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| Sunday, 24 July 2005 |
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Passage from India : Ganesh Arts presents 'Tradition and Modernism' "In India I found a race of mortals living upon the earth but not adhering to it. "Inhabiting cities but not being fixed to them, possessing everything but possessed by nothing".
Apollonius Tyanaeus, a Greek thinker and traveller wrote those words in 1st Century AD. If he was to visit India today, he could use the same words to describe them. Indians have not changed from what they were over 2000 years ago. As Tyanaeus points out no foreigner can place a finger on the character of an Indian or on India itself. For India illudes the outsider. Yet like astronomers gazing into the dark, unknown universe, men and women would continue to gaze into her soul, wanting to grasp the unknown, the illusive for themselves. Two such 21st Century explorers are Ramakrishna and Klaus Duffy. Both are artists who have tried to capture the mystery of India onto the canvas with brush and paint. Through an exhibition titled 'Tradition and Modernism', presented by Ganesh Arts they are now giving the outside world a chance to get a glimpse of the mystical, intangible essence that has fascinated the outsiders who come to India since time immemorial. Explaining why Sri Lanka is the first in the list of countries where the paintings will be displayed, Ramakrishna says "Being India's closest neighbour we thought it most appropriate to share the first glimpse of the current exhibition here in Sri Lanka". Next stop will be the UK with France and Ireland close on the heels. "All the proceedings will go into building a school of art for the children in Pondicherry", explains Ramakrishna while Duffy nods to confirm his colleague's words. "Our main aim is to spread the value of art education throughout India and her neighbours. For those who are interested and talented, we intend to provide further training that they may become self sufficient and receive on-going employment in the field of arts and crafts". Twenty-eight-year-old Ramakrishna, born in France, and an admirer of Gauguin, has lived in India for ten years now. Duffy is thirty and lives in England but travels to India several times a year. His favourite painter is William Blake. Having been in Sri Lanka for over a month now both of them say they love the country and the work of Sri Lankan painters like George Kyte and Harold Peiris. They believe the 200 oil and acrylic paintings on display, which include work by artists from abroad who have lived and worked in India as well as by artists who have completed their training at the Pondicherry School of Arts would be one way of taking India into the wide, wild, world. Why not visit the exhibition at 6/3, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 7, to discover 'Om thath sath' (the roots of the entire universe, truth, consciousness, bliss) as given in the Bagavath Gita, XVII/23 through Indian Art, 'Tradition and Modernism'. Who knows you might find the answer to Adela Quested's question in a passage to India "How can the mind take hold of such a country?" Be there before the closing date, July 31, any time between 9.00 am to 9.00 pm, to discover all about a country many see as a book 'unable to unravel...and cannot be read". (AD) |
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