Capital in artistic reverie

The India Art Fair's 16th edition, which opened to the public this week, has brought together 120 exhibitors, including 78 galleries, and international art institutions in its largest edition yet. The design section, which debuted last year, includes an exhibition of emerging designers, like the Nolwa studio from Hyderabad that employs Badri work on functional design, and features 11 others like Gunjan Gupta and Vikram Goyal.

- Dhamini Ratnam and Aheli Das

Modern and contemporary Indian artists, from Atul Dodiya to Sudarshan Shetty and Subodh Gupta, and international names like Anish Kapoor and Julio Le Parc, also populate the booths.

HT scours the fair for some of the less known but remarkable works that should not be missed.

Kanchana Chitra Ramayana

On display at the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) booth is a digital flipbook of a version of the Kanchana Chitra Ramayana manuscript, which allows the viewer to see the intricate illustrations on individual pages. Commissioned by the royal court of Benares, artists from different schools converged to work on Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas between 1796 and 1814. The manuscript, which has 548 illustrated paintings, is also called the Golden Illustrated Ramayana, because of the extensive use of gold paint in its folios.

Jain Chhods