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(ARCHIVE) Vol. XX No. 4, june 1-15, 2010
By the great banyan

When K.C.S. Paniker and his students set up the Cholamandal Artists’ Village on eight acres by the sea 8 km south of Adyar Junction in 1965, they could not have envisaged that their collective vision would survive a generation. Or that over a dozen of its 40-odd individuals would attain a global reach. Even less, that their achievements would be commemorated with the inauguration of the 10,500 sq. ft. Cholamandal Gallery of Contemporary Art Complex in February 2009.



The great banyan and the open-air sculpture gallery.



Entrance – the Cholamandal Centre for Contemporary Art.



K.C.S. Paniker Museum of the Madras Movement.



An exterior view of Indigo and Labernum Galleries.



Shiraz Cafe.

Centrestage within the gallery’s mezzanine floor is a 1957 oil on board, Genesis, by Paniker, predating his more identifiable abstract phase. A fitting tribute, indeed.

All around the 3,600 sq. ft. K.C.S. Paniker Museum of the Madras Movement are glimpses of significant markers seldom gathered under a single roof.

The 1,600 sq.ft. Cholamandal gallery on the ground floor offers visual insights into how the casuarina-lined sand morphed into an ideational community. Unlike government-funded artist settlements in Israel and Cuba, the colony has been self-sustaining since its inception.

The present complex, over three years in the making, is surrounded by an international sculpture garden, and celebrates the past as it toasts the future.

How tough was it to get the gallery, designed primarily by Sheila Sriprakash of Shilpa Architects with inputs from Devan, off the ground?

An initial sale of two grounds of land brought in Rs. 17 lakh, but the community had to raise approximately Rs. 75 lakh for the complex. Artists donated works for a fundraiser. Art patrons pitched in to sustain the vision.

Two compact commercial galleries, poetically named Laburnum and Indigo, would generate income and partially shift the art scene away from the city centre.

Being added to the complex are an exotic, yellow-themed, quasi-Mediterranean cafeteria, an art bookshop and a craft shop. Even a 2,600-sq.ft terrace space that can be rented for events.

Today, perhaps, Cholamandal needs to pause to ask itself: Is it too early to build a monument to a movement? When will its impact be documented in depth? Will the inheritors of its legacy value its import, given the current state of art education?

Meanwhile, it can mull over a poetic image presented by V. Viswanadhan at the inauguration, of a group of young artists who slept under the stars by a mud track, guarding the building materials for their village. When they awoke, a tender green shoot caught their eye. It was the genesis of the great banyan at the entrance to their dream space.

It was from such arching vision, propelled by self-belief, that Cholamandal was born. Inspired by the towering banyan, but never daunted by its shadow. – (Excerpts from an article by Aditi De in The Hindu Business Line)

Footnote: Thirty painters and sculptors have acquired land for themselves in order to be able to work in comparative peace. Here the artist paints or sculpts through the major part of the day and applies himself to a congenial art-craft during leisure hours to supplement, if necessary, his income from the sale of paintings and sculptures. Cholamandal is perhaps the first of its kind anywhere in the world. It is administered by an annually elected council of members. Cholamandal welcomes visitors to the village. It has a twin guest cottage.

 

In this issue

What's ahead for old Assembly complex
Action’s needed – not a sub-committee
By the great banyan
Old Dravida in Papua New Guinea
Historic Residences of Chennai - 44
Other stories

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