The brick and mortar art gallery, Sans Tache, a division of Grovers Pvt Ltd, presents 'The Miniature Format Show 2000.' The decision to curate the show in small format grew out of an awareness of limited space and utility and a belief in 'limited space and maximum intimacy.' The show, divided into three parts, will be on till December 31, 2000.

The gallery displays and sells original Indian contemporary fine art. The artwork is sourced directly from established and emerging artists, from art galleries and other authentic sources. To include a global audience, the gallery established sanstache.com, through which they strive to provide profiles of artists, educative and interactive content. Sanstache.com has put together a team comprising artists, educators, curators, historians, critics, and web technologists to help them achieve their mission. They have a network that enables them to locate art to satisfy the needs of every collector.

After four successful shows, they realised that the artists found this format very exciting and challenging, especially those who had till then adhered to larger formats and had not explored the enchanting world of the small. 'Miniature' is generally associated with Mughal paintings, but Sans Tache brings alive the tradition of miniature in contemporary art. Ratan Parimoo, Francis De Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Amitava Das, Gogi Saroj Pal, Ganesh Gohain, Jaidev Thakore, Samir Mondal, Soumen Das, Sujata Bajaj, Babu Xavier, Vidya Chitre, Birendra Pani, Himanshu Joshi, Swarupa Shah, V P Singh and Ved Nayar are among the many artists participating in the miniature show.

What do the artists have to say?

"My interest in small works dates back to the early 70s when I had a 9 to 5 job. At that time, the charm of oil paintings was wearing off. Initially, I took it as a challenge to shrink monumental themes into small format. This obsession shrank some of my works to the size of a postage stamp. I painted hundreds of paintings based on the theme Kamasutra in miniature format. The second portfolio was of 60 Indian birds," says artist Jaidev Thakore, whose works are part of the show.

Artist Ratan Parimoo says, "The advantage of miniature format is that ideas for composition as well as the manner of handling colours can be worked out more quickly than that of the larger format. The work in miniature format requires a deliberate control of the hand while applying lines or brush strokes or for creating fine tonal gradations. The accuracy of the drawing is another factor because the onlooker tends to look closely at the painting. I could manage the rendering of human physiognomy and in particular, was able to capture the hypnotic effect of beautiful eyes with much satisfaction in miniature."

Address: Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Road, Worli, Mumbai - 400 018,
Phone: 493 5050 / 492 4341
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e-mail: online@sanstache.com
URL: www.sanstache.com

By : Anupama Vinayak