92nd Annual All India Art Exhibition to be held from 9th-25th December at AIFACS, Galleries Delhi

EE News Desk Dec 09, 2019

One of the oldest art organizations in India, since 1928 The All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS) is all set with their annual awards and exhibition for 2019, an awards night that includes some of the best and most recognized artists from all across India. AIFACS awards are the career-making awards for artists from across the country eagerly await, especially the young budding talent, as recognition from AIFACS is a ticket to success and a stamp of approval of their hard work and labor. Indian Master painters like M.F. Hussain, Krishan Khanna, Ram V. Sutar etc are some of the more well-known artists who were recognized by this organization in the past.

In the decade after Indian independence, many of its functions were transferred to three national academies: Lalit Kala Akademi, Sangeet Natak Akademi and Sahitya Akademi for the fields of visual arts, theatre arts, and literature. AIFACS organizes art exhibitions and makes awards to artists across the country. Its most prestigious awards include the Kala Shree, Kala Vibhushan and Kala Ratna, inaugurated in 1988. Twelve awards are given in each of these grades every three years. The highest award is the Kala Samrat.

Biman B. Das the chairman of AIFACS expressed his pleasure at the number of entrants this year, “The annual show has already been established as a discernible event marked with validity held by the society and is much anticipated by artists all over the country and more enthusiastically by young artists who are aspiring recognition in the Indian Art ‘Forte’.”

The awards will be given under four categories Paintings, Drawing, Sculpture, and Graphics. The 92nd Annual All India Art Exhibition is set to launch on 9th December 2019 at the galleries of the society. Prof. Niren Sen Gupta, an Eminent Artist and ex-Principal of the College of Art will be inaugurating the exhibition. The Selection and Judging of the 92nd Annual All India Art Exhibition was entrusted to Shri Paramjeet Singh, Shri S. K. Sahni, Ms. Anupam Sud, Shri Mukul Panwar and Shri Mohan Singh who scrutinized all the 1130 entries in Painting Section by 599 artists, 157 entries in Sculpture Section by 87 artists, 321 entries in Drawing Section by 171 artists, 222 entries in Graphics Section by 116 artists received from different parts of the Country. They selected 111 works in Painting Section, 39 works in Sculpture Section, 42 works in Drawing Section and 63 works in Graphics Section. With each piece being a masterpiece the jury had to work extremely to come to consensus and conclusions for almost every category.

Ram. V. Sutar, President of AIFACS expressed why this is one of the most important and crucial events of the year, “ The exhibition is crucial because it reflects development in searches in visual arts characterized by a generation of artists who experience time; imagine surprising physical and interior spaces: this exhibition sends a message of vitality and innovations which diffuses into avant-garde dialogue between various regions of the country.”

The objective of AIFACS has always been to celebrate the artists and art in India, the traditional forms of art and the budding contemporary edge that the younger generation enjoys. The organization has been there long enough to understand the nature of changing art and how it evolves. Some of the nominees for the different categories of awards were; in the painting section, Manish Vijay Kumar Bobade from Nagpur for his entry “My pet-VI”, Asit Sain from Medinipur for his entry “Incomplete”, and Ms. Abha Singh from New Delhi for her entry “Untitled-II”; in the sculpture section, Shri Shiben Chattopadhyay from Howrah for his entry “Organism”, Subrata Paul from Shyamnagar W.B. for his entry “Goat” and Rohan Pawar from Mumbai for his entry “Home work-II”. In the drawings section Amrita Singh from New Delhi for her entry “Darkness visible”, Diksha Jaiswal from Varanasi for her entry “Serenity of my comfort zone”, and Sparsh Gupta from Gurugram for his entry “Nico”. In the graphics section Durgadas Garai from Vadodara for his entry “Unceasing”, Akanksha Singh from Delhi for her entry “Guild”, and Beenu Bhatia from Ghaziabad for her entry “Untitled-XXXI”.

Krishan Ahuja, Vice-President, and Chairman, Exhibition and Programme Sub-committee AIFACS said, “The exhibition encourages by showcasing divertive entries from traditional to contemporary statements communicated both in terms of artistic visual concepts and mediums. I appreciate all the entries and the jury for being a part of this journey.”