“stability makes me happy”

Baroda’s Art Cooperatives

One often wonders why Baroda is acknowledged as one of India’s most prominent art hubs. Besides the Faculty of Fine Art at Maharaja Sayajirao University, the renowned private art school in this Gujarati city, there seems to be an ever expanding base of artists in Baroda, ranging from fresh graduates to established professionals who settle to work here.

In addition to the fact that the city offers an atmosphere that is more than conducive for art students and professional artists, an interesting development that draws artists to Baroda is the several alternative and shared work spaces that have mushroomed here. Most prominent among these are cooperative studios that have been established by patrons and collectors of art or by artists themselves.

One of the most critical phases of an artist’s life is perhaps the time immediately after his or her formal education is complete. This is a period of adjustment for artists; times when they find themselves in situations that are entirely different from the warm cocoon of art school that sheltered them. Today, rather than trepidation, many artists approach this phase with a feeling of excitement, largely due to the number of possibilities that these new workspaces in cities like Baroda offer them. Earlier, practitioners of printmaking and ceramics, for example, had limited opportunities to establish themselves professionally after they graduated from art school. Now, even these facilities are provided at shared studios, offering young graduates a number of avenues for professional development.

In Baroda, one of the largest of these shared art studios is simply and aptly called ‘Space’. Set up by Mallika and Krupa Amin, ‘Space’ accommodates more than a dozen artists at any given point of time, each working in independent studios. Its facilities not only allow artists to work in a space without worrying about infrastructure needs and costs, but also allow them to interact with fellow artists and widen their creative horizons. Spread over a large area within a beautiful landscape, ‘Space’ provides an ideal environment for an artist to be in.

In several cases, private collectors also facilitate individual artists by letting out studio space and apartments for them live and work. Though facilities like these are on a much smaller scale than those provided by artist cooperatives like ‘Space’, they provide artists with several advantages in addition to the simple relief of not having to establish one’s own studio right away. Today, it is because of these facilities that it is not as difficult a proposition as it used to be some years ago for a young artist to step out of college and start focusing on defining and developing his or her body of work.

Some artists who may not be lucky enough to find a patron, who can offer them studio space, choose to work collectively towards the same ends. For Deepak Khatri and his fellow-artists Pijush and Loknath, it was the best solution to rent a house, share expenses and set it up as a sculpture studio when they graduated from art school some years ago. “It not only allowed us to have a space sooner than we would have by ourselves, it also helped us evolve as artists. If I was faltering, Pijush would correct me and vice versa”, says Deepak.

For Zaida, a sculptor who works in ceramic, the development of shared workspaces, whether institutional or self-organized, is definitely a positive one. Having worked in such an environment at the Ceramic Center in Baroda, she says, “Personally for me working in a community studio was a wonderful experience. To be surrounded by the positive spirit of fellow artists is inspiring and encouraging. I consider mature interaction beneficial to me”.

Although working in such shared studio spaces is most often only a stepping stone in the early development of an artist’s career, there is no doubt about the energy that the experience creates within the space, amongst the artists and within the art community itself. Not surprisingly, there are a number of similar cooperative studios that are in the process of opening in cities like Baroda. In addition to facilitating younger artists to work without distractions, this emerging trend also seems to be drawing artists back to Baroda, contributing to expanding and strengthening the art fraternity in the city.

Baroda has a history of patronage of the arts from the private sector, be it self-motivated individuals or small industries that provide infrastructure and technical support to sculptors, for example. With this constant support, the network of artists in the city is an ever expanding one, promising that Baroda will always remain one of India’s most prominent art hubs for many years to come.












Piyush Patra in his work titled “stability makes me happy” his sculpture could be moved by the viewer and every time its changed its direction, the vision was also transformed. While these sculptor’s work dealt with the medium itself. There were several young freshly baked artists, chiseling space for their ideas.

Sculpture in India

Sculpture in India
The first sculptures in India date back to the Indus Valley civilization, where stone and bronze carvings have been discovered. This is one of the earliest instances of sculpture in the world. Later, as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism developed further, India produced some of the most intricate bronzes in the world, as well as unriveled temple carvings. Some huge shrines, such as the one at Ellora were not actually constructed using blocks, but instead carved out of rock, making them perhaps the largest and most intricate sculptures in the world.

During the 2nd to 1st century BCE in far northern India, in what is now southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, sculptures became more explicit, representing episodes of the Buddha’s life and teachings. Although India had a long sculptural tradition and a mastery of rich iconography, the Buddha was never represented in human form before this time, but only through some of his symbols. This may be because Gandharan Buddhist sculpture in modern Afghanistan displays Greek and Persian artistic influence. Artistically, the Gandharan school of sculpture is said to have contributed wavy hair, drapery covering both shoulders, shoes and sandals, acanthus leaf decorations, etc.

