MOHAN SAMANT
Events 2000-2002
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September 17, 2002

SEPTEMBER, 2002
It is now two years since this site has been online. Mohan Samant is one of the leading senior artists from India but only a few people know much about him. This site attempts to rectify this with more than 300 pages and 80 paintings on display and with the artist's thoughts about the work and its production. This month sees the introduction of a new section In The Studio which show photographs of Samant working on his current painting. Also new is the Visitor's Book. We would very much like to hear from you.

JUNE 1, SATURDAY
12:00 NOON - 2:00 P.M.
at
NYU Main Building
Silver Center for Arts & Science, Room 703
100 Washington Square East - entrance on Washington Place

Mohan Samant talked about his views as an Asian artist on a panel The Early Year as part of The AAAC Story, a conference co-sponsored by AAAC & Asian /Pacific/American Studies Program & Institute at New York University June 1 & 22.

Other speakers on this panel were Teresa Rodriguez, Art Historian, Montclair College, Jeffrey Wechsler Senior Curator, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University and Midori Yoshimoto Art Historian/Curator and a speaker on Yun Gee



Samant will be visiting India next December. He will be involved in setting up a museum of his works in Goregoan.


May 2002

The painting "Woman with Blue Eyes" which was recently displayed on the splash page of this website has been featured in the May 2002 issue of the magazine "Art Business News." The article "A Passage to India" written by Jane Hart discusses the presence of Indian art on the American art scene.

 



  • December 31, 2001

    For the second time this year a 1950's painting of Mohan Samant has appeared on the American scene. Today the Smithsonian American Art Museum featured this artwork in their ongoing online exhibition 1001 Days & nights. It was accompanied by the following:

    Today's artwork by Mohan B. Samant was part of the Container Corporation of America's advertising campaign called "Great Ideas." Walter Paepcke, founder of the Container Corporation, wanted the Great Ideas campaign "to stimulate thinking and discussion about the ideas at the roots of what the philosophers call "the good life": ideas that are infinitely more important to the preservation of our society and our liberties th    an the pursuit of material gain.

    The museum states that it was published in March of 1958 in The New Yorker, Time, and Newsweek magazines. The painting was a gift of Container Corporation of America to the museum. The complete page can be seen online at the Smithsonian American Art Museum 1001 Days & nights.

    Back in February, a print of this poster was auctioned on eBay. See below for Samant's comments on this work.



  • Sunday, November 4, 2001Musical Evening at Home #7902

    A LIVING LOFT CONCERT in the artist's Manhattan studio.
    An afternoon of music and art. Mohan Samant played Indian classical ragas on the sarangi surrounded by his paintings. This was preceded by The Continuo Players, a duo performing 17th and 18th century music on baroque bassoon, viola da gamba and recorders.



  • September 1 to 20, 2001

    Tao Art Gallery,     Mumbai presents
    SIMILARITIES & DISSIMILARITIES: WEST
    Curated by: Jyotee & Anahite Contractor

    Artists: Amit Ambalal, Anil Joshi, Anish Ahluwalia, Anjum Chaturvedi, Arunanshu Chowdhury, Atul Dodiya, Chintan Upadhyay, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Heeral Trivedi, Hema Upadhyay, Indrapramit Roy, Jitish Kallat, Laxman Shreshtha, Mohan Samant, Navjot, Prabhakar Kolte, Rini Dhumal, Santosh Kalbande Sashidharan, Satish Wavare, Sudarshan Shetty, Vanita Gupta, Viraj Naik, Walter D'souza.

    The painting being exhibited by Mohan Samant is Masked Dance for the Ancestors.
    See the page Painting of the Month: September, 2001 for the artist's thoughts on this work.

  • August 15 to September 28, 2001

    NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART, MUMBAI#8901 Death of Jatayu and Sita Harnam
    SIR COWASJI JEHANGIR PUBLIC HALL
    EXHIBITION
    IDEAS & IMAGES III
    Art in Mumbai
    Curator: Dr. Saryu V. Doshi
    Exhibition on view from 15th August 2001 till 28th September 2001
    Works of the following senior artists are on display:

    Shri Jehangir Sabavala, Shri V.S. Gaitonde, Shri M.F. Husain,
    Shri S.H. Raza, Shri Tyeb Mehta, Shri Mohan Samant,
    Ms. Prafulla Dahanukar and Ms. B. Prabha  

    The painting on display by Mohan Samant is Death of Jatayu and Sita Harnam (shown at right.)
    See the page Highlights: August, 2001 for the artist's thoughts on this work.

       
  • July, 2001: The first page of the artist's reflections. Samant's ideas, influences and the pivotal events which determined the course of his painting will be explored over the next few months. REFLECTIONS 1 talks about the three types of work in the family home which inspired Samant as a young child.

  • The month of May sees the introduction of an on-line exhibition of 50 years of work with over 60 paintings. Five galleries of paintings show examples from all stages of Samant's life work.


  • During the month of February, 2001 a fragment of Indian contemporary art history surfaced on the internet auction portal eBay. It was described as:
    "1958 CONTAINER CORPORATION MOHAN B SAMANT AD."
    The ad features the artwork of Mohan Samant. The caption underneath the painting reads:
        What the wise choose the unwise people take;
             what best men do the multitude will follow.
    Mohan remembers that he was asked to take on a consignment to do a watercolor for an American company called Container Corporation. This was probably in 1952. He believes that Container Corporation chose works from artists of many different countries.
    This was the second American company to purchase work on consignment. Around the same time another corporation (Corning?) commissioned a watercolor to be used as a design on their glass products.
    We successfully acquired this print of the ad and it is now displayed in Gallery 1 as painting #5203.


