31 December 2023 /
VACHE / COW –
PAINTING EXHIBITION BY RENOWNED ARTIST KIRTI CHANDAK OPENS ON SUNDAY/ 31 DECEMBER 2023 @ 6.00 PM
TASMAI, PUDUCHERRY
“Cows have been my first love! A visit to my home town Igatpuri was always sprinkled with waking up by the mooing of the cows, going to pat them in the cowshed, play with the calves, ride the bullock cart for a picnic lunch to ‘Ghatandevi’ the nearby mountain goddess and so on… As time passed, I developed a passion for the paint brush, and the love for cows naturally came alive on my paper,” says the renowned artist Kirti Chandak as she prepares for the Exhibition on 31 December 2023 at Tasmai, Puducherry.
Artist recollects her childhood days, she used to capture the moment of milking, followed by the calf playing with its mother, became her morning and evening ragas of painting the cows, setting a rhythms to her stay, and would mark the highlight of her trips to her hometown.
“To me the cow is a symbol of happy childhood, and an emblem of the harmonious rural life,” Kirti Chandak says. “The Cow is not just an animal, she is a goddess who provides milk, life, love and light to the earth. Gow Mata is the way she was revered in ancient India, worshipped as a mother goddess. To rear cows, to donate cows, to feed cows is a divine blessing. So let us take this opportunity to admire the beautiful cows,” she added.
Kirti Chandak graduated from Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry. She studied Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Viswa-Bharati, Santiniketan and Master of Fine Arts in painting from M.S.University, Baroda.
Kirti Chandak received Junior Fellowship and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. She was awarded the Late Milinde Kumar Bhade Gold Medal from M.S.University, Baroda for Painting. She also received the National Scholarship and was selected for a cultural exchange with Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1999.
Artist Kirti Chandak is a curator and artivist who works on mixed media, currently she explores organic materials and is engaged in beautification of public spaces.
