Self-taught artist and author, Manish Pushkale lives in his South Delhi home with his studio in the basement of the building. The façade faces the Chor Minar (Tower of Thieves), a 13th century minaret built under the rule of Alauddin Khilji. The backyard of the house shares a wall with a temple. A trustee of the Raza Foundation, Pushkale literally and metaphorically lives between history and religion. We talk to him about his love for the arts and philosophy.
The tradition of hanging art on the wall came from my maternal grandparents
I grew up in Bhopal and my grandparents lived in a small town, Sagar, in Madhya Pradesh. It houses the illustrious Gaur University that led to the town becoming an educational hub for the region. My family never had direct interest in arts, but I distinctly remember seeing walls adorned with Ravi Varma oleographs, tapestry on the floor, and mirror work on the ceiling of the living room. Aesthetics was a way of life.
Two significant events of 1983 shaped my life
I was ten years old when the Bhopal gas tragedy happened. We lived just off the city centre. There was no television or mobile phones then, so news travelled slower. As a result, the morning after the incident was usual for us and I left for school. It was customary to see stray animals and busy roadside shops, but that morning I saw dead cows and silent roads. On reaching the school, I was told that school would remain closed. By the time I walked back home, there was mayhem on the streets. It was the biggest exposure to death for me at that impressionable age. I too inherited breathing allergies and asthma, having been exposed to the poisonous gas on that ill-fated morning. It was also in that year that Bharat Bhawan, an arts complex and museum, opened its doors in the city. It was the early days of the institution, but the energy was palpable. I had not seen architecture like that before. Everything at Bharat Bhawan was a wonder for me. From then on, seeing exhibitions, experiencing artists working in studios, listening to conversations... I soon knew that art was my calling.
My exposure was to a holistic creative world
Esta historia es de la edición June - July 2019 de Arts Illustrated.
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Esta historia es de la edición June - July 2019 de Arts Illustrated.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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A Sky Full Of Thoughts
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Faces in the Water
As physical ‘masks’ become part of our life, we take a look at artists working with different aspects of ‘faces’ and the things that lurk beneath the surface.
The Blueprint That Never Was
Sarah Winchester, wife of William Wirt Winchester who popularized the ‘repeating rifle’, built a sprawling mansion with no blueprint, in order to escape the ghosts of her past.
Into the Wood Work
The wooden craft of toy-making from Varanasi finds new life through ‘Lattu’ as Kaushiki Agarwal reimagines them with contemporary utilitarian designs
Expressions in Red
With the play Lal Batti Express, the Krantikaris showed us quite powerfully that ‘what we perceive it to be from the outside – the stigmas we buy into – they are not their truths’
Distorted Patterns, Multiple Meanings
Evocative visuals and distorted recollections are bound together in the dance of memory that teases us with sharp glimpses and blurry edges, while retaining the essence of emotions associated with them
Open-Ended Beginnings
Swiss-French photographer Hélène Binet, best known as the leading architectural photographer who still insists on shooting analogue, spoke to us about the ambiguous nature of photography that extends into her practice
A New Slant
The celebrated series ‘Transparent’, about crisscrossing lines of identity, bows out with a rich symphony of emotions that hits elegiac notes but is ultimately pitched to please
PAN Asia Festival
The recently concluded 10th anniversary edition of the PAN (Performance Art Network) Asia Festival, centred around the theme ‘A.L.A.R.M. – Approaches to Live Art in the Revolution of Media’, cemented the importance of performance art within the contemporary arts landscape.
