blue edged saree of Mother Teresa by Husain
The blue-edged sari of Mother Teresa and the hand raised in `abhay mudra` are well-known motifs in Husain`s oeuvre, representing peace and the value of altruism. A baby clinging to the nun`s clothes underscores the maternal benevolence that the image of Mother Teresa has come to represent.
However, the blackened face of Mother Teresa, a familiar portrayal of the nun in Husain`s work, deserves closer consideration. The nun is identified not by the features of her face, but by her blue-edged sari. Perhaps, in obliterating her features the painting enacts a subtle dismantling of her `foreign identity`. She is also absorbed into a uniquely Indian context. “The sari – restored to its appropriate Indian-ness – can add significance to Mother Teresa … it is the sari, the symbol of Indian motherhood, that allows the European nun to wear her title with justification… it is entirely right that the orphaned dark child should seek refuge in the arms of this sari-clad, dark skinned mother of the poor and the helpless.” (Shyamal Bagachi, “Augmented Nationalism: The Nomadic Eye of Painter M.F. Husain”, asianart.com)
In case you are curious, this painting sold for about $80,000 in 2005. It was estimated to sell for $40k, but went for much higher. The pricing of Indian art is a bit soft now, but it will recover soon.
ARTWORK DETAILS
Maqbool Fida Husain
Untitled
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 24 in | 91.4 x 61.0 cm
Signed in English (upper left)
Category: Painting
Style: Figurative
My fav version of the ‘Origin of the Saree’
“The Sari, it is said, was born on the loom of a fanciful weaver. He dreamt of a woman. The shimmer of her tears. The drape of her tumbling hair. The colors of her many moods. The softness of her touch. All these he wove together. He couldn’t stop. He wove for many yards. And when he was done, the story goes, he sat back and smiled and smiled and smiled”.
I love the alluring and sensual touch in the painting. The ‘big-red-pottu’ and the red border adds just enough colour to the art piece! I think it’s perfect!
Silk saree with ipod and speakers built in the border – swaramadhuri
‘Swaramadhuri’, a ‘singing’ silk saree embedded with eight micro-speakers on its border, has caught the fancy of many traders down south. Conceptualised by P Mohan, a small-scale designer of Dharmavaram town in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantpur district, the saree has a small iPod at the pallu, which can play as many as 200 songs continuously for four hours.
A 2-GB memory chip is used to support the iPod on the saree. Mohan toiled for two months to come out with this unique design and now the unusual piece has generated a lot of interest and curiosity among silk traders in South India.
B Datta Shiva, the entrepreneur who has purchased the rights of the saree, said “orders are pouring in from showrooms in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh for the supply of the attire.” “It took nearly a month to make one saree. Ten members of our unit continuously worked and finished it,” Shiva said.
The same designer had earlier created sarees with small LED bulbs which he calls the ‘lighting saree’. He had also made silk sarees using sandalwood.
“There is a great demand for the sandalwood saree. We get orders from all over the south. But due to time consuming process, we are not able to meet the demand,” Shiva said. For the saree, Mohan claims he uses pure sandalwood purchased from a Karnataka government-owned emporium.
Source Hindustan Times
Artistic Saree Photo
I love artistic saree photography such as this one. This shot is seductive, kind of eerie, and overall captivating. The setting and the model juxtapose each other and the clusters of light bulbs, well I don’t know what to make of them but I like the over all appeal of the photo.
Photo from dsigner_x.
Wordless Wednesday : Saree Sculpture
Its Wednesday, lets make the saree do the talking!
Indian Contemporary Art
Till about last year, the Indian art scene was RED HOT. The prices reached heights never seen before. But then came the credit crisis and it dried up almost immediately. The last auction that I was keeping track of did not sell more than half of the offering.
This is an interesting piece that was shown at the India Art Summit.
About US
Sunny is a designer in Los Angeles. He loves the fluidity and fluency of a saree and believes that when a woman wears a saree, she not only adorns her body but she also adorns her soul. His design ethos is that “simplicity never goes out of style.”
Rupa Gupta: A writer, editor and journalist, Rupa has been in the media for more than two decades. She has worked as Editor with major publications, both in India and abroad. a keen eye for fashion and current trends. Her sense of aesthetics transcends the hype and always finds the true beauty.
Liza Varma is a former Femina Miss India and well known model in Delhi. Today, she is a leading Fashion Choreographer with over 1000 shows to her credit in India and abroad. She is also a member of the Fashion Design Council of India and a Consultant with Shoot Talent Management. Her client list is the who’s who of Indian fashion industry.
Misty is a student in London and has her fingers on the pulse of London fashion industry.
Abhi is a student in San Francisco and showcases sensuous saree pictures.
Kamini is a model in Los Angeles and loves to accentuate the best a saree has to offer.