Artiste Mamta
Sen (also journalist) showcased her painting collection ‘The Wait’ at Mumbai
Art By Artists, Prince of Wales Museum, Coomarswamy Hall, Colaba, between
January 23-25, 2015 at 11 am to 6 pm. The display evoked rave reviews from art
connoisseurs and general visitors.
Mamta Sen says,
“Sawantwadi, a former princely state and part of the Konkan belt of western
coast of Maharashtra has the highest number of farmers who have almost
abandoned their lands and have been working as migrants in neighbouring cities
for many years. The women and children left behind by their husbands eventually
end up as mere ‘protectors’ of the lands they once toiled in. These lands end
up either being sold off under pressure to the local land mafia or abandoned,
empty or left deserted. The women have
no skills or techniques empowered to make use of their own fertile lands. The
paintings mostly acrylics of canvas, highlight the plight of these women and
their circumstances. These are the first of the series of the region.”
Born and
brought up in Mumbai, the subjects of Mamta Chitnis Sen’s works are
concentrated on rural Maharashtra. A journalist and an extensive traveller,
Mamta, an alumni of Sir J J School of Art
has been instrumental in creating paintings in oils and acrylics
documenting the slow yet disappearing lives and identity of people, especially
women living in rural India. A palette knife artist, Mamta aims to showcase the
rustic rural landscape of interior India, specially Maharashtra and Bengal
through her works, which is losing itself to the ills of urbanization. Her
present exhibition The Wait revolving around the women of Sawantwadi is one
such display of works that highlights the subject of migrant defection to
cities leaving the women behind to look after the deserted and abandoned dry
fields.
Mamta’s
experience in making use of art and experimental theatre as a medium with women
to touch upon the various social and current issues that they undergo in
various spectrum of society also forms the basis of her works which depict both
men and women in single or in groups bonding together to voice an emotion. She
founded CanvasClan, a congregation of painters from various age groups in 2011
and organised two art exhibitions under the banner—Random Strokes (at Sir J J
School of Art) and Resurrection Bihar (in celebration of 100 years of Bihar
state) in Mumbai in 2012. She has also exhibited her works in several group
shows across India and is in the process of documenting the art history of her
alma mater Sir J J School of Art and its allied branches pre and post 1857 when
the Institute was first founded.
The first part
of her study on the existence of a state of the art Pottery Department in
Mumbai at the Institute’s campus grounds by the British has been published in
Rug-Ved, the Institute’s annual journal. The article sheds light on an
abolished pottery building set up by the British between 1873-1875 which grew
to such fame and glory that it threatened the sales of the famed Wedgewood
Company in London. The building was later torn down in 1926 following the
terrible plague which led to the decline of pottery students frequenting the
campus premises thereby affecting the production and sale of ceramic products.
An avid art
enthusiast cum artist and photographer, Mamta has also curated a photography
exhibition “Loneliness in Wilderness’ showcasing the declining wildlife in
urban areas of India. Mamta is currently
the Executive Editor of Dignity Dialogue, one of India’s foremost national
magazines exclusively for the 50 plus age group. She has been a journalist with
The Sunday Guardian writing on political issues and has also worked with
reputed publications like Mid-Day, Society magazine and Sunday Observor. She volunteers
as Social Network Officer with World Citizen Artists-- a forum of international
artists, musicians and writers founded in Paris in 2013. She has also authored research papers on the
evolving role of women in political parties in India.
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