By Sakhshi Mahajan
‘Gallery Nature Morte’ was founded by artists Peter Nagy and Alan Belcher in New York’s East Village. The gallery was shut down 6 years later and Nagy moved to India to work as an art consultant. Around a decade later in 1997, he reopened the gallery in Delhi to showcase and display cutting edge Indian contemporary art. Nature Morte promotes experimental art forms including conceptual art, photographs, installations and pop art in a market that ‘remains fixated on paintings’.
Quite literally ‘Nature Morte’ translates to still life and has an art historical significance. It is a work of art that depicts inanimate natural or manmade objects and gives the artist scope to design his/her own compositions. This concept originated during Greek/Roman times and at the time of Renaissance, and is also employed in contemporary art.
Juan Sanchez Cotan | Quince, cabbage, melon and cucumber; Oil on canvas
William Michael Harnett | Still Life- Violin and Music; Oil on Canvas
Today, Nature Morte has spaces in Delhi, Gurgaon and Berlin. They also work in collaboration with Bose Pacia Gallery of New York. Peter Nagy has been a catalyst for individualizing experimental Indian contemporary art in the market. Nature Morte regularly exposes us to international artists and assists in educating audiences about avant-garde art forms.
Art Talk | What to Expect in Nature Morte
Conceptual art: The idea or concept behind the work of art takes precedence over traditional media. Usually this work takes shape in an abstract or uncharacteristic manner, where idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work.
Installations: It is a medium that is site specific and the work incorporates the setting {walls, floor, lighting and props} it is created in. Installations can be permanent as well as recreated and installed in different sites.
Photography
Pop Art: Pop art was one of the major art movements of the 20th Century. It’s a form of art that depicts objects or scenes from everyday life and employs techniques of commercial art and popular illustration.
Artists represented by Nature Morte |
JITISH KALLAT’S work is thought provoking, quirky and for the intellectually curious.
Seen but Unseen Circa {picture below} is an installation at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Bombay. His 120 resin sculptures resemble bamboo scaffoldings and have animals carved on it, which look like the gargoyles at VT station in Mumbai. This Bombay born artist’s works are inspired by the life of the metropolis and urban clutter, and his ideas originate from that.
ANITA DUBE is primarily an installation artist and her works address issues such as mortality, desire, pain, and joy. She uses found objects like foam, glass, and plastic, to make sculptural pieces in her larger installations.
Little Weapons of Defence | Media used includes styrofoam, glue, cement, marble powder, paint, wood, stone and velvet
In Little Weapons of Defense, Anita Dube has constructed a freestanding ‘Jali’ screen from leftover packing materials to resemble stone screens in Mughal architecture. Dube has used found objects like styrofoam packing material to create this structure and she has also placed velvet rock like structures at different parts that are evocative of weapons.
In Sea Creature the small ceramic eyes are inspired by the ‘all seeing eye of God’, representing God watching over humankind. She is making a statement on mindless religiosity and faith in our country.
MARQUIS DE SADE, Mixed media
UPCOMING SHOWS |
The next show ‘A Conscious Stream’ with works by Justin Ponmany, Mithu Sen, Santana
Gohain, Suhasini Kejriwal, Anita Dube and Sheba Chhachhi will be on from July 7 – 28 at A 1 Neeti Bagh.
They will also be showcasing paintings of Ramakrishna Behera from July 9th to August 5th at their gallery at The Oberoi Gurgaon, 443 Udyog Vihar, Phase V. Behera’s paintings are landscapes inspired from the Ajanta caves, mountainous regions in Ladakh and his hometown in Orissa. They are hallucinatory and he adopts wide angles to create this perspective.
In Our {Little Black Book}
Gallery Nature Morte- Experimental Contemporary Art. Upcoming shows in Delhi at A-1 Neeti Bagh {011-41740215} & in Gurgaon at The Oberoi, Gurgaon, 443 Udyog Vihar Phase-V.
