Abstract expressions A much debated subject in the history of the visual arts, abstract art is but a blending of concept and image, a mere dissolution of form. It intends to stir feelings and emotions rather than convey them. Beyond Figuration, the ongoing group show of works, is characterised by an internalisation of external objects and images, giving a sense of art returning to its most primeval origins. Sunando Basu’s (a painting by him appears right) exciting expressions bear testimony to his vision of reducing art to its purest, most original state. Featuring blocks of pure colours, shapes and patterns, his paintings generate a sense of movement through time and space. In Vishal Bhand’s lyrical images, there is a refreshing sense of the simple joy and wonder of existence and at the same time, a frenzied energy and mysticism that elevates his paintings to a more complex, religious plane. Highly charged motifs abound in the paintings of Susmit Biswas. His unique pictorial imagery enables him to create works that are intimate, sensitive reflections of his inner vision. The minimalist compositions of Silajit Ghosh strike deeper than at the sensory level. The childlike simplicity of his works is used to address basic questions of human sensibility. Event: An exhibition of paintings by four artists When: Till May 15; 11 am - 7 pm Where: Gallery K2, 35 Lansdowne Terrace

art

Till May 14 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery, 55 Gariahat Road, #2475 2275; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of portraits of Rabindranath Tagore in oil and pastel by Dr Tapan Ray Choudhuri. Till May 15 at Genesis Art Gallery, 8B Middleton Street, #2229 3886; 2 pm - 7.30 pm: Endless Resonances — an exhibition of recent paintings by well-known artists. Till May 17 at Gallery 79, 79 Raja Basanta Roy Road, 1st floor, #2466 2837; 4 pm - 7 pm: Mystic Colours, an exhibition of watercolours and collage by Shiladitya Ganguly and Probal Das. Till May 17 (weekdays) at Masters Collection Art Gallery, G7 Malayalay Apts, 3 Woodburn Park Road; 11 am - 7 pm: Stretch of Imagination: A show of exclusive artworks by 30 well-known artists. Till May 17 at C.C. Laha Centenary Fine Arts Gallery, 7 Chittaranjan Avenue, 1st floor, #6521 6931; 1 pm - 7 pm: Paintings by Badal Paul, Soibal Dutta, Tarun Banerjee, Subhrakanti Mitra, Shukla Chakrabarty, Indira Halder, Nabakumar Chakrabarty, Suprabhat Bhaduri and Panchanan Das. Till May 18 at Academy of Fine Arts, North Gallery; 12 noon - 8 pm: Rabi Art Gallery presents an exhibition of works by well-known artists. Till May 18 at Starmark, South City Mall; 11 am - 9 pm: Emami Chisel Art, in association with Starmark, presents Art on the Easel — an exhibition of paintings featuring the works of Arup Ratan Chowdhury. Till May 18 at Birla Academy of Art & Cukture, 2nd floor; 4 pm - 8 pm: A group show of paintings and sculptures hosted by Roddur. Till May 19 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm - 8 pm: Miniatures II, an exhibition of affordable small works by Arjun Bhattacharjee, Arpita Pradhan, Biplab Sarkar, Chandranath Saha, Debabrata Sarkar, Nandita Mukherjee, Nitai Das, Nabendu Sengupta, Pradip Das, Sudipta Dutta and Utpal Dutta. Till May 19 at Academy of Fine Arts, Central Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: Prekshapat presents an exhibition of paintings, graphics and ceramics by Dipanjan Bagli, Manik Kumar Ghosh, Partha Kabiraj, Saheb Dey, Swarup Nandi and Tusar Kanti Pradhan. Till May 19 (except Sunday) at Boi-Chitra, College Street Coffee House, 2nd floor, #2241 6845: 3 pm - 7.30 pm: Torture, Protest, Peace — an exhibition of paintings by Saumen Guha. Till May 25 at Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, 36C S.P. Mukherjee Road, #2455 6942/43; 2 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of works by Somnath Hore. Till May 25 at The Promenade lounge, Taj Bengal; 10 am - 11 pm: The Doorways — a solo exhibition of recent works by Subuddha Ghosh. The artist will be painting live from 3 pm to 6 pm. Till June 7 (except Sundays) at Galerie 88, 28B Shakespeare Sarani, #2290 2274; 11 am - 7 pm, Mondays (2 pm - 7 pm): Sculptures by Meera Mukherjee.

DRAMA

May 14 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Purba Paschim presents Tagore’s Chaturanga, directed by Bratya Basu. May 15 at Academy of Fine Arts & May 18 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Shohan presents Helmet, a comedy directed by Anish Ghosh. May 16 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Nandikar presents Pakhi (Story: Leela Mazumder; Dir: Swatilekha Sengupta) and Nana Ranger Din (Drama: Anton Chekov/Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay; Dir: Rudraprasad Sengupta). May 18 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.45 pm: Gandhar presents Kachher Manush, directed by Gautam Haldar.

TALK

May 14 at Ramakrishna Mission Saradapitha, Belur Math; 6 pm: Swami Sarvapremananda will speak on Sri Ramakrishner Bhaktavrinda. May 14 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall; 6.15 pm: Swami Sarvabhutananda will speak in Bengali on Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita.

