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METROSCAPE
Big
And The Beautiful
It wouldn't be wrong
to assume, considering the atomic scale of their works, that far too many
Indian artists are victims of vertigo, both in form and concept. Even
crossing the 6-ft barrier would be like working on the dangerous precipice
of over-ambition. But not for Ravinder G. Reddy.
At a show in Apeejay's new glass box gallery
on the Delhi-Faridabad highway, the Visakhapatnam-based sculptor displayed
works of a magnitude unknown in this part of India. Like Standing under
a Tree, an almost 12-ft-tall fleshy golden nude gaping from beneath a
branch of a Flame of the Forest. Or the big busts of powerfully braided
ladies (actually vintage Reddy but about twice the previous size), also
done in kitschy gold, deep vermilion and cobalt blue. Ask him why he's
thinking big these days and Reddy gives an unfussy rationale: "I've
moved to a bigger place now."
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Size of the matter: Reddy with Woman on a Charpoy
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But size is not all. The latest fibreglass sculpture,
Woman on a Charpoy, is a slighter variant of Reddy's female studies where
the red charpoy itself acts as the pedestal for the seated figure. Reddy
plans more such figures, maybe clusters of them, in a changeable scale.
"I have don't have a social life in Visakhapatnam so its easy to
do work," confesses the sculptor, who perhaps gets invited to more
international art shows than any other Indian. (This show is later going
to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, US.) Other aspiring metro artists
please take note.
-Anshul Avijit
Heart Transplant
It's been a year-and-a-half
since 36-year-old Neville Tuli had his last auction in Delhi under the
acronym, heart, his charitable trust. This time Tuli's auction in Mumbai
went under the name Osian's, a corporate sister, probably named after
a temple town in Marwar from where India's powerful business clans have
known to have emerged. (Note: Kumarmangalam Birla is listed as a corporate
advisory board member.) Titled "India: the Passionate Detachment"
and divided into four phases, the auction featured 218 works and 11 books
by 122 artists and seven writers like Jamini Roy and Vivan Sundaram and
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Karl Khandalavala. The mathematics of the exercise?
Rs 1.8 crore collected from sales, with Nandalal Bose's Indra and Airavata
going for Rs 7.5 lakh. and S.H. Raza's La Tour for Rs 6.75 lakh. Tuli,
who never shies of parading his noble intentions, claims that 25 per cent
of the total sales are marked for research and archival maintenance of
the arts.
-Natasha
Israni
Mare Delivery
 Queenscliffe
and Starsky tempted, Affability almost scored but finally it was M.A.M.
Ramaswamy's colt Noble Opinion (above, left) that won the day. In an afternoon
marked by the bonhomie of good food and friends the Poonawalla Breeders'
Multimillion at the Mahalaxmi Race Course, Mumbai, last Sunday drew its
fair share of celebrities (like Australians Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting)
and race enthusiasts. The seven furlong race of 18 horses offered in excess
of Rs 60 lakh in prizes.
-Himanshi Dhawan
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