Past Events

Kerala & Gurecino - A Webinar

Online Event

RRV invitation

The Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation, Bengaluru, conducted ‘Kerala and Geurcino’ a lecture by eminent Oxford-based historian and author Professor Partha Mitter. The webinar was held on 18th July 2020 and was open to an audience of 500.

Prof. Partha Mitter is a writer and historian of art and culture, specialising in the reception of Indian art in the West, as well as in modernity, art and identity in India, and more recently in global modernism.

He spoke eloquently comparing how 19th Century Kerala artwork pivoted away from its traditions towards a more universal, accessible and realistic style of painting. He explained how Western art of the Renaissance, as exemplified by the work of the Italian Baroque painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, also known as Guercino, influenced the art of Kerala three centuries later. 19th Century Kerala art was thus direct, relevant and emotional in a way viewers of the era could respond to. Sentiments and the senses were provoked by the contemporary references - true-to-life depictions of faces and bodies and realistic simulations of cloth, skin, wood and leather - that comprise what Prof. Mitter referred to as ‘Kerala and Geurcino’.

The webinar was attended by more than 475 guests, including scholars, historians, academicians and Ravi Varma art enthusiasts.

Click here to view invitation.

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