Film Screening: Picturing Life
Date: 18th November
Time: 1:30pm to 3:00pm
About
Picturing Life is a unique cinematic experience that brings Sudhir Patwardhan’s paintings to life. It explores the various aspects of the painter’s work by structuring the film around his journey as a painter in the city of Mumbai, oscillating between social and personal concerns. The film strives to capture the artist’s universe through weaving together visuals of the city and home with details of his paintings and his thoughts as texts, creating an intimate portrait of the artist.
The film screening will be followed by a conversation between the artist, Sudhir Patwardhan, the filmmaker, Harshil Bhanushali and architect Kaiwan Mehta.
Speakers
Sudhir Patwardhan
Harshil Bhanushali
Moderator
Kaiwan Mehta
About the Speakers
Sudhir Patwardhan is well known for his paintings of the city of Mumbai and of ordinary people since the late 1970s. His work has been exhibited widely in India and in other countries. Exhibitions include ‘ Place for People’ in Mumbai and New Delhi, 1981; Festival of India in Paris, 1986; ‘Century City’ at the Tate Modern in London 2001 and 'Hamsafar' at Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal, 2018. A retrospective exhibition of fifty years of his work was held in 2019-2020 in the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai.
Patwardhan’s works are in the permanent collection of National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and Mumbai; Roopankar Museum, Bhopal; JNAF, Mumbai; the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem; and the MET New York, USA and other prominent private and public collection
Harshil Bhanushali completed his post-graduation in Film Direction from Whistling Woods International, Mumbai, India, 2015. His ongoing projects include a fictional adaptation of Sudhir Patwardhan’s works and a documentary on Indian contemporary artist Bharti Kher, commissioned by Nature Morte Art Gallery, Delhi, India, 2020.
In 2018, he spent a year in Meghalaya researching about the traditional Khasi folklore and indigenous life, which led him to direct four short films, Leaving Home, Second Skin, Coincide and Full Moon with local artists and technicians. Leaving Home was awarded 2nd prize at Wild Vueing Festival 2021 hosted by Harkat studios supported by Gujral Foundation. His Diploma film Ekaki was shown in many festivals including Jaipur International Film Festival 2015 and is currently streaming on Disney Hotstar.
Kaiwan Mehta is a theorist and critic in the fields of visual culture, architecture, and city studies. Currently he is Dean at Balwant Sheth School of Architecture.
From July 2017 to March 2022 he was Professor and Programme Chair of the Doctoral Programme at the Faculty of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, where he contributed to the CEPT University Press and Research, and was also a founding member on the CEPT Essay Prize steering committee. He was the Charles Correa Chair professor at the Goa College of Architecture under the aegis of the Department of Art and Culture, Government of Goa for the academic year 2017-2018. He authored Alice in Bhuleshwar: Navigating a Mumbai Neighbourhood (Yoda Press. New Delhi, 2009) and The Architecture of I M Kadri (Niyogi. New Delhi, 2016). He has studied Architecture (B. Arch), Literature (MA), Indian Aesthetics (PGDip) and Cultural Studies (PhD). In 2017 he completed his doctoral studies at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bengaluru, under the aegis of Manipal University.