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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Moments in Dance

Dance is about a series of movements. Photography is about a moment. And art is born when moment meets movement.  

Avinash Pasricha, the renowned Delhi-based photographer has an oeuvre of over 30,000 photographs – a historic personal archive – of India’s most iconic performing artists.

Ali Adil Khan, art connoisseur nonpareil, and Asma Arshad Mahmood, artist and art promoter par excellence, have curated a small but significant piece of that oeuvre.  Ali Adil’s South Asian Art Gallery and Asma’s Promenade Gallery have come together to host an exhibition of Pasricha’s photographs titled Moments in Dance.

Effortlessly breaking the shackles of form and frame, the photographs on exhibit are alive to the poetry of splendour of motion and resplendence of rhythm. The exhibit is an ensemble of some of the most venerated names of Indian dance – right from Vyjayanthimala to Kelucharan Mohapatra, and Saswati Sen and Birju Maharaj, to name just a few.

Ali Adil and Asma introduced Pasricha’s work and then invited Akhilesh Mishra, India’s Consul General in Toronto to speak, who emphasized the universality of art. Renowned danseuse, choreographer and legendary performing artist Lata Pada then gave intricate insights into Pasricha’s work, revealing that he has an equally large and elaborate oeuvre of photographs of Indian classical singers, and an exquisite collection of photographs of MS Subbulakshmi.

In a short introduction to the exhibition Ali Adil writes, “Twenty-seven matt bromide prints of the legendary Indian dancers, vocalists and musicians are exhibited in various rhythmic forms, postures and moods. These prints have been selected from Pasricha’s large personal collection of rare ad enduring images of India’s greatest performing artists.”

Pasricha was the photo editor of SPAN magazine (published by the USIS) for over three decades, till he retired in 1997.

The exhibition runs from May 27 to June 10. 

The gallery’s Facebook page is:  https://www.facebook.com/PromenadeGallery 


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