That little nip in the air still freshens up the soul as you step outside this February. We welcome the coming of spring with a new zest as new possibilities are no more a word out of a work of fiction but a reality consequential of changing mindsets ready to evolve. With positive signals worldwide the recent Christie’s sale, February 5th proved yet again, that the top-end art market is scorching. It fetched 177 million pounds, happily beating the pre-sale estimate of 113 million to 163 million pounds. After their recent success and benchmark Gaitonde sale in India they continue the Bullish trend in the art scene. As we rejoice in sure shot signs of a revived interest in art of the Indian buyer, we can’t help feel the pain of losing a highly renowned actress of Indian cinema. Suchitra Sen, the Mahanayika of Bengali cinema, first Indian actress to receive an award at an international level, the Moscow International Film Festival in 1963 ,where she won the Silver Prize for Best Actress for Saat Paake Bandha and was awarded the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards in India in 1972 among others and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2005, that she refused, the highest cinematic award in India, to avoid publicity.
A woman, far ahead of her times, daring and confident, she tore open the shirt of her co star at the launch party enacting a scene from the film, a first for performance? This issue also marks the event of the Birth Anniversary of K G Subramanyan, one of India’s most engaging and influential artists, with works full of wit, irony, satire and critical social annotations recalls his days gone by at Shantiniketan and more as he speaks to Sandhya Bordewekar on the occasion of his 90th Birth Anniversary… Meghali Goswami talks about Ajit Seal the respected Santiniketan educator, a student of the revered printmaker Somnath Hore known for his lithographs which are silky and soft like velvet establishing spiritual connections with the symbols used. These symbols unify the onceptual diversity of symbols and language and give a totality to his works by juxtaposing the visual with the tactile language. He believes that the world around us as we perceive it is created by our mind or senses, reality is a mystery unsolved.
Paramjot Walia is in conversation with Samar Jodha as he talks about his experience at the Venice Biennale which is the oldest of all art fests, he also shares with us his fascination with the ability of art to exist anywhere and everywhere irrespective of the absence of commerciality that he observed during his journeys through the nomadic and tribal communities, photographing and filming the vanishing Tai Phake tribe in the Northeast. We strive to reach out further and bring forth more insight into various happenings in the art scenario from the avant-garde to the remotest and most primitive. Your feedback is welcome, do write to us at artanddeal@gmail.com. Happy reading.

Siddhartha Tagore