Source: millenniumpost.in
National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, is celebrating the newly renovated Jaipur House with the unveiling of a historic exhibition of more than 1000 works of art, design, and woven objects of art by Chitracharya Upendra Maharathi. Known as an artist, architect designer and weaver par excellence, the show puts the spotlight on his prowess as a rare and unique genius.
The show of paintings, drawings, murals sculptures, woven cloths and chairs all point to the zenith of his creativity. His interest in Buddhism brought forth many designs that were inspired by Buddhist ideology. The installations in the retrospective have been designed by DG, NGMA Adwaita Gadanayak. The Exhibition has been curated by Adwaita Gadanayak and his team.
Maharathi was author of many books too, The Book on bamboo art, ‘Venushilpa’ was among his best works.
Following the tradition of ancient art of sculpture, he designed many noted buildings : Venuban Viharin Rajagriha, Sandarbh Vihar, Ananda Stupa, Prakrit and Jainology Institute at Vaishali, Nava Nalanda Maha Vihar at Nalanda.
Born in Narendrapur village of Puri district in Orissa, in May 1908, Maharathi studied from the Government College of Art, Kolkata, and came out as an artist cum architect.
In later years he came to Patna, Bihar. From 1933 to 1942 he advocated a literary-cultural revival as he worked in the publishing house ‘Pustak Bhandar’, in Laharyasari, Darbhanga. In 1942, he was appointed a special designer in the Department of Industry, Government of Bihar.
In 1954, he visited Japan to attend the UNESCO International conference as representative of India.
The upcoming exhibition will be inaugurated by Prahlad Singh Patel, Union minister of State for Culture and Tourism( IC) on September 17, 6.00 pm, at National Gallery of Modern art New Delhi.