The pink sandstone sculptures of Mathura evolved during the Gupta period (4th to 6th century) to reach a very high fineness of execution and delicacy in the modeling. Newer sculptures in Afghanistan, in stucco, schist or clay, display very strong blending of Indian post-Gupta mannerism and Classical influence, Hellenistic or possibly even Greco-Roman. Meanwhile, elsewhere in India, less anotomically accurate styles of human representation evolved, leading to the classical art that the world is now familiar with, and contributing to Buddhist and Hindu sculpture throughout Asia.lokugn


this article from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sculpture in India

The first sculptures in India date back to the Indus Valley civilization, where stone and bronze carvings have been discovered. This is one of the earliest instances of sculpture in the world. Later, as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism developed further, India produced some of the most intricate bronzes in the world, as well as unriveled temple carvings. Some huge shrines, such as the one at Ellora were not actually constructed using blocks, but instead carved out of rock, making them perhaps the largest and most intricate sculptures in the world.

During the 2nd to 1st century BCE in far northern India, in what is now southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, sculptures became more explicit, representing episodes of the Buddha’s life and teachings. Although India had a long sculptural tradition and a mastery of rich iconography, the Buddha was never represented in human form before this time, but only through some of his symbols. This may be because Gandharan Buddhist sculpture in modern Afghanistan displays Greek and Persian artistic influence. Artistically, the Gandharan school of sculpture is said to have contributed wavy hair, drapery covering both shoulders, shoes and sandals, acanthus leaf decorations, etc.

The pink sandstone sculptures of Mathura evolved during the Gupta period (4th to 6th century) to reach a very high fineness of execution and delicacy in the modeling. Newer sculptures in Afghanistan, in stucco, schist or clay, display very strong blending of Indian post-Gupta mannerism and Classical influence, Hellenistic or possibly even Greco-Roman. Meanwhile, elsewhere in India, less anotomically accurate styles of human representation evolved, leading to the classical art that the world is now familiar with, and contributing to Buddhist and Hindu sculpture throughout Asia.lokugn

Performing arts

The performing arts are those forms of art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object. The term "performing arts" first appeared in the English language in the year








Performers often adapt their appearance, such as with costumes and stage makeup, etc.
There is also a specialized form of fine art in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. This is called Performance art. Most performance art also involves some form of plastic art, perhaps in the creation of props. Dance was often referred to as a plastic art during the Modern dance era.

India
Main articles: Theatre in India and Sanskrit drama
Folk theatre and dramatics can be traced to the religious ritualism of the Vedic peoples in the 2nd millenium BC. This folk theatre of the misty past was mixed with dance, food, ritualism, plus a depiction of events from daily life. It was the last element which made it the origin of the classical theatre of later times. Many historians, notably D. D. Kosambi, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Adya Rangacharaya, etc. have referred to the prevalence of ritualism amongst Indo-Aryan tribes in which some members of the tribe acted as if they were wild animals and some others were the hunters. Those who acted as mammals like goats, buffaloes, reindeer, monkeys, etc. were chased by those playing the role of hunters.
Bharata Muni (fl. 5th–2nd century BC) was an ancient Indian writer best known for writing the Natya Shastra of Bharata, a theoretical treatise on Indian performing arts, including theatre, dance, acting, and music, which has been compared to Aristotle's Poetics. Bharata is often known as the father of Indian theatrical arts. His Natya Shastra seems to be the first attempt to develop the technique or rather art, of drama in a systematic manner. The Natya Shastra tells us not only what is to be portrayed in a drama, but how the portrayal is to be done. Drama, as Bharata Muni says, is the imitation of men and their doings (loka-vritti). As men and their doings have to be respected on the stage, so drama in Sanskrit is also known by the term roopaka which means portrayal.
The Ramayana and Mahabharata can be considered the first recognized plays that originated in India. These epics provided the inspiration to the earliest Indian dramatists and they do it even today. Indian dramatists such as Bhasa in the second century BC wrote plays that were heavily inspired by the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Kālidāsa in the first century BC, is arguably considered to be ancient India's greatest dramatist. Three famous romantic plays written by Kālidāsa are the Mālavikāgnimitram (Mālavikā and Agnimitra), Vikramuurvashiiya (Pertaining to Vikrama and Urvashi), and Abhijñānaśākuntala (The Recognition of Shakuntala). The last was inspired by a story in the Mahabharata and is the most famous. It was the first to be translated into English and German. In comparison to Bhasa, who drew heavily from the epics, Kālidāsa can be considered an original playwright.
The next great Indian dramatist was Bhavabhuti (c. 7th century). He is said to have written the following three plays: Malati-Madhava, Mahaviracharita and Uttar Ramacharita. Among these three, the last two cover between them, the entire epic of Ramayana. The powerful Indian emperor Harsha (606-648) is credited with having written three plays: the comedy Ratnavali, Priyadarsika, and the Buddhist drama Nagananda. Many other dramatists followed during the Middle Ages.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The performing arts are those forms of art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object. The term "performing arts" first appeared in the English language in the year