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Introduction by Roobina Karode, Director, Chief Curator KNMA

A lecture by Kishore Singh, Head of Exhibitions & Publications, DAG on Mohan Samant’s Life & Artistic Practice

Followed by A Sarangi Recital by Murad Ali Khan

Magic in the Square - Mohan Samant, Centennial Exhibition, is a crisp exploration of Samant's practice, which is also a tribute to the artist.

Mohan Samant excavates sedimented memory, fossil-like forms and totemic imagery from his sand, dust and gravel layers -raising cut-outs from the primary surface, thus giving his paintings a three-dimensional effect. They are neither relief nor flat, this in-betweenness, perhaps is an adroit extension of his skills as a Sarangi player. The abstract nuance of classical music is translated in a subtle daintiness on his canvases.

About Mohan Samant

Mohan Samant was born in 1924, Goregaon, Mumbai. In 1952 he received his diploma from Sir J.J.

School of Art, Mumbai. During the same year he participated in his first solo exhibition. Through the years, Samant continued to showcase his multifaceted works in several prestigious museum and galleries in India and across the world like the Rome Institute of Oriental Studies, Italy (1958); World House Galleries, New York (1961); Gallery Chemould, Mumbai and New Delhi; Taj Gallery, Mumbai (1966). He took part in key group exhibitions like Contemporary Indian Painting 1973:

Commemorating the Silver jubilee of India's Independence, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (1973); Contemporary Indian Paintings, Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan (1984); The Group of Eight, Contemporary Arts of India, New York (1995); Ideas and Images Ill, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai (2001). Samant has been felicitated with multiple awards and honors like the Lalit Kala Akademi's National Award in 1956, Gold Medal from the Bombay Art Society in 1956 and 1957 and the Asian American Heritage Award for lifetime achievement in the arts in 2000. Samant passed away in 2004 in New York.

About Kishore Singh

Kishore Singh is a columnist, editor and writer with experience in journalism and publishing. He is also an art writer and curator. He heads Exhibitions & Publications at DAG

About Murad Ali Khan

Born in a family of musicians originally from Moradabad, Murad Ali is a sixth generation sarangi player. The intensive training he had under his grandfather Ustad Siddique Ahmad Khan and father Ustad Ghulam Sabir Khan has stood him in good stead, and he is presently regarded as one of the leading sarangi players of the younger generation. His ancestors, Ustad Sagheer Ahmed Khan Sahib, Ustad Fakir Ahmed Khan Sahib, Ustad Rafique Ahmed Khan Sahib and his grandfather Ustad Siddique Ahmed Khan Sahib were all renowned sarangi players, musicologists and gurus of the Moradabad Gharana.. Please see the details below.

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