. I wanted to present the issues facing girls,” Mrudula said.

S.G.S. Prasad Reddy presented a man thinking, sitting over a toilet comode. Bhargav Barla presented a very unique concept on  handmade paper, ‘Lost In Process’. It reflected the flow of subconscious in different frames of time and location. Patnaik’s son Ravi Shankar Patnaik said, “There was a plan to conduct the art exhibition with works of reputed artists. But my father wanted to see the works of young artists as he their new experiments.”