  • IAAC Earthquake Relief Dinner /Auction

    February 15, 2001
    The benefit dinner and art auction were sponsored by the Indo-American Arts Council, a not-for-profit arts group. The Radisson New York-East Side co-hosted the event, with Christie's The event was held at The Sung Dynasty Restaurant, Radisson Hotel NY-Eastside.

    The painting Transparency of Becoming by Mohan Samant shown here was one of 20 paintings auctioned by Dr. Hugo K. Weihe, senior vice president and head of Asian Art, Department of Indian and Southeast Asian Art of Christie's New York.






  • Mohan Samant was featured on the televised weekly series NREyes on Zee News (CineMaya Media Productions) on January 28, 2001.
    The half hour documentary showed Samant at home surrounded by his paintings and indoor garden, playing sarangi and being interviewed about his life and his art. This series is shown at 8 PM on Sunday evenings in India and is repeated on Tuesday 1:00 am, Friday 11:30 am, Saturday 1:00 am and Sunday 4:30 pm.


  • Eclectic Dreamer: An encounter with New York Artist Mohan Samant in his apartment high above the streets of New York This four page article by Swapna Vora appeared in the section "The Way The World Lives" in the December - January 2001 issue of the magazine " Indian Design & Interiors." Photographs by Joe Arbo


  • Videsis Love Desi Artist. The January 5 issue of Desi Talk (a free newspaper published in New York City) features the painting "Moonlight Strolling," a painting by Mohan Samant. On page 20 an article by Ravi Adhikari titled: Samant: A Humble Feudal Lord of Artistic World begins: Manhattan: The experience of meeting with one of the best artists in the world can be beyond imagination of many people. But the same doesn't apply to this writer, who has met such artist -- not once, but several times.... This article also appears on the internet edition of New India Times and on page 19 of News India-Times, January 12, 2001

  • Distillations
    The painting "Dancing Angels" was shown in a group show "Distillations" held at the Birla Academy of Art & Culture at the Century Bhavan, Dr. A.B. Road, Worli, Mumbai from October 17 through November 4, 2000. Other participating artists were Akbar Padamsee, Anjolie Ela Menon, Badri Narayan, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Francis Newton Souza, Ganesh Pyne, Jehangir Sabavala, Jogen Choudhury, K.G. Subramanyam, Krishen Khanna, Laxman Shreshtha, Manjit Bawa, M.F. Hussain, Rameshwar Broota, Ram Kumar, Sadanand Bakre, S.G. Vasudev, Sunil Das, Syed Haider Raza.
    This painting is on view at the web site of Saffron Art.




  • Samant honored by Hillary Clinton.
    Three Asians were chosen to receive awards for their lifetime work in the field of arts at a celebration of Asian American Heritage Month which took place on May 11, 2000 at the Jin Fong Restaurant in New York. Samant was honored for his lifetime achievements in the fields of art and music. The two other recipients were Lea Salonga, a Filipino and Luoyong Wang, a Chinese, both stars in the Broadway show Miss Saigon. News India-Times reported this event on May 19, 2000 and photographs of the event were seen on Artstar.

  • Thrill, Prayer & Myth
    Artstar, a leading art portal, launched its site on the internet with the exhibition Thrill, Prayer & Myth featuring Mohan Samant along with two other Indian painters. Nineteen of Samant's works     could be seen at Artstar.com.



  • Jehangir Art Gallery show, February, 2000#8904 Surya Vaunshi
    An exhibition of Samant's paintings at the Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
    • DSP Merrill Lynch organized a cultural evening for clients on March 3, 2000 in support of the esteemed artist Mohan Samant. Mr. Samant has the dual accomplishment of not only being a painter par excellence but is also an exceptional Sarangi exponent......
      Reviews by noted Mumbai critics included:
    • Mohan Samant, an artist whose 'leela' is worth exploring, by Swapna Vora, The Sunday Free Press Journal, February 20, 2000.
    •  A Rendezvous with an artist, by Dean Williams,
      The Times of India, Bombay Times, Monday, 21 February, 2000 .
    • Art in symphony, by Jasmine Shah Varma.
    • Mohan's masterpieces, by Arkay. Mumbai son may be one of the top 100 artists of the century. Times of India, 11 February, 2000

      •  

  • Sarangi recital
    On May 21, 2000 Samant was featured for the second time in the series of concert recitals,     Artist's Showcase at the Gillary Gallery, Jericho,Long Island. Performing on sarangi, Samant played the evening ragas, Emni Bilawal, Jaijaivanti and Lalit Pancham.


  • Bittersweet: The Asian-Indian Experience in the U.S.
    This unusual documentary focuses on Asian-Indian immigrants in the U.S., who discuss the complex social and personal issues involved in dealing with dual cultural influences. ... Interviews with a variety of Asian-Indian immigrants residing in the U.S.--including such notables as Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and painter Mohan Samant--are combined with dramatized discussions and self-reflexive passages, all of which illuminate issues of cultural identity and the problems of defining community in an adopted land. Directed by Sanjeev Chatterjee 1995, color, 42 mins., video.     Cinema Guild

    For currect events go to Events 2003