An eternal bond Rich in human interest, mother-and-child, as a theme, has been given celebrated classic expressions in such masterpieces as Michelangelo’s Pieta, Raphael’s Madonna and nearer home in Jamini Roy’s paintings of the same title as well as Jainul Abedin’s famine drawings in which a famished mother with her skin-and-bone children fleshes out the terrible pity and terror of starvation. There has been no elemental change in the relation between a mother and a child despite several paradigm shifts that have taken place since the days when a woman’s primary role was to bear and rear children. Artists, therefore, asked to paint or sculpt a very traditional subject in two very traditional genres found the task quite challenging and have turned out works that have an engaging range in terms of conceptual and formal content. Thus, at the ongoing art show Mother & Child, most artists have either treated the theme with straightforward mother-and-child motifs or their analogous counterparts drawn from the world of flora or fauna. They have addressed the theme with varied recycling of the pristine notion of the mother-and-child ties evident not only in human instances but also in the entire living world in which the feminine species is the exclusive conduit of life force flowing from generation to generation. Participants include Anjali Ela Menon, Sunil Das, Jogen Chowdhury, Suhas Roy, Prokash Karmakar (a painting by him appears here), Prasanta Sahu, Shuvaprasanna, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Mehjabin Mazumdar, Samir Aich and Rajan Krishnan. Event: An exhibition of paintings, Mother & Child, by contemporary Indian artists When: Till December 19; 11 am - 7 pm Where: Gallery Kolkata, 41 Shakespeare Sarani, #2287 3377/88

ART

Till January 9 (except Sundays and public holidays) at CIMA Gallery; 3 pm - 7 pm (Mondays) & 2 pm - 7 pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays): In Search of a Context, an exhibition about the relation of art to its setting of time, place, social and historical moorings. Artworks include paintings, sculptures, drawings, collage, films and video. Featuring works of Manas Acharya, Samir Aich, Rashmi Bagchi Sarkar, Sumitro Basak, Rameshwar Broota, Shreyasi Chatterjee, Swarna Chitrakar, Jogen Chowdhury, Sougata Das, Partha Pratim Deb, Meera Devidayal, Early Bengal School, Anita Gopal, Subodh Gupta, Anup Mondal, Binode Behari Mukherjee, Ravinder G. Reddy, Satyajit Roy, Kingshuk Sarkar, Shakila, Shuvaprasanna, Mayank Kumar Shyam, Arpita Singh, J. Swaminathan, Rabindranath Tagore, Manish Waghdare, Ancient South Indian Sculpture, and Cinematic Installation by Rituparno Ghosh and Mainak Bhaumik. Till December 19 at Gallery K2, Supra Court, 35 Lansdowne Terrace, #2465 1444; 11 am - 7 pm: My World in Colours (Part 2) — an exhibition of recent works by Atri Sen. Till December 20 at Taj Bengal, Promenade Lounge; 10 am - 11 pm: Recent works by Kuntal Dutta. The artist will be painting live from 3 pm to 6 pm. Till December 20 at Art Walk, South City Mall; 12 noon - 8 pm: Artistic Impression presents an art exhibition. Till December 20 at Sanskriti Art Gallery, 5C Alipore Park Road: An exhibition of sculptures by Debabrata De. Till December 22 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery, 55 Gariahat Road, #2475 2275; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings on Kali. Till December 26 (except Sunday) at Galerie 88, 28B Shakespeare Sarani, #22902274; 11 am - 7 pm, Mon - 2 pm to 7 pm: Modern Continuous — Works by Bikash Bhattacharjee, Dharmanarayan Dasgupta, Dipak Banerjee, Ganesh Pyne, Jogen Chowdhury, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Mee- ra Mukherjee, Paritosh Sen and Somnath Hore. Till December 26 (except Sunday) at Ganges Art Gallery, 33A Jatin Das Road, #2465 3212; 11 am - 7 pm: A Study in Abstraction — an exhibition featuring works of Manjari Chakravarti, Shridhar Iyer, Prabhakar Kolte, Manish Pushkale, Deepak Rajvar, Partha Shaw, S. Harsha Vardhana, Deepak Tandon and Neha Chandria. Till December 27 (except Monday and December 25) at Birla Academy of Art and Culture; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition to mark the golden jubilee of Society of Contemporary Artists. Till December 28 at Starmark, South City Mall; 11 am - 8 pm: Paintings by Nina Das. Till December 30 (except Mondays) at Ahuja Museum for Arts, 26 Lee Road, #40034974, 22894745; 11:30 am – 7:30 pm: Indian Masters I – an exhibition of painting and sculpture by M.F. Husain, S H Raza, A. Ramachandran, Chintan Upadhyay, Laxma Goud, T Vaikuntam, Yusuf Arakkal, Naynaa Kanodia, Manu Parekh, Satish Gujral, Lalitha Lajmi, Dilip Ranade, Gogi Saroj Pal, C. Jagdish, Badrinaryan, Arpana Caur and Maya Burman from the Museum’s collection. Till December 31 (except Sundays) at Aakriti Art Gallery, 12/3A Hungerford Street; #2289 3027/5041; 12 noon - 7 pm: Not so long ago, a sculpture show celebrating the golden jubilee of The Society of Contemporary Artists. Till January 2 (Sundays by appointment) at Idiyas Gallery, 15 Dover Road, #65508418; 10.30 am - 6.30 pm: Portals of Perception — an exhibition of paintings by Ramananda Bandyopadhyay, Chandrima Ray, Aditya Basak, Sanatan Dinda, Sukanta Das, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Subrata Das, Suhas Roy, Samir Paul, Gourango Beshai, Sibsaday Chaudhuri and others. Till January 3 (except Monday) at Bose Pacia, Stephens Court, 18 Park Street, #40010148; 11 am - 7 pm: B-Swarga — new works by Jayanta Roy. Till January 16 (except Sunday) at 2/1 Hindusthan Road; 11 am - 7 pm: Experimenter presents Freedom is Notional — works of three of South Asia’s finest artists: Shilpa Gupta, Bani Abidi and Naeem Mohaiemen. Till January 17 at Bodhi Tree Monastery of Art, 48/44 Swiss Park, #2424 6534; 2 pm - 7 pm: A solo show of Arnab Basu’s works.

