Karnataka governor to confer art awards

The Lalit Kala Akademi is all set to hold the National Exhibition of Art where Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala will confer the National Academy Award to 15 individuals at the 58th National Exhibition of Art.

The awards ceremony will take place on February 24 at Hotel Shangri-La here.

The Awardees have been chosen from a 6,000 entries by a two-tier jury system of eminent artists and art personalities, who in the first stage selected 111 artworks for display at the National Exhibition, the Akademi said.

The second jury selected 15 National Awardees from the cache of 111 exhibitors, for conferring the National Academy Award. Each of the Awardees will receive a plaque and a cash award of Rs one lakh, along with a certificate.

"The works for the 58th National Exhibition of Art have been chosen on grounds of their artistic merit. They reflect innovative use of mediums, diversity and relevance of subject matter as also a high level of creativity," the Akademi said in a statement.

"Besides upholding and steering forth a great tradition of giving Indian art its due importance, the National Exhibition of Art is also a window view into future trends in Indian art. The works of the awardees have expressed a spectacular range of subjects to express their creative abilities and carry in them an unwritten history of development, emerging trends and even influences that have pivoted the art movement of the country," CS Krishna Setty, Administrator, Lalit Kala Akademi said.

The award is much coveted among artists as it earmarks the future potential of the individual artist in the art community and many of the earlier awardees such as M F Husain and SH Raza are today's icons of Indian art.

The Award ceremony coincides with the opening of a month-long National Exhibition of Art being held at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru, comprising the 111 selected artworks, of the 58th National Exhibition of Art.

The display will be open to the public on all working days, except Mondays.

--IANS

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