Art and imagination Power of imagination is often regarded as the yardstick of creative excellence. Since the days of Abanindranath Tagore, artists in Bengal have been widely known to stretch their imagination to a romantic and sentimental plane. Taking off from a bland, human reality, their works reach a state of expression far from the real and the mundane. Whereas the focus was on myths and legends in the early 20th century, the social scene attracted artists’ imagination soon afterwards. The tendency to discover myths in real life became prominent with a growing global awareness of human limitations. Stretch of Imagination, the ongoing exhibition of paintings by well-known artists, can be hailed as an authentic record of the way in which artists have used their imagination in this part of the country. The show also features works by some eminent artists from outside Bengal. Participants include Bijon Chowdhury, Chhatrapati Dutta, Fawad Tamkanat (a painting by him appears right), Laxman Aelay, Prokash Karmakar, Ramananda Bandyopadhyay, Shuvaprasanna, Subrata Gangopadhyay and Thota Vaikuntham. Event: An exhibition of paintings by eminent artists When: Till May 17; 11 am - 7 pm Where: Masters Collection Art Gallery, G-7 Malayalay Apartments, 3 Woodburn Park Road

art

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 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 20 at The Art Shoppé Gallery, Unnayan #Uns-71, Bengal Ambuja Commercial Complex, 1050/1 Survey Park; 11 am - 7 pm: Oh! Calcutta..., an exhibition of paintings by Swaroop Mukerji, Apurba Mazumder, Manik Saha, Dilip Chaudhury, Jayanta Chakraborty and Anindya Mukharjee. Till May 23 (except Monday) at Gallery Rasa, 828/1 Block-P, New Alipore; 4 pm - 8 pm: A set of 12 etchings by Suhas Roy. 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 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 17 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Howrah Dakshinayan presents Hawa Badal. Script & direction: Kunal Mukhopadhyay. May 18 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.45 pm: Gandhar presents Kachher Manush, directed by Gautam Haldar.

TALK

May 15 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Samshuddhananda will speak in Bengali on Mandukya Karika.

PERFORMING ARTS

May 15 at Sisir Mancha; 5 pm: Sur O Sadhana and Seram Thalassaemia Prevention Federation present Nana Mukhey Bangla Gaan, an evening of Bengali songs by Purabi Mukhopadhyay, Deepankar Chattopadhyay, Jyoti Prakash Chattopadhyay, Sreeradha Bandyopadhyay, Utpalendu Chowdhury, Debarati Som, Swapan Som, Anushila Basu, Kingshuk Roy, Mita Chatterjee, Lajbanti Roychoudhury, Malabika Mukhopadhyay and Dr Tania Das. May 15 at Rabindra Sadan campus; 5.30 pm: An evening of songs and recitation as part of Tagore’s birth anniversary celebration. Participants: Srinanda Mallick, Sucharita Ghosh, Chitralekha Dutta, Shrabana Bhattacharya, Moushumi Karmakar, Tania Das, Jayashree Dasgupta, Rajeshwar Bhattacharya, Swapan Gupta, Dipak Rudra, Debashis Roy Choudhury, Rahul Mitra, Goutam Mitra, Sandip Sen and others in songs, and Chandan Bhattacharya, Mamata Dasgupta, Rina Dev, Koushik Chakraborty, Kakoli Ghosal and others in recitation. May 15 at Rabindra Sadan; 5.30 pm: As part of Tagore’s birth anniversary celebrations, Anandabrati presents Rabi Pradakshin Pathey, a programme of songs and reading directed by Abhirup Guha Thakurta and Pramita Mallick; to be followed by a dance programme, Natir Puja, presented by IPTA and directed by Sisir Sen, and another song and dance programme, Sraban Gatha, presented by Rabindra Bharati University. 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 17 at Science City auditorium; 8 pm onwards (night-long): Meghamallar presents Raat Bhor Rabindranath - Mahabishwey Mahakashey featuring Tagore songs and recitation and also dance. Also, felicitation to Suchitra Mitra, Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, Purabi Mukhopadhyay, Maya Sen, Arghya Sen, Ritu Guha, Sumitra Sen, Tarun Majumdar, Madhabi Mukhopadhyay and Sovon Som. Songs by Mohan Singh, Buddhadev Guha, Abhirup Guha Thakurta, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Indrani Sen, Lopamudra Mitra, Saikat Mitra, Indranil Sen, Sraboni Sen, Shibaji Chattopadhyay, Pramita Mallikc, Arundhati Holme Choudhury, Rajasree Bhattacharya, Anushila Basu, Debarati Som, Agnibha Bandyopadhyay, Rachaita Roy, Bikram Singh, Rahul Mitra, Pramit Sen, Pubali Debnath, Manomoy Bhattacharya and others. Recitation and reading by Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Raya Bhattacharya, Urmimala and Jagannath Basu, Gouri and Partha Ghosh, Rokeya oy, Soumitra Mitra, June Malliah and others. Dance by students and teachers of Visva Bharati. May 18 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 10.30 am: Sangeet Ashram presents a classical vocal recital by Manas Chakraborty, accompanied by Samar Saha (tabla) and Ranjan Mukhopadhyay (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.

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