A set of 5 workshops around the exhibition 'Purvaee' at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), Noida, India, were designed and conducted through December, January and February. 

The exhibition 'Purvaee' hosts works of prominent artists such as Nandalal Bose, Ramkinkar Baij, Sankho Chaudhuri, Vasudevan Akkitham, Krishna Reddy, Manisha Gera Baswani, A. Ramachandran etc, tracing pedagogical lineage form Shantiniketan post-independence to Baroda School of Art and Jamia Milia Islamia University in the modern and the contemporary times. 

The workshops focused on the aesthetic and historical lineage of each of these artists, which is important specifically in the context in which they started their practices as artists and, not much after, became pedagogues. The workshops specifically focused on key figures with key debates that continue to linger on within the contemporary art milleu- Whether its the formation of the nation-state, and the question of placing the 'Indian' in Indian art; or how to see the landscape without landscaping; The relevance of certain formal elements, techniques as well as their ecological and cultural impact in the contemporary; The debate of art for art's sake and the space of free expression within art; The figure of the artist beyond the producer of the 'artwork', and as a writer, thinker, philosopher. These intensities were condensed, and provoked through fun activities and prompts, where focus was given on personal narratives, and free expression free from the boundaries of aesthetic and formal judgements. 

 

 

"Intuition in Form"- A workshop building on the Pedagogical lineage of Nandalal Bose 

 

 

   

Images from "Intuition in Form",  at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. 

 

 

"Inking Ecosystems"- A workshop building on the Pedagogical lineage of Benodebihari Mukharjee

 

   

Images from "Inking Ecosystems",  at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. 

 

 

"Lines in Worlds"- A workshop building on the Pedagogical lineage of K.P Krishnakumar

 

   

   

Images from "Lines in Worlds",  at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.