Ved Prakash Bhardwaj
A major exhibition, Mycelial Legacies, is being organized by Anant Art Gallery at Bikaner House, Delhi. The exhibition will be on view till February 12. This exhibition is perhaps the first of its kind which brings together 30 women artists affiliated with the art department of MS University Baroda in the world of art. This includes artists from both the younger generation and renowned artists like Rini Dhumal and Nasreen Mohammadi. The exhibition highlights the contribution of women artists in the field of art. The exhibition strongly highlights women artists’ contribution to the Baroda School’s legacy.
MS University Baroda is also known as Baroda School in the art world. This school has played a major role in giving an identity to contemporary Indian art across the world. New experiments in art, ideological maturity and spirit to work as a chain make this school important. Today most people believe that KG Subramanian, Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh, Jeram Patel, PD Dhumal, Jyoti Bhatt, etc. played a major role in giving the shape and identity to the Baroda School. But this is not entirely true. The truth is that the women artists who took education from there and taught there are no less important in giving an identity to this school. Many artists have made their own identities. Names of Nasreen Mohammadi, Rini Dhumal, Ira Chaudhuri, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Jyotsna Bhatt, Rekha Rodwittiya, Neelima Sheikh, Latika Katt, Anita Dubey can be taken prominently as such artists.
While the paintings, sculptures, ceramics, graphics, etc. of the older generation of artists are present in this exhibition, the artists of the younger generation have worked in installation as well as other new mediums. Nibha Sikandar’s paper-cutting butterfly and Rakhi Peswani’s velvet fabric installations reveal new possibilities in art. Ratnabali Kant’s sculptures Kunti and Woman of Earth bring to the fore the consciousness of the social existence of a woman. Shakuntala Kulkarni’s cane sculpture and photographs of her performing arts explore new dimensions of expression in digital mediums.
Social consciousness is prominently exposed in most of the artworks included in the exhibition, along with female consciousness. A narrative is clearly visible in many works, although they are not illustrations. Satire about contemporary life is also visible in Hema Upadhyay’s works. It is a pleasure to see Kishori Kaul’s paintings in this exhibition after a long time. Lavanya Mani works in Mix Media and there is a hint towards social as well as political situations in her paintings.
