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A Singular Journey
The career and life of polymath artist-designer Riten Mozumdar (1927-2006)
Speakers
Riten Mozumdar (1927 – 2006) was one of the most significant artist-designers of the Indian Modernist Design Renaissance in the decades immediately following Independence. Responding to the socio-economic and cultural upheaval sweeping through the country, Mozumdar approached design as a complex nation-building idiom with a dedicated focus on modernisation as well as revivalism. Mozumdar’s oeuvre is marked with inventiveness, variety and deference for both historical perspectives as well as for newer icons of style and techniques. Between the 1950s and 1980s, his celebrated and influential praxis heralded a new brand of aesthetics. Mozumdar’s body of work displayed a diversity of range and materials exemplifying a rare mastery over mediums and techniques. Riten Mazumdar passed away in 2006 leaving behind an illustrious career spanning five decades. In his lifetime, Mozumdar had worked and exhibited prolifically both nationally and internationally, yet today his immense legacy remains largely forgotten. The talk will focus on this pioneering polymath’s narrative which has, with time, been pushed to the margins of documented history.
Ushmita Sahu in conversation with Mortimer Chatterjee.
Ushmita Sahu received a grant from India Foundation for the Arts, under the Arts Research programme, with support from Titan Company Limited.
In collaboration with the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) and Association of Designers of India (ADI)
Speakers
Ushmita Sahu
Ushmita Sahu is a visual artist, scholar and independent curator based in Santiniketan, West Bengal. After her graduation in Painting from Delhi College of Art, Sahu completed her Masters in Painting from Kala Bhavana Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. Sahu has several national and international curatorial projects to her credit. She is also an art practitioner and exhibits her works regularly and has two solo shows to her credit. More recently she has curated a series of online art conversations with important contemporary art practitioners across India. Sahu also mentors young artists, and has explored new formats of mentorship on the digital platform during the lockdown period.
In her capacity as a scholar Sahu has been researching modernist artist-designer Riten Mozumdar for several years and has previously authored a monograph in Bengali and an article in English on him. She is the leading authority on Mozumdar’s practice and has recently co-curated IMPRINT: Riten Mozumdar, a compact survey retrospective on Riten Mozumdar at Chatterjee and Lal Mumbai 9th Jan-29th Feb, 2020. Between January and March 2020, Sahu gave a series of lectures on Mozumdar’s life and practice at G5A Mumbai, NID Ahmedabad, Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU Vadodara, Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan West Bengal. Sahu is also a recent recipient of the IFA (India Foundation for the Arts) research grant to continue her research on Riten Mozumdar.
Mortimer Chatterjee
Chatterjee & Lal was formed in 2003 by husband and wife Mortimer Chatterjee and Tara Lal. The gallery is focused on emerging and mid-career artists whose works reveal strong ties to India, and whose practices often incorporate the varying mediums of performance, moving image, drawing, painting and sculpture. Based in Mumbai’s Colaba art district, the gallery and its artists have formed an important node in the city’s maturing art scene over the last fourteen years.
The gallery is also rapidly extending its domain to include historical material. In more than one way, the gallery’s journey mirrors the trajectory of India’s contemporary art scene. The couple has grown to represent an impressive list of talent including performance artist Nikhil Chopra, one of Pakistan’s most discussed contemporary artists Rashid Rana, Arunachal Pradesh’s Minam Apang, and more recently, Sahej Rahal. The partners of Chatterjee & Lal are leading valuers and consultants to a number of the largest corporate art collections in South Asia. Gallery artists show globally and the gallery itself is an active participant in select art fairs and gallery exchanges. The directors often write on art for national and international publications, and are published authors
