Japanese Nihonga painter Hatanaka comes calling on Kolkata artists
18 Nov 2014 5:34 AM IST
Last time he visited India, Hatanaka made waves with his depiction of Indian icons like Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa with his exhibitions in Delhi and Kolkata in 2012 to mark 60 years of India-Japanese relations. This time around, Prof Hatanaka and curator Midori Yamamoto are all set to anchor a seminar on Japanese Nihonga painting and Indian miniature painting at GCAC on 12 Nov.
This will be followed by a workshop, attended by artists from the city. Says senior artist Ganesh Haloi, ‘Japanese art makes very good use of space. The colours are extremely vibrant. Indian artists could benefit from this very interesting interaction with Japanese masters’.
Interestingly, Hatanaka and Midori will focus on challenges faced by the traditional Japanese art form, Nihonga . They will tell Kolkata artists how the demands of the global art mart and the need for survival helped create a new artists group, Kaze(meaning wind) by Prof Hatanaka. Nihonga uses traditional colors ground from various natural materials and stones like carbon black, azurite and agate.
The traditional way of creating these hues is manually grinding minerals, shell corals and semi precious stones into powder, resulting in pigments that reflect and absorb light in different ways. Prof Apurva Sengupta of GCAC said , ‘Japanese master Okakura, a friend of Tagore, visited Santiniketan in 1902 and 1912. Prof Hatanaka’s visit so many years later will perhaps rejuvenate the Indo-Japanese art movements in the context of contemporary, modern art’.
The ministry of culture, Japan and Kyoto City University of Arts is funding the programme. It is not that no exchange in fine arts happened between Okakura’s visit and Hatanaka’s India tour, though.
In 1993, a Japanese collector, Masanori set up the Glenbarra (Art)Museum in Himeji in southern Japan, mostly with works by 20-odd Indian artists. Then came a phase when he thought there was a ‘responsibility’ to showcase more Indian art. ‘Masanori bought 400 artworks from me. He even invited me to visit his museum which I did, happily’, artist Jogen Choudhury told Millennium Post.
This will be followed by a workshop, attended by artists from the city. Says senior artist Ganesh Haloi, ‘Japanese art makes very good use of space. The colours are extremely vibrant. Indian artists could benefit from this very interesting interaction with Japanese masters’.
Interestingly, Hatanaka and Midori will focus on challenges faced by the traditional Japanese art form, Nihonga . They will tell Kolkata artists how the demands of the global art mart and the need for survival helped create a new artists group, Kaze(meaning wind) by Prof Hatanaka. Nihonga uses traditional colors ground from various natural materials and stones like carbon black, azurite and agate.
The traditional way of creating these hues is manually grinding minerals, shell corals and semi precious stones into powder, resulting in pigments that reflect and absorb light in different ways. Prof Apurva Sengupta of GCAC said , ‘Japanese master Okakura, a friend of Tagore, visited Santiniketan in 1902 and 1912. Prof Hatanaka’s visit so many years later will perhaps rejuvenate the Indo-Japanese art movements in the context of contemporary, modern art’.
The ministry of culture, Japan and Kyoto City University of Arts is funding the programme. It is not that no exchange in fine arts happened between Okakura’s visit and Hatanaka’s India tour, though.
In 1993, a Japanese collector, Masanori set up the Glenbarra (Art)Museum in Himeji in southern Japan, mostly with works by 20-odd Indian artists. Then came a phase when he thought there was a ‘responsibility’ to showcase more Indian art. ‘Masanori bought 400 artworks from me. He even invited me to visit his museum which I did, happily’, artist Jogen Choudhury told Millennium Post.
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