IN MEMORY OF A MENTOR

SHOBHA Bhatia still remembers her art classes in the 1960s, being taught by the Indian painter KS Kulkarni.

- PANKIL JHAJHRIA

"He believed in the non-interventionist approach," she says of her mentor. "If any of us asked him to show us strokes on our canvas, he would refuse, saying, 'I will not do that because then you will all become Kulkarni'." Kulkarni wanted his students to discover their own individual styles. "He always insisted that we keep painting, and told us not to throw away our early works. 'Compare them later, and you'll see the improvement,' he'd say," she adds.

Bhatia is the curator of the exhibition, 'Esoteric Expressions: Convergence of the classical and the contemporary', displaying Kulkarni's works from the 1980s to the mid1990s. The exhibition was put up at Triveni Kala Sangam (till August 31), one of the capital's most important art complexes which was co-founded by Kulkarni. The exhibition moves to Gallerie Ganesha from September 5 to October 7.

Modernism with a folk touch

The exhibition has been divided into several categories-abstract, landscapes, still life, and figurative works, comprising both black-and-white drawings and coloured pieces. With modernist techniques and traditional motifs, his work recalls European mosaics and Cubism.