DRAMA

December 15 at Bharatiyam Cultural Multiplex, IB 201 Salt Lake; 6 pm: EZCC’s monthly theatre show features the Oriya play, Kanchi Abhijan, produced by Trimurti Cultural Association, Puri. Script: Nirmal Mishra.. December 15 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Nandikar presents its latest production, Ajnatobass, directed by Sumanta Gangopadhyay. Directorial advisor: Rudraprasad Sengupta. December 15 at Rabindra Sadan; 6.30 pm: Renaissance will stage its latest Hindi production, Kaal-Kothri, written by Swadesh Dipak and directed by Aloke Chakravorty. Till December 20 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Kolkata Comedy Carnival hosts a festival of comedy plays. Today: Shohan’s Helmet. Direction: Anish Ghosh. December 16 - 25 at Academy of Fine Arts: Nandikar’s 26th National Theatre Festival. Remembering Habib Tanvir.

FESTIVAL

December 15 at Sri Ganesh & Sri Murugan Temples, 58/14/3&6 Prince Anwar Shah Road: Guru Peyarchi (Brihaspati). Lord Guru is entering Kumbha Rasi from Makara Rasi. Homam (8 am), Poornahuti (8.45 am), Maha Abhisekam (9 am), Alankaram and Deeparadanai (9.45 am) and Prasada Viniyogam (10 am).

FILM FESTIVAL

December 15 - 17 at Nandan-II; 4 pm & 6.30 pm: Films Division, Government of India and Nandan, West Bengal Film Centre jointly present a festival of award-winning films from the Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation. Today, at 4 pm: A Match Made in Calcutta (USA; dir: Frances Key Philips), A Life in Dance - Daksha Seth (India; dir: Antara Kak) and The Chinese Dog (Belgium; dir: Lut Vandekeybus). At 6.30 pm: Whose is the Song (Bulgaria; dir: Adela Peeva) and Children of Tibet (Australia; dir: Melinde Wearne).

FESTIVAL OF FRANCE

Till December 16: Littératures: A French Festival of Letters. Today at Vivekananda Hall, Jadavpur University, 11.30 am - David B. in conversation with Abhijit Gupta, Rimi B. Chatterji and Pinaki De; at 2 pm: Laurent Mauvignier and Philippe Vasset in conversation with Dr Supriya Chaudhuri and Dr Subha Dasgupta. At Loreto College, 3.30 pm: Meet the Author with David B. At Tagore Centre, ICCR, 7 pm: Song offerings with Andre Veltér and Utpal Basu; introduced by Reba Som.

TALK

December 15 at Ramakrishna Math, baranagar; 5.45 pm: Discourse on Sri Sri Ma Sarada Punthi by Swami Snehamayananda. December 15 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6.15 pm: Swami Somatmananda will speak in Bengali on Sri Sri Mayer Katha. December 15 at Bidhannagar Ramakrishna Vivekananda Kendra, DD-44 Salt Lake; 6 pm: Sanjib Das Sharma will speak on Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita. December 15 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Raj Krishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Atmabodhananda will discuss Sri Sri Mayer Katha.

BOOK exhibition

Till December 15 at Starmark (Lord Sinha Road, South City Mall, Mani Square and City Centre); 11 am - 8 pm: Children’s book exhibition offers a wide range of titles.

PHOTO EXHIBITION

Till December 20 at Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, 19A Gurusaday Road; 10 am - 5 pm: British Council and Birla Industrial and Technological Museum present Hard Rain, a project by eminent British photographer, author and environmental campaigner Mark Edwards.

SPORTS MEET

December 15 & 16 at Yuva Bharati Krirangan; 9 am - 2 pm: Seventh Annual Sports Meet of Delhi Public School Ruby Park, Calcutta. Students from classes nursery to XI will participate in various colourful events.

EXHIBITION

Till December 15 at 8/2 Loudon Street, 2nd floor, #9830257819; 10 am - 7 pm: Earthy Myths presents its annual exhibition of saris and outfits. December 15 - 31 at Halo Heritage, 26 Ritchie Road; 11.30 am - 8 pm: Soumya’s Creation presents an exhibition of its new range of durries and home accessories.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