Paul Cézanne played a pivotal role in the birth of modern art. “Cézanne and Beyond” exhibition, hosted by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is a “beautiful and powerful collection of modern and post-modern art by some of the most talented painters of the past 100 years,” reports The Economist. Lucky are those who can be part of this major event that continues until mid-May this year.
“Pablo Picasso, who, with Georges Braque, invented cubism, called him ‘my one and only master’. Henri Matisse, Picasso’s rival for supreme artist of the modern period, described him as ‘a sort of god of painting’.
“Critics and scholars may disagree about pinpointing the first stirrings of modern art, but few deny Cézanne’s pivotal role as midwife. His fracturing of form and flattening of space, especially evident in his landscapes and still lifes, laid the foundation for cubism, the revolutionary movement that planted radical ideas firmly in the minds of young painters in Europe and America.
“Cézanne’s influence was strongest during the generation after he died, but it has proved remarkably persistent. Only now, a century later, when electronic media such as photography and video have wrested control of the vanguard from painting, is Cézanne’s shadow beginning to fade.
” ‘Cézanne and Beyond’ juxtaposes about 60 paintings and watercolours by the French master with roughly twice that many by the others: Europeans such as Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Max Beckmann and Alberto Giacometti, and Americans — Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Jasper Johns and Ellsworth Kelly.” More here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.