The pinwheel of emotions is the genesis of our current exhibition, 'Navrasa: The Nine Emotions of Art'. This unique treatise of emotions and moods has formed the foundation for the performing and visual arts in India. As we researched deeper to explore the dynamics it shares with Indian modern art, we found that all emotions are intrinsically linked with each other, that they trigger actions and reactions and are catalysts for change. 'Navrasa' explores Indian modernism and looks at the works of masters through the nine primary emotions, and breaks new ground in the visualisation of Indian art.
At the start of the year, when the health emergency was coursing through country after country, region after region, art had seemed like a frivolous thing in the wider scope of reality. And yet, we never lost hope. For the only things that have survived over decades and centuries and millennia have been art and architecture, carrying with them life-affirming tales of long-ago cultures and civilisations. We have turned to art for solace, in times both good and bad, and so it has transpired that 2020 showed us how much faith we repose in art to lighten our days and burdens.
Yet, not one of us will be sad at the passing of 2020, a year in which, it seemed, that hope died before rising, once more, like the phoenix from the very ashes in which it had been incinerated. With 'Navrasa', we revisit these emotions, each linked with the other, each a catalyst for change, but each also egging us on to do better, strive and remain steadfast. It is this spirit we celebrate with 'Navrasa', and hopefully, the connoisseurs will find the exhibition significant as it straddles the last weeks of 2020 and the first few days of 2021, a year of change and return to life as we knew it.
Participating artists include the most well-known names from the Indian art firmament: Tyeb Mehta, M. F. Husain, F. N. Souza, Krishen Khanna, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Jamini Roy, B. Prabha, Sunil Das, Rameshwar Broota, K. K. Hebbar, D. P. Roy Chowdhury, Madhvi Parekh, Altaf, Gogi Saroj Pal, Paritosh Sen, Nikhil Biswas, Rabin Mondal, Somnath Hore, Jogen Chowdhury, K. C. S. Paniker, A. Ramachandran, Kshitindranath Majumdar, as well as rare works by Raja Ravi Varma, A. H. Müller and Stefan Norblin, among others.
May the rasas of life sustain you.
