Revolutionary Implications: Artistic Genius of Raja Ravi Varma
Slide Show & Talk by Jay Varma
Tuesday, April 28, 6:30PM
Tamarind Art Council is excited to host a lecture by Jay Varma who is a gifted artist and grandson of legendary painter Raja Ravi Varma. In his slide show presentation, Jay Varma will share rare anecdotes to map evolution of Raja Ravi Varma’s art and to illustrate his relevance in India Today.
Jay Varma
Jay Varma who hails from the illustrious royal family of Travancore, is a gifted colored pencil artist combining a dramatic sense of color with extraordinary detail. His artistic style puts together an impeccable realism with a unique and subtly rendered application of bold and brilliant color showing particular attention to light. Essentially a self taught artist, Jay continues a rich history of artistic skill and reputation through four generations of his family in India. His great grandfather, the master oil painter Raja Ravi Varma, is still one of the most highly regarded artists in India. His grandfather Kerala Varma, like Jay, excelled in charcoal and pencil. His mother Rukmini Varma, paints in oil, her work hanging in major collections throughout the world. Jay’s skill won him the prestigious ‘Sanford Award for exceptional Merit' at the Eighth International Colored Pencil competition in Birmingham, Michigan in 2000. His work has been published in the Artists Magazine and the International Artist, among other prominent publications. Generally regarded as one of the most demanding of all artistic mediums, colored pencil surprises and delights the audience with its vast range of subtlety and mood.
Jay is presently completing a series of drawings and paintings of the human form, still life and landscapes modeled in the tradition of the great Italian and French Ateliers. His works will expose his own unique style while he continues in the tradition of his artistic family.
About Tamarind Art Council
Tamarind Art Council (TAC) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting contemporary art in North America. Our focus is to support all types of artistic expression, including performing and fine arts, by sponsoring art-related activities and cross-cultural events in order to expand awareness for art and culture.
Our mission: Tamarind Art Council exemplifies how life can revolve around the arts. Our mission is to impel the work of contemporary artists and performers and to facilitate public appreciation for these unique cultural art forms. Some of our events include art exhibitions, performing arts, book launches, lectures and other cultural programs. As part of our ongoing efforts, we support art museums, cultural communities and not-for-profit organizations round the globe. Tamarind Art has become a nexus for many art organizations and is a foremost resource center for gaining an understanding of all art forms, artists, and other areas of interest to individuals, businesses and art connoisseurs.
Tamarind Art Council is proud to announce sponsorship of The Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) film screening “INDIA NOW,” a bi-annual program launched in 2007, which is to be presented at the museum as “NEW INDIA” again in June 2009.
Our most successful and well-received exhibition, displayed from April 10th – May 3, 2008, entitled “Gandhi: The Legacy,” was held in collaboration with Phillip Glass Opera and Satya Graha Forum. This unique photography exhibition captured a nostalgic view of Gandhi’s true legacy. There were two scholarly lectures presented during the exhibition. One from Ram Rahman, who placed contemporary Indian Photography into the context of the “lost” histories of photography in the post-Independence era, and another lecture on Mahatma Gandhi by Prof. Akeel Bilgrami (Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy, Dept. of Philosophy, Director, Heyman Center for the Humanities Columbia University), concluded this special exhibition.
Other sponsorships include Festival of India with WMI featuring Shivkumar Sharma and Zakir Husain, Masters of Indian Music – Rahul Sharma & Zakir Husain with WMI in November 2007, Prema Murthy’s Fuzzy Logic Exhibition at P.S. 1 MoMA from June – September 2007, and the Contemporary photography and Video Art exhibition “India Public Places/Private Spaces” held at the Newark Museum of Art from September 2007 – January 2008. Our ongoing efforts continued in 2009 with a lecture by Pablo Bartholomew in April. An upcoming talk by Rebecca S. Brown, an associate professor of art history at Johns Hopkins University, and author of the recent book, Art for a Modern India, 1947-1980, April 17, 2009.
We are also participating in ACAW (Asian Contemporary Art Week) with several performances.
Please check our website for details. Asian Contemporary Art Week is from May 10 – 17th 2009.
For more information about Tamarind Art Council, please visit our website at www.tamarindarts.org. Tamarind Art Council is located at 142 E. 39th Street, New York, NY, 10016. Contact us by calling (212)200-8000 or emailing admin@tamarindarts.org.