Art Talk With Roop & Mary Krishna
Conversation in Creativity in 1940s Lahore
ART is born out of imagination; it revives and revitalizes memory, and is skilfully created. It is all these and, in resonance and intimations, very much more. It is rooted in time and place and yet transcends them. It is local and attains full meaning and significance by being universal. Above all, art reminds us, beautifully and powerfully, that we are truly human when we imagine, dream, create, question, and remember. Art affirms our humanness, our innate creativity, our irrepressible imagination. Art, between the real and the unreal, seeks and reveals truth.
Nand Katyal, an important and senior painter of our time, has put together a book of remembrance of and gratitude to Roop and Mary Krishna. They wrote and painted, they brought new ideas about art when the critical ethos about modern Indian art was yet to reflect the vitality and strength of the creative endeavour. The compilation is a very welcome reminder that so many decades ago the couple brought freshness and relevance to thinking about art. Many of their ideas and insights are bold and ahead of their time. They did not succumb to the popular notions about art and asserted the noble autonomy of art.
These are distressing times of massive amnesia in culture. The book is a timely reminder that there have been persons like Roop and Mary Krishna who contributed significantly to our understanding of art, life, and their interrelationship. They continue to matter and must be revisited.
Editors:
Ananda Swaroop with Nand Katyal
Published by Nand Katyal
Published date : 2024
Supported by The Raza Foundation