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METRO
FEATURE
His
Own Man
 When
collegemates asked Owais Husain what his father did, he used to tell them
he was on a secret mission to Warsaw. Owais, 32, who figured out in his
early teens that he wanted to be an artist, did not want to risk comparisons
with his famous father, Maqbool Fida. Calcuttans knew that last week,
specially since M.F. Husain dropped by at the opening of his son's first
ever exhibition in the city, at Galerie 88. He looked every bit a proud
father. And when a guest jokingly said to him, "I can't find you
in any of these paintings," Husain shot back: "That's how it
should be."
"I
wish people would not ask me about my family," says Owais, the youngest
of Husain's six children. "Why don't people just ask me about my
work?" In fact they should. At the Calcutta exhibition, "How
we're living these days", a local painter admitted that he found
Owais' titles fascinating. The large acrylic-on-canvas works go under
such tongue-twisting catchphrases like "The enigma of the late afternoon"
and "Nobody's there anymore where he wanted to be". Artistic
pretension? No, Owais just likes playing with words. Unlike others he
just thinks of a title and then puts down on canvas what he imagines best
fits in. Mostly though his figurative works are reminiscent of cinema
posters- a play of light and shade, bold colours and detailed handling
of the human form. Maybe because he's cinemaholic and also prefers photo-exhibitions
to watching the works of other artists. The current body of work is loosely
inspired by Owais' stint as associate director of his Dad's Gaja Gamini.
"There is a photographic quality about his images," says artist
Jayshree Chakraborty. "An unreal 'filmi duniya' thing that you don't
see much of." Looks like junior is trying to match up.
-Labonita
Ghosh
Paintings
For Perspiration
Cheers
to the new era of art ubiquity. If you're a budding brush-wielder (and
no one else wants to honour your colour cause) then there's always one
sure shot way to get noticed, and maybe even become famous-by displaying
on footpaths, pavements, factories, hospitals, clinics, cafes, shops,
offices, parks and just about any place where there is life and activity.
(That rules out an art gallery anyway.) So how about a gym?
Habitues
at Fitness Trends, a multi-function gym in Andheri, Mumbai, were surprised
when artists Prashant Hirlekar, Safdar Shamee, Siddharth Ghosh and Nikhil
Chaganlal put up 17 of their canvases for a unique watch-paintings-as-you-perspire
exhibition called "Affordable art-Celebration of Life". The
compositions, which deliberately avoided being abstract so that they could
be more recognisable, were placed in the corridors as well as in the cardio
studio (between weight-training machines, AB isolators and barbell stands),
successfully goading fitness junkies with their ghagra-choli-turbaned-men
impressions, among other scenes. Says manager Dilip Heble, who had earlier
challenged his club members with a play: "The idea was to expose
a bit of aesthetics to the people of the gym, especially these days when
the pace of life is so fast."
Now that
they have, the 350 regulars seem to be lapping it all up: seven of the
works have already been sold ... and quickly replaced by seven others
before they could be missed. Also adding to the exhibition's popularity,
apart from their non-obscurantist imagery, is their value: all the paintings
are comfortably priced between Rs 7,500 and Rs 18,000.
So what's
next: art galleries on public buses?
-Natasha
Israni
more...
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