Thursday 18 August 2011

An affordable art mela in the city | Deccan Chronicle

An affordable art mela in the city | Deccan C

An affordable art mela in the city

An affordable art mela in the city
Staring at an empty wall or trying to figure out how to bring colour into your home? Then look no further. As many as 6,000 paintings are on sale at the Chitramayee State Gallery of Fine Arts, Madhapur till June 30. Now it’s not just the rich who can afford to flaunt original paintings, you can too.
About one hundred artists from various states, including Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka and New Delhi are showcasing their works and the USP of the mela is “affordability”, with the pieces priced between `100 to `5,000. The mela is being organised much like the art fair in Bengaluru in December every year, where artists display their works. The Department of Culture is organising the same to provide a win-win situation for artists as well as art lovers.
“We are conducting the mela to provide opportunities to artists at one place. It will benefit common people as well, as the paintings are being sold at nominal prices,” says M. Kantha Rao, director, Department of Culture. Though the department was thinking of collecting 5 per cent commission from the sales proceeds, it has now decided against this.
Madhu Kurava, a city-based artist who was seen with his series Sparsa, the Touch, depicting the strained relations between husband and wife due to stressed-out lifestyles, says events like this help a lot. “Platforms like this not only help us to sell our works but come in handy for networking,” he says. Ramya Lakshmi, a HR manager with a city-based hospital, looked happy as she had already sold two paintings from her Ganesh series.
Jaywant Naidu, an art collector, picked up about 10 paintings at the mela and said that these types of events encourage budding artistes who are struggling due to a lack of avenues. He added, “The government should organise these kinds of events on a regular basis, maybe once in three months.”
About 20 works were sold out on Sunday morning itself and thanks to the affordability factor, many were seen taking a look. The gallery which often looks deserted was brimming with an excited crowd.
hronicle

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