‘Looking Closely. Engaging Deeply: Art Appreciation Workshop’ is an interactive art session structured around questions that people often have on art. Since art is no longer only about creating naturalistic imagery artists explore a variety of medium and visual languages that might appear bewildering at first sight. Similarly, coming across news of the astronomical sums that some artworks command, one wonders how merit is determined. Art often leaves us with more questions than answers. This is the beauty of art as it lends itself to multiple points of view. Often, there is no singular answer to many questions in art as context, geography and history are variables. So join us as we collectively understand what might be the different viewpoints around a certain issue and how we can collectively unravel the various layers to it.

What you will learn:

1. An art historical and contextual understanding of often asked questions surrounding art.
2. Cultivate an open mind and multi-dimensional approach to such issues in the future.

Structure of the series:

• A series of 3 sessions over 3 weeks.
• Each session shall address two art centric questions.
• Each session will consist of short presentations and participative discussions.

Session 1

If you had to name an artist, whose name comes to your mind immediately? It is probably Raja Ravi Varma! A self-taught artist, there are many others like him who have gone on to achieving fame. Let us look at this phenomenon together. 

Questions that will be addressed:

1. Why is Raja Ravi Varma a famous artist?

2. Can an artist become well-known without having gone to art college or being formally trained?

Session 2

At an International Art Fair in Dec 2019, an artist taped a banana to a wall, called it art and also sold it for $120,000. Let us figure out why these artists are choosing to work with such materials and if one can look at the idea of skill in art in other ways.

Questions that will be addressed:

1.Why do contemporary artists work with unconventional materials? 

2.Can contemporary artists also draw or paint? 

Session 3

Look it’s a face! It’s a house! It is abstract art. We decode the mystery that is abstract art, beauty and more in this discussion.

Questions that will be addressed

1.How do you look at abstract art? 

2. Where does beauty stand in relation to contemporary art?

Who should attend?

Prior knowledge of art is NOT needed to register for these sessions. If you have no interest but are curious and would like to start understanding these themes, join us for 1 or the entire series. If you have an interest in art/culture/museums/artists we look forward to having an engaging discussion.

About the Facilitator:

Vaishnavi Ramanathan is the senior curator and art historian of Piramal Museum of Art. She has curated Before the Canvas, the immensely lauded S.H. Raza: Traversing Terrains, which showcased five decades of S.H. Raza’s work from the early 1940s to the late 1990s, the exhibition Likeness Without Reference: Cultures of Forgery, which tackled the issue of fakes and forgeries in the Indian art market, and Making Art: Materials and Technology dedicated to showing how materials play a key role in creating art and ideas, for Piramal Museum of Art. She co-authored the book Smriti, focusing on the art of the Piramal Museum of Art. Her writings have been published in magazines such as Marg, Art India, Take on Art and Art & Deal. She completed her Masters in Art History from Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore. The Charles Wallace Scholarship, Nehru Grant, CIMAM Travel Grant are some of the awards she has won.