Holi festival in Kolkata 2019

While writing this blog post holi already started in Vrindavan, a holy town in Uttar Pradesh( Mathura, Biraj, Nandgaon and Barsana). So that feeling already in air. Also World finest holi celebrated there, it’s like a Durga Puja festival of Kolkata, it’s much more than just a festival.

I tried to focus and documenting as many holi as I can so that you can find different flavour of around the world holi festivals. The best part of kolkata is that you can find different style or kind of holi or basanta utsav and dol ustad/jatra whatever you called. So always surprised what city of joy offers itself.

The most famous festival or first festival start before holi here is Basanta Utsav of Jorasanko Thakurbari Kolkata. But unfortunately because of popularity and huge crowd this festival closed form last year 2018. Only celebration happening only another campus of Rabindra Bharati University or RBU B.T Road Campus.

Here the glimpse of celebration looks like

Here the list of Holi celebration or festival you must visit in your lifetime.

01.

Where: Rabindra Bharati University (RBU)

Address:  RBU B.T Road Campus

Google Map Link: Click here

Date:   18th March 2019 (Monday)

Time:   12 pm onwards

Speciality:  Basanta Utsav Celebration Shantiniketan Style

02.

Where: Sawaria Seth Mandir Rajakatra Kolkata

Address:  Rajakatra, Bara Bazar (nearby M.G Road)

Google Map Link: Click here

Date:   21st March 2019 (Thursday)

Time:   9 am – 6 pm

Speciality:  Barsana/Vrindavan Style Holi Celebration

Closed:  From 2018 this private mandir not allowed for photography and videography due to huge crowd at 2017 year.

Note: But as a spectator and for experience you can visit this place.

03.

Where: Sri Sri Iswar Satyanarayanjee

Popularity knows as photography community Rolls Royce Holi

Address:  36, Mukharam Kanoria Rd, Gulmohar Railway Quarters, Mali Panchghara, Howrah, West Bengal 711101 (nearby Howrah Sation)

Google Map Link: Click here

Date:   19th March 2019 (Tuesday)

Time:   11 am – 7 pm

Speciality:  Rolls Royce procession – Howrah Bridge to Bara Bazar Market lane

New Edition : Flower Holi Celebration on 21st March 2019 (7 am) at Burrabazar Sri Sri Iswar Satyanarayanjee Mandir

04.

Where: Lighthouse for the Blind

Popularity knows as photography community Phool Dol Festival by Sarodiya

Address:  LIGHT HOUSE FOR THE BLIND 174, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road, Beside Rashbehari CESC, Near; Tollygunge Police StationKolkata, West Bengal – 700026. (nearby Kalighat Metro Sation)

Google Map Link: Click here

Date:   20th March 2019 (Wednesday)

Time:   3 pm onwards

Speciality:  Flower holi celebration by special children of Lighthouse for the Blind School

05.

Where: Golf Green Basanta Utsav

Address:  Golf Green Central Park Kolkata

Google Map Link: Click here

Date:   21st March 2019 (Thursday)

Time:   6 am onwards

Speciality:  Basanta Utsav Celebration Shaniniktan flabour

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06.

Where: Nandan (Basanta Utsav)

Address:  Ektara Mancha Udyan

1/1, Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Rd, Kolkata, West Bengal 700020 (nearby Rabindra Sadan Metro Station)

Google Map Link: Click here

Date:   17th March 2019 (Sunday)

Time:   3 pm onwards

07.

Befor Corona 2020 Holi

Where: Water Color Holi / RAW Holi

Address:  Sudder Street (Near Indian Museum)

Google Map Link: Click here

Date:   21st March 2019 (Thursday)

Time:   8:30 am onwards

Speciality:  Street Style Holi with water colors

Addition – Mayfair Road, Chowringhee and Burrabazar area also playing holi on 21st March 10 am onwards

2019 Special

01.

What: Sangbedan Onno Basanta Utsav Procession

Address:  Shyam Square, Bidhan Sarani, Baghbazar, Kolkata, West Bengal 700003 (nearby Shyambazar Metro Station)

Google Map Link: Click here

Date:   17th March 2019 (Sunday)

Time:   2 pm onwards

Speciality:  Procession Golfgreen Style vive

Special Mention

A.

Where: Shantiniketan

Address:  Bolpur, Shantiniketan

Google Map Link: Click here

Date:   21st March 2019 (Thursday)

Time:   Early Morning

I will add more location to this list, till then enjoy. Also if you know some places let me know so that I can add to this list.

Krishna Reddy’s exhibition at Experimenter Kolkata

Opening Preview of Krishna Reddy, To a New Form

Date – 18 Jan – 31 Mar

Where – Experimenter – Hindustan Road (near by gariahat more)

Experimenter presents To A New Form, a solo by the late Indian master printmaker and sculptor, Krishna Reddy (1925 – 2018). Reflecting on a continuous exploration of form that fed into a practice of over seven decades, the exhibition will show rare drawings, zinc and copper etching plates and corresponding prints. Keeping impression-making at the core of his discipline, the exhibition draws attention to Reddy’s pursuit in new ways of seeing his environment and an immersive lifelong practice of drawing and activating the sculptural surfaces of his metal etching plates.

