NEW DELHI: The Lalit Kala Akademi, along with the Bombay Art Society, will arrange a mélange of 51 artists at the Kumbh Mela to be held in Allahabad in January 2019, in order to document the “memories “.
“Bringing a person’s features to life is the most difficult task. The portrait artists will be featuring the sadhus during five days,” said Uttam Pacharne, chairperson, Lalit Kala Akademi.
The event will be held for five days at the Mela which is expected to draw crores of visitors and devotees. “We have a made a list of 75 artists from which, 51 will be chosen. The list will include professional portrait artists in order to keep the quality intact. We have contacted artists from across the country. However, we are focusing on academic style portraits, which is more predominant in Maharashtra,” said Chandrajit Yadav, secretary, Bombay Art Society.
The Akademi is also planning to throw open the camp for a tribal art exhibition and demonstrations. “The tribal communities have kept the indigenous art forms alive. People from across the country and abroad, who come for Kumbh mela, can see the demonstrations to be acquainted with Indian art forms,” said Pacharne.
The focus will be on tribal art but people will also get glimpse of contemporary Indian art and paintings. In another initiative, the Akademi is arranging national camps in Kashmir, Tripura, Orissa and Bihar and a regional camp in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh starting late October.
Each camp will be seven-days-long where professionals will aggregate. “The painting camp at Orissa will specifically focus on bringing together tribal artists in order to help them preserve and revive their art forms. In the Tripura camp, we will also invite tribal artists too...” said Pacharne.