Elusive reality In Europe, the modernist movement in art was instrumental in encouraging a free flow of diverse, creative ideas. Tho-ughts about art that emerged earlier, however, still retained a tie with new trends, though, at times, they were fiercely antagonistic. Waves of modernism sweeping Indian shores led to another interesting consequence. While Indian artists were receptive to Western influences, they also felt the need to work their own way out of any pre-defined style and take their art into new, uncharted territories. Modern Continuous, the ongoing group show, narrates the stream of events that took place in the canvases of modernists working in Calcutta. In their works, reality assumes an unusual dimension. The objects featured in their art appear real, but the viewer is filled by a feeling of disbelief at what he is seeing. As illusion becomes the norm, the disorientation and distortion of feeling undermines the association we have with familiar objects. Featuring works by a selection of nine artists of Bengal all born prior to 1930, the show is one in which the past merges with the present to paint the future with a continuous reference. Participants: Bikash Bhattacharjee, Dharmanarayan Dasgupta, Dipak Banerjee, Ganesh Pyne, Jogen Chowdhury, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Meera Mukherjee, Paritosh Sen and Somnath Hore. Event: An exhibition of paintings by well-known, contemporary artists When: Till December 26; 11 am - 7 pm Where: Galerie 88, 28B Shakespeare Sarani

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 24 at Gallery Upstairs, 16 Loudon Street; 4 pm - 8 pm: Exhibition of paintings by Abani Sen and Gobardhan Ash. Till December 25 at Gaganendra Pradarshashala; 2 pm - 8 pm: Dum Dum Chitrakar presents an exhibition of paintings, drawings and craft. Till December 26 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 (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 Gallerie 52d, 52D Hindustan Park; 11 am - 7 pm: A ceramic show by artists of Delhi and Calcutta. Till December 30 (except Monday) 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 Sunday) 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 at Academy of Fine Arts; 12 noon - 8 pm: 74th Annual All-India Fine Arts Exhibition. Till January 3 (except Monday) at Bose Pacia, Stephens Court, 18 Park Street; 11 am - 7 pm: B-Swarga — new works by Jayanta Roy. Till January 3 at Government College of Arts and Crafts, 28 Jawaharlal Nehru Road: Government College of Arts and Crafts is holding its 145th annual exhibition. 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 leading 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. Till January 31 (except Mondays) at Victorial Memorial Hall; 10 am - 5 pm: Indian Life and Landscape by Western Artists: Paintings and Drawings from the V&A, 1790-1927, hosted by The Victoria Memorial Hall and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

PERFORMING ARTS

December 24 at Satyajit Ray Auditorium, Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, 9A Ho Chi Minh Sarani; 6.30 pm: As part of its Horizon series, ICCR Calcutta presents Tomari Ragini — Rabindrasangeet and refraction of ragas by Sounak Chattopadhyay. Accompanied by Sanatan Goswami (harmonium), Arindam Chakravarty and Siddhartha Bhattacharjee (tabla) and Subrata Mukherjee (keyboard). December 24 at Gyan Manch; 6 pm: Santaly’s Dance Institute presents Dance Diva, a combination of Indian classical and Western. Choreographed by Santali Sarkar, Sonia Sarkar and Pandit Bachanlal Mishra.

DRAMA

Till December 25 at Academy of Fine Arts: Nandikar’s 26th National Theatre Festival. Today at 6.30 pm: Jaat Hi Poochho Sadhu Ki (Hindi). Produced by NSD Repertory Co., Delhi and directed by Rajinder Nath. December 24 - 31: 12th Ganga Jamuna Natya Utsab 2009, organised by Aneek. Today at Rabindra Sadan, 6 pm: Purba Paschim presents Patal Babu Filmstar, directed by Ramaprasad Banik.

TALK

December 24 at Ramakrishna Mission Insti tute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall; 5.30 pm: Christmas Eve Programme: Message of the Christmas by Father G. Ponodath, S.J. Swami Sarvabhutananda will preside. December 24 at Ramakrishna Math, Baranagar; 5.50 pm: Birthday celebration of Jesus Christ: His divine life and preachings — A spiritual discussion by Swami Vamanananda. December 24 at Bidhannagar Ramakrishna Vivekananda Kendra, DD-44 Salt Lake; 6 pm: Discourses on Jesus Christ by Swami Amiteshananda. December 24 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Samshuddhananda will speak in Bengali on Valmiki Ramayan.

PHOTO EXHIBITION

Till January 2 at Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR; 11 am - 7 pm: Bonjour India presents TV Viewers, an exhibition of photographs taken by French lensman Olivier Culmann that captures the unsettling passivity of TV viewers. Till January 13 (except Sunday) at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place, #2461 3145; 10 am - 7 pm: Return to Eden — an exhibition of photography by Prabir Purkayastha. Curated by Ina Puri. Till December 29 at Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre; 2 pm - 7 pm: The Seagull Foundation for the Arts and Tasveer present Pan India — A Shared Habitat, an exhibition of photographs by Prashant Panjiar.

CARNIVAL

December 24 at Oxford Bookstore, Park Street; 3 pm - 5 pm: A special session on cooking food without fire, to be followed by story-telling and greeting-card making.

KIDS’ CORNER

Till December 25 at Starmark, 3 Lord Sinha Road and South City Mall; 4 pm - 8 pm: Starmark holds face-painting and tattooing sessions for children, with a Santa Claus present, and a lucky dip and gifts. Till December 31 at Starmark, 3 Lord Sinha Road, City Centre (Salt Lake), South City Mall and Mani Square; 11 am - 8 pm: Starmark is holding a kids’ book exhibition.

EXHIBITION

December 24 - January 2 at 3/90 Chittaranjan Colony, Jadavpur, #2713 1031; 11 am - 7 pm: The Indian Handicraft presents brass showpieces, silk/canvas paintings, diyas, gifts items, greetings cards and wooden furniture. December 24 - 27 at Fabindia stores (Hindustan Park, Woodburn Park, City Centre, South City, Hiland Park and Rajarhat): Giftware accessories, evening bags and jewellery promo. Till December 24 at 218 AJC Bose Road; 11 am - 7 pm: Bombaim showcases an eclectic collection of dresses, clutch bags, jewellery and home accessories. Till December 25 at Weavers Studio, 5/1 Anil Moitra Road, Ballygunge Place; 9.340 am - 6.30 pm: Shaal — an exhibition of shawls from all over North India and jewellery from the Nizam’s kingdom. Till December 31 at Artisana, 13 Chowringhee Terrace, #2223 9422; 11 am - 7 pm: Crafts Council of West Bengal presents Burra Din, an exhibition of colonial embroideries, candles, gifts, ceramic potteries, artifacts, jewellery and exclusive handloom sarees. Till December 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