Krishna Reddy drew from a plethora of experiences and was inspired by several divergent conceptual ideas to develop his own language. In the process, he used drawing as an almost obsessive practice that in turn significantly informed and structured his work, but rarely showed his drawing practice alongside. The exhibition threads a deep connection between Reddy’s drawing, printmaking and sculptural practice. Initially trained in Tagore’s Santiniketan under the tutelage of the influential Ramkinkar Baij and Nandalal Bose, whose guidance would be significant throughout Reddy’s career. In 1949 he moved to London studying sculpture at Slade School of Fine Art in Henry Moore’s class. Thereafter, he spent over two decades in Paris, first at the studio of Ossip Zadkine and then eventually directing Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17, which was at the time, a thriving hub for stalwarts like Joan Miro, Constantin Brancusi, Pablo Picasso, and Alberto Giacometti, with all of whom Reddy closely worked. At Atelier 17, he developed and invented the process that he is most well known for – simultaneous multicolor viscosity printing, and broke new ground in intaglio printmaking. In the cafes of Montparnasse, Reddy would discuss how the spiritualism he had learned from his first teacher, the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, had blended with European modernism. Underpinning his ideas was a technical knowhow that produced several innovations in the medium Reddy made his own. Reddy’s studio practice was spent in developing and mastering the technique of multicolor viscosity printing and in the process he experimented with form, technique and application.

On view at the exhibition is a series of Reddy’s well known work The Great Clown, which truly elaborates the mastery of his technique. Combinations of colors were separately applied to the same metal printing etching plate, each paint mixed to a different thickness with linseed oil so that it did not contaminate the others and resulted in a spectacular range of unique prints, each different from the other. An overwhelming array of studies and drawings take center stage at the exhibition, rooting the practice to repeatedly looking at human form, nature and the relationship between the two, an interest which was developed since his early years in Santiniketan. At another section of the gallery, a selection of early prints are on display alongside corresponding etching plates, revealing how the sculptural deeply engraved surfaces of his plates birthed his prints that were as dimensional as they were resplendent.

In 1976 Reddy moved from Paris to New York. Thereafter, establishing the Color Print Atelier, Reddy became director of graphics and printmaking in the Art Department at New York University, a position he held until 2002. Pedagogy was a way of life for Reddy, his studio, lined with hundreds of tools and piled high with printing plates, became a haven for young artists from all round the world, especially those new to the USA. Over the years Reddy’s influence on generations of artists, some of whom were his students, left an indelible impression. Nature particularly fascinated Reddy. Butterflies, trees, waves, spiders’ webs and blossoms were frequent subjects, depicted in dream-like compositions that took their references from abstraction and surrealism. As he constantly pushed the boundaries that were not only confined to the formal process of printmaking but a revolutionary way of looking at his environment, Reddy found sanctuary in experimentation with sculpting, printmaking and drawing in a lifelong pursuit to understand form.

Christmas 2018 at Park Street Kolkata

Christmas Celebration 2018 at Allen Park and Park Street Kolkata

https://flic.kr/p/2cGLytb

The India Story 4.0 Edition at Swabhumi Kolkata 2018

After successfully 3 edition done, this time back with The India Story 4.0 Edition at Swabhumi The Heritage Kolkata 2018. Theme this year Above & Beyond. Opening this Thursday 13th December 2018 at 4 pm, continue still 16th December 2018.

The India Story, launched in 2015, is a creative arts and design exposition with three editions to its name. The last three years have been immensely successful with an amalgam of design minds from across the country, supported by an extensive media coverage and the presence of a very wide audience making the expectations for 2018 more ambitious. 

This year, our theme is ‘Above & Beyond’, which seeks to explore newer boundaries of design and creativity. The India Story is spearheaded by Madhu Neotia (Initiator), Abhilasha Sethia (Co – initiator), Swapan Seth (Idea Director), Kalli Purie (Vice-Chairperson, The India Today Group), Shantanu Moitra (Creative Consultant), and Swarup Dutta (Scenographer) in association with this year’s advisory board, which includes Sumant Jayakrishnan, Anuradha Mahindra, Aparajita Jain, Siddharth Kasliwal, Indrani Dasgupta Paul and Neha Kasliwal Arya.

Join us for The India Story 2018, a Neotia Arts Trust initiative, to be hosted at Swabhumi, Kolkata from 13 – 16 December!

I don’t know how my story will end, but NOWHERE in my text will I ever read…
“I gave up.”
On my way to work on a crisp December morning, scrolling through the numerous good morning and daily inspirational messages on social media, I paused at this one. The sentence did something to me. The madness had already begun by then. It’s that time of the year. Swabhumi was all abuzz with last-minute fittings and installations for The India Story. I had been fully consumed by the energy of it.
And then I paused. Looked back. At my journey with TIS. What started from a spark of idea during a morning walk at the Tolly Club greens is on the verge of its fourth edition. Am I doing it right? Where do I see TIS after 10 years? What is India thinking of The India Story? 
So many thoughts popped up. And then I entered the venue. I looked at the men at work on the installations, the intricate art works being moved into the art storage, the participants coming for a recce and the bubbling voices inside the makeshift office. 
There they were. My amazing team and its members. One look at them and their infectious energy caught up with me. It made me relaxed. It gave me a clarity. It showed me the way into the future. 
It’s definitely a team work. When I stop thinking in “me” and “my” terms and look through the team’s eyes, the picture starts getting perfect. Isn’t that the idea with which I, err…, we started The India Story?
To stop looking at art from only the insider’s eyes and start appreciating each of its layers through different prisms of sensibilities. To reach out to everyone. To engage and evolve with the people of Calcutta and beyond. 
Yes. I am sorted now. Of course I don’t know yet where TIS is heading to. And I love this unpredictability, which has also become the hallmark of The India Story. But what I am sure is that as long as my team is there with me, as long as Calcutta and its lovely people are there to support me, as long as we believe in the magic of art and what it does to us – we can happily keep moving forward in this journey. 
See you all at The India Story 2018 
13-16 December, 2018 
Swabhumi, Kolkata 
#tis18 #theindiastory #aboveandbeyond

by Madhu Neotia

India Today Art Awards 2018