PERFORMING ARTS

May 14 at Rabindra Sadan campus; 5.30 pm: An evening of songs and recitation as part of Tagore’s birth anniversary celebration. Participants: Enakshi Chattopadhyay, Bani Tagore, Tripti Sen, Tamalika Guha, Suchhanda Ghosh, Amrita Mukhopadhyay, Manoj Murali Nair, Bulbul Basu, Damayanti Dutta, Rajasree Bhattacharya, Runu Dutta, Bivas Ghosh, Manisha Murali Nair, Indrajit Mukhopadhyay, Prasun Dasgupta and others in songs, and Pranami Basak, Manisha Bhattacharya, Subir Bandyopadhyay, Amalendu Bhattacharya and others in recitation. May 14 at Rabindra Sadan; 5.30 pm: As part of Tagore’s birth anniversary celebrations, Tagore songs by Madhubanti Nandi, Rashmi Guha Roy, Madhumita Mukherjee, Sucheta Maity, Swati Pal and others; recitation by Shampa Dutta, Rosy Ghosh and Rajib Chatterjee, and drama Ghare Baire, produced by Marubehag. May 15 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall; 6 pm: An evening of classical music featuring Indradeep Ghosh (violin) with Ujjal Bharati (tabla), and Kumar Mukherjee (vocal) with Ashok Mukherjee (tabla) and Sanatan Goswami (harmonium). May 18 at Rotary Sadan; 6.30 pm: Abhinandan presents an evening of Tagore songs by Damayanti Bhattacharya, Mrinmay Roy, Swastika Mukhopadhyay and chorus by the artistes of Surangama.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till May 28 (except Sundays) at Gallery Sanskriti, 5C Alipore Park Road; 11 am - 7 pm: A set of 20 photographs, by Bivas Bhattacharjee, son of noted contemporary painter Bikash Bhattacharjee. Till May 30 (except Sundays) at Gallery Kanishka’s, 2/1 Hindusthan Road; 11 am - 8 pm: Portraits of a Director — an exhibition of photographs on Satyajit Ray by Asit Poddar. Till May 31 (except Mondays) at Bose Pacia Kolkata, Stephens Court, 18 Park Street, #40010148; 11 am - 7 pm: Bose Pacia Kolkata Gallery, the Embassy of France in India and Alliance Française du Bengale host India by Magnum: Plural Perspectives, a projected exhibition by 14 photographers from Magnum Photos.

EXHIBITION

Till May 16 at P-249 Purna Das Road (Triangular Park; #24644027) and at CB 68 Salt Lake, Sector 1 (near CA Island towards PNB; #40043486): Darbari presents Summer Sizzlers, showcasing cool casual cotton kurtis, skirts, wrap arounds, kaftans, saris and suits for ladies, and funky shirts and kurtas for gents. Also, a variety of handloom fabrics, sourced from all over the country. Till May 15 at 105 Southern Avenue, 2nd floor, near Lake Kali Bari, #98311 97704; 11 am - 6 pm: Exhibition of new summer collection of suits, tunics, saris and blouses by Richa Kanoria.

BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

May 14 at Gorky Sadan; 6.30 pm: Eisenstein Cine Club, Studio Foresee and Cultural Centre of Russia in Calcutta celebrates the 85th birth anniversary of Mrinal Sen with the screening of a documentary, With Mrinal Sen (Direction: Sanjoy Bhattacharya) and Ek Din Achanak made by the master filmmaker.

FILM SHOW

Till May 14 at Nandan II: Films Division, Government of India and Nandan, West Bengal Film Centre, jointly present MIFF in Kolkata, a festival of award-winning films from Mumbai International Film Festival for documentary, short and animation, held biennially. Today, 4 pm: Beyond the Wall (Poland, 19 min, Dir: Vita Zelakeviciute) and Riding Solo to the Top of the World (India, 84 min, Dir: Gaurav A. Jani); at 6.30 pm: The Black Road; On the Front Lines of Ache’s War (Australia, 52 min., Dir: William Nessen), The Elephant Boy (UK/India, 27 min, Dir: Rene Mohandas), The Lost Rainbow (India, 22 min., Dir: Dhiraj Meshram) and The Little Terrorist (India, 15 min., Dir: Ashvin Kumar).

FILM FESTIVAL

May 14 at Nandan-1; 6.30 pm: Noted filmmaker Tarun Majumdar will inaugurate the 8th International Children’s Film Festival, being organised by Cine Central, Calcutta in collaboration with Nandan West Bengal Film Centre, EZCC, UNICEF, Rishra Municipality and Beliaghata Education Centre. Shrek The Third, a well-known animation film directed by Chris Miller/Raman Hui, will be screened. The festival will will be held till May 25 at different venues in the city and suburbs. A photographic exhibition on children, depicting their plight, problems and demands, will be organised by UNICEF at the foyer of Nandan-II.

WORKSHOP

May 16 at Kornash, The Lifestyle Management School, 139B Rashbehari Avenue: Workshop on developing an insight into choosing the right life-partner. Details at #98300 32232, 98311 65559. May 16 - 18 at Starmark, 3 Lord Sinha Road; 3 pm - 4.30 pm: In association with Kriya Events, Starmark will host Absolutely Spellbound, a three-day spelling and vocabulary workshop for children between 7 years and 12 years. Details and registration at #98303 79166, 98314 44138. May 19 - 29 at Marudhara, 6 Merlin Park: A workshop on Rajasthani folk song and bhajan. To be conducted by Roshan Khan of Rajasthan. Details at #2460 7356.All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to: Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001; Fax: 2234-8244

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All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to:

Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001;
Fax: 2234-8244