Continued from Part 3. “Buddha and Mahavir were able to make progress only through their own experience, and that why I see art and spirituality being connected in this land. We will have to have conversations like those in the Upanishads, by immersing ourselves in art, and thereby with our artworks. We will have to...
July 28, On This Day On July 28, 1866 — 156 years ago — at the age of 18, Lavinia Ellen ‘Vinnie’ Ream Hoxie became the first and youngest female artist to receive a commission from the United States government for a statue (of Abraham Lincoln). She had become an apprentice at well-known sculptor Clark Mills’s studio...
Continued from Part 2. According to Himmat Shah, an artist should be a very sensitive person, who could experience art at the very subtle levels and could give unmatched form to their own artworks. So that the unmatchable quality of their individuality stays in their work, and when faced with doubt, they could search for...
Continued from Part 1 “Look at people today — how they have become obsessed with their own body. How strange it seems that everyone wants to become body-less without understanding the body, dream of freedom without knowing boundation. It seems that everything is floating in thin air; the journey-nobody wants to embark on that process,...
There is nothing straight about Himmat Shah. From his personal life to his art, which keeps meandering into different contours in ways one can not even imagine. One can experience them though, this process of exploring the unknown within him and around and his capacity to reveal some bits. Crossing the threshold of 90...
July 22, On This Day A groundbreaking American sculptor known for his innovative ‘mobiles’ (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents), his static ‘stabiles’, and his monumental public sculptures, Alexander Calder was born on July 22, 1898 in Pennsylvania, USA. (Interestingly, his birthdate is a bit of a source of confusion, as his mother...
Bernd Fasching, born 18 July 1955 in Vienna, Austria, is an Austrian painter and sculptor best known for his art practice that seeks to actively involve the viewer in the shaping of his projects. While he lives and works in Vienna, he has taken his experimental exhibitions across the globe. In particular, the series called...
In Memoriam A highly respected sculptor and teacher of many stalwart artists, Krishna Chhatpar, left his earthly abode on July 7, 2022, at the age of 86. Born on May 24, 1936, Chhatpar chose the artistic path and eventually became a professor at the prestigious Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda for a life-long stint,...
JUNE 10, ON THIS DAY One of the most famous architects of the first half of the 20th century, Antoni Gaudi met with an untimely death on this day, June 10. He was killed at an age of 73 after being hit by a tram in 1926. Best known for developing intricate structures throughout Barcelona,...
June 2, On This Day One of the best-known British land artists of our time, English sculptor Sir Richard Julian Long happens to be the only artist to have been short-listed four times for the Turner Prize (1984, 1987, 1988 and winner in 1989). Long was born on June 2, 1945, in Bristol, south-west England....