A Homage to Mohan Samant

Panel Discussion
Friday, June 18, 2004 at 6:30pm
Little Theatre, NCPA
Panelists: Dyaneshwar Nadkarni and Prabhakar Kolte
Moderator: Amrita Gupta-Singh

This programme is organised by the Mohile Parikh Centre — Visual Arts Forum of the NCPA.

This presentation is a homage to the late artist, Mohan Samant (1924-2004). Born in Mumbai, he graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Arts in 1951, winning India's two most prestigious art honors in 1952, the gold medal of the Academy of Fine Arts of Calcutta and that of the Bombay Art Society.
He worked on a scholarship in Italy and England before going to New York on a John D. Rockefeller grant in 1959, and finally settled in New York in 1968. Over the years, he had solo shows in the major cities of India, and in New York. The artist's works can be found in the collections of John D. Rockefeller III, Asia Society and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Contemporary, monumental in scale, and visually dramatic, Samant's works reflect his early training in the history of Indian Miniatures and his subsequent study of ancient Sumerian tablets, as well as Egyptian art and the cave paintings at Lauscaux. In his later years, Samant composed assemblages that are in equal measure painting, relief, sculpture, found object and wirework construction.
The panelists are, noted art historian and critic Dyaneshwar Nadkarni and artist, Prabhakar Kolte. The discussion will be moderated by Amrita Gupta-Singh.       

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