OM
NAGUESH RAO SARDESSAI
Raghuvir Shankar Mulgaonkar, a towering figure in the field
of art, and son of the soil, is largely lost in the history and little known in
his own land of birth, except amongst artists fraternity, due to lack of
adequate documentation and dissemination of information.
Institute Menezes Braganza (IMB) took up the task of
spreading awareness about such stalwarts. 2016 saw IMB successfully organize a
lecture series cum painting exhibition, in collaboration with Goa College of
Art and All Goa Art Masters Association, as a tribute to late Dinanath Dalal in
his birth centenary year.
This year, IMB decided to offer its tribute to Raghuvir
Mulgaonkar by organizing an exhibition of prints of his paintings along with a
series of demonstrations of portraits by celebrated portrait artist from
Mumbai, Vasudev Kamath.
This was a fitting tribute to Mulgaonkar as Vasudev is internationally
respected for his skill and creativity, which Mulgaonkar was famous for. Born
in Karkala in Karnataka, Kamath grew up in Mumbai and showed interest in art at
a very early age. Having art run in the family with his mother’s maternal uncle,noted
master sculptor Ranjala Gopal Shenoy, as his source of inspiration, Kamath
earned his diploma in art from the prestigious Sir J.J. School of Art with
first class.
Since then, he has been involved in producing paintings that
touch various genres. Largely known as a portrait painter, Kamath’s creative
and contemporary art pieces are not just visually stunning but philosophically
loaded as well. He is not just proficient with oils and watercolours, but has
the capacity to handle every medium at his disposal and paints, besides
portraits, subjective works, landscapes, conceptual pieces etc.
Kamath painted such towering personalities and dignitaries
such as former President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, Shiv Sena Supremo Balasaheb
Thackeray, Governor of UP Ram Naik, ex CM of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh and
many others. He was invited to paint the portrait of His Excellency Pranab
Mukherjee.
He is honoured with
various awards and citations but the most prominent being ‘Draper Grand Award’,
in portraits bestowed on him by the Portrait Society of America, in 2006, for
his portrait titled ‘My Wife’. He has done a series of paintings on illustrious
life of Bhagwan Swaminarayana and over hundred paintings on the life of Lord
Buddha that can be seen at Global Pagoda in Mumbai. He is the patron and all India
President of Sanskaar Bharati and President of Art Society of India and
prestigious Bombay Art Society.
At the Portrait Painting Demonstration program at the IMB,
he displayed his skill and expertise to the large gathering. Kamath interacted
with each of these art enthusiasts and enlightened them about the subject.
Kamath executed portraits of three celebrities. Celebrated
artist Padmashree Laxman Pai, respected teacher, writer and Gomant Sharada
Puraskar awardee Dr. Aroon Heblekar and noted vocal artist Dinkar Panshikar
were brought to life on canvas during the three day event.
Laxman Pai’s portrait was completed in flat seventeen
minutes. Kamath had a presentation of his works produced over several years through
his career and delivered a lecture with an aim to educate and motivate the
gathered art enthusiasts.
Padmashree Laxman Pai was felicitated at the hands of Kamath,
on being awarded Gomant Vibhushan, Goa’s highest honour, in the presence of
Chairman of IMB, Sanjay Harmalkar; Member Secretary IMB, Gorakh Mandrekar;
Principal, Goa College of Art, Mahesh Vengurlekar and Chairperson of AGAMA,
Gaurish Vernekar.
Besides this, AGAMA felicitated art teachers, taught in
institutes across Goa, on their superannuation from service.
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