Indian artist Anjaneyulu Gundu’s hyperrealistic painting of a bicycle, one of the works on show at Fanqaar Exhibition.
Doha: Sixty-three works by 20 leading Indian visual artists are on show at Fanqaar Exhibition which was launched yesterday at The Gate Mall.
Visitors at the opening of the exhibition enjoyed the kaleidoscope of paintings depicting various themes and wide-ranging styles representing various art movements from modern and contemporary to cubism and expressionism to surrealism and traditional contemporary.
With nearly two years of preparation, the exhibition is timely as it coincides with Qatar- India 2019 Year of Culture celebrations.
Speaking at the inauguration, Indian Ambassador P Kumaran stressed that efforts had been made since the start of the year to present the various facets of Indian art and culture and that the exhibition was part of the series focusing on various kinds of Indian art.
Fanqaar — an Urdu word which means artist — shines the spotlight on Indian artists Francis Newton Souza, Ram Kumar, Paramjit Singh, Badri Narayan, Kalal Laxman Goud, Manu Parekh, Thota Vaikuntam, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Rabin Mondal, Milburn Cherian, G R Iranna, Ramesh Gorjala, H R Das, Laxman Aelay, Anjaneyulu Gundu, Lalbahadur Singh, Padmakar Santape, Nagesh Ghodke, Bhaskar Rao and Vishal Joshi.
Indian Ambassador to Qatar, P Kumaran (fourth left), with other officials and artists during the opening of Fanqaar Exhibition at The Gate Mall, yesterday. Pic: Abdul Basit/The Peninsula
In different mediums and sizes, the works on display at the five-day exhibition are a celebration of the richness of Indian art, culture, and heritage with a diverse range of subjects visually presented by the artists coming from various backgrounds.
A hyperrealistic painting of a bicycle by Gundu is one of the crowd-pullers at the show as it looks like a real bike hanging on the wall of the gallery. Gundu’s favourite subject is still life and he is known for his paintings which look like photographs.
Another interesting artist on the show is Jadhav with his cubist paintings of horses, oozing with wild energy achieved through a mastery of colour layering, crisp angles and play of light and shade.
Award-winning artist Iranna’s portrayal of human condition and survival through paintings that depict bruised textures and sharp cutting edges are also another fascinating set of works on display with their sense of massive energy that pervades the surfaces.
Also visually appealing are paintings by Vaikuntam who gets inspiration from the rural areas and whose subjects are the men and women of his village painted using only primary colours.
The launch of the exhibition, was attended by a number of ambassadors and members of the diplomatic community, artists from India and Qatar and art enthusiasts. The exhibition is open to the public until Saturday at The Gate Mall.
