Friends in Mumbai, make a visit to the exhibition and share your experiences. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Feeling-the-art-this-artist-makes-paintings-even-the-blind-can-see/articleshow/49122467.cms Pune: : "Painting is a blind man's profession. He paints not what he sees but what he feels, what he tells himself about what he has seen," said Pablo Picasso.
Visually impaired students Nishant Mane and Parshuram Kuchekar could not agree more with Picasso after they 'saw' Pune artist Chintamani Hasabnis's paintings. Nishant could see a hill for the first time and also a sunrise in its glory. Parshuram could not stop beaming as he explained why he liked the portrait of sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar the most. It was because a sighted Hasabnis had enabled his paintings to speak to them. Hasabnis has attempted something similar to what has been done at the Prado Museum in Madrid - considered Spain's equivalent of England's National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. For those who can't see, the museum has offered audio or Braille guides and has also got rid of the "no touching" rule to enable the visually impaired to physically read the paintings. So when Parshuram visited Hasabnis's studio, he could touch the portrait of Pandit Ravi Shankar and even strum the strings attached to the painted sitar. Then there was the portrait of santoor maestro Shivkumar Sharma, again complete with real strings that can be touched. The portrait of actor Dilip Prabhavalkar shows 10 of his favourite characters that he has essayed, and an inscription in Braille of a Marathi poem, 'Nat', penned by the renowned poet, playwright V V Shirvadkar. Mega star Amitabh Bachchan's face from his movie Black comes with Braille inscription on Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan. It was the sight of a visually challenged lady crossing a busy road in Pune that made Hasabnis think of how he could help the visually challenged enjoy a visual art like painting. "I then learnt Braille for one year. Each of my painting comes with a description in Braille which I call an emotional decoder. There are also poems, quotable quotes and sometimes even jokes. The visually challenged are free to touch the paintings, feel the textures and in some cases the raised outlines that will tell them what it is about," said Hasabnis. Does he worry about the paintings getting soiled because of the touching? "Not at all. If that is what it takes to let my visually impaired friends enjoy my creations, I am all game," he said. Nishant Mane explains what it means to be allowed the freedom to touch. "Touch is very important for us. But there are things which we cannot touch. For example, how can you touch an entire hill to understand its shape or the rising sun? Just hearing about them is not enough. It was these paintings that helped me understand," he said. Parshuram Kuchekar pointed out that Pandit Ravi Shankar's portrait became more appealing because "I was able to touch it and strum the strings". "It also made me understand where the strings are placed on a sitar and santoor. I hope other artists also emulate Hasabnis," he said. Actor Dilip Prabhavalkar was so moved by Hasabnis's experiment that he decided to enhance the experience for the visually challenged. "Prabhavalkar decided to be blindfolded when he saw his portrait. He did not speak for a moment and then said he wanted to go to a recording studio, where he recorded an audio guide introducing the 10 characters in his portrait using the same peculiar voice associated with each character," Hasabnis said. Another stalwart who was taken in with the concept is melody queen Lata Mangeshkar. A highlight of Hasabnis's paintings is the portrait of Latadidi, which has been signed by her. The portrait is created by joining nine standalone paintings along with a narration that explains the meaning of each painting. "In a way each painting has a meaning that is synonymous with Latadidi's exceptional talent," he said. Hasabnis is showcasing 22 of his paintings at Mumbai's Nehru Centre from September 29 to October 5 in an exhibition titled 'Closed Eyes Open Minds'. Part of the proceeds wil -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
