Chithravathi Magazine

  The photography exhibition, ‘Tohoku - Through the Eyes of Japanese Photographers’ opens at Laburnum & Indigo Galleries Cholamandal Village; the show is on till August 11, 2022 ‘Tohoku - Through the Eyes of Japanese Photographers’, jointly organized by Japan Foundation and The Velammal International School (TVIS), under the aegis of Chitravathi Centre for Creativity, at Laburnum & Indigo Galleries, in Cholamandal Village, Chennai, offers a new visual experience. Formally opening the show, on Wednesday, July 27, 2022, Mr. Kenji Miyata, Deputy Consul General, Consulate of Japan, Chennai, said the year 2022 marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relation between Japan and India. “The theme of the celebration is ‘Creating future for the centenary’, and the future offers great potential for the partnership between the two countries,” he said. This show is an eye opener towards the natural beauty of Tohoku, he said, adding that such programmes strength...

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captures celestial wonders from 7600 light years away “Oh! look at the moon, She is shining up there; Oh! Mother, she looks Like a lamp in the air…” We all grew up listening to this song by 19th century American writer Eliza Lee Cabot Follen. In a way the moon was the biggest celestial wonder for us kids, with a soothing light unlike the sun, and the stars being too far to be distinguishable. However, there is a universe beyond what we see, we were taught later. From Milkyway, which is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, to the faraway galaxies with star dust and gas, the celestial wonders are aplenty. The light of the stars that we see today started from the origin many light years back. So, considering the fact that light travels at a speed of 299792458 metres per second, you can guess how wide the universe is! Kandinsky’s Several Circles Definitely, this has captured the imagination of the artists as well. From Wassily Kandinsky’s Several Cir...

Legendary theatre director Peter Brook, who died on Saturday (July 2) in Paris, was one of the most innovative theatre directors who used the world as his stage mounting productions ranging from challenging versions of Shakespeare through international opera to Indian epic Mahabharata.  Born in London on March 21, 1925, his father was a company director and his mother a scientist. He left school at 16 to work in film studio and then went to Oxford University from where he took a degree in English and Foreign Languages. He was a teenager when he directed his first production in London, ‘Doctor Faustus’ in 1943. Later he served as the production director at London’s famous Royal Opera House before going to begin his association with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). In 1970, he shifted his base from Britain to work in Paris, where he founded the International Centre of Theatre Research. In India, Peter Brook was best known for directing his multi-ethnic nine-hour stage adaptation ...

Though there are many artists in the world of birds and animals, this Humboldt penguin is quite unique because his paintings are his own creations, and his works are being auctioned as part of a fund-raising programme Squidge doing a painting He is the new sensation in the world of art. Squidge, that is his name and he is a permanent resident in Cornish Seal Sanctuary, at Gweek, near Helston in the United Kingdom, where he was born four years back. Yes, you guessed it right! This ‘celebrity artist’ is no human, he is a penguin. Squidge started painting sometimes back as part of the daily enrichment activities with the animal care team, and they quickly recognized his talent. The sanctuary authorities said this Humboldt penguin made his debut in painting with his first canvas of abstract work with a stunning rendition of colourful penguin footprints, which captured the attention of the officials. Now this web-footed wonder is hoping to use his talent to secure his home’s future for year...

Paula Rego She was a fighter with a palette. She fought against the subjugation of women and the gender stereotypes through her paintings and through her political stands on such issues. She fought for the human rights and asserted the power of women. That was what made celebrated Portuguese-born British artist Dame Maria Paula Figueiroa Rego, who died in her London home on Wednesday at the age of 87, a unique phenomenon. A painting by Paula Rego Known for her instinctive and disturbing work that always had a socio-political character, Paula Rego was born in Lisbon on January 26, 1935, as the only child of José, who worked as an electronics engineer, and Maria, who studied art but never practiced as an artist. She hailed from an affluent family, and her parents had a broad vision; they realized the talent of the young girl who began drawing from the age of four to “entertain herself”. She knew she wanted to be an artist by the age of eight, despite discouragement from teachers. Thus sh...

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, one of the most discussed portraits in the history of art, displayed at the Louvre Museum in Paris, is once again in the news, after a 36-year-old man hurled a handful of cake and tried to smash the glass protecting the world’s most famous painting on Sunday. According to the videos that went viral in the social media, the man in a wheelchair, wearing a wig and apparently posing as an elderly woman, attacked the most famous painting while hundreds of visitors were there, and it is suspected that the vandalism was an act of apparent environment-related publicity stunt. A video posted online shows the perpetrator speaking to visitors in French as he is escorted away by security. “Think of the Earth, people are destroying the Earth... Think about it. Artists tell you: think of the Earth. That’s why I did this.” Since the masterpiece is in a safe enclosure, it was not damaged and the attacker was taken into custody and sent to a police psychiatric unit. Mona ...

The International Council of Museums to observe International Museum Day on May 18 What is a museum? It is not just a collection of art, sculptures or heritage. It is a storehouse of the history of the world, lives, and cultures. As world-renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano has observed, “A museum is a place where one should lose one’s head”. If you stroll through a museum and see more and more works of art, science and history, it would definitely change the way we approach these subjects. It is with this aim that The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has been organizing International Museum Day (IMD) since 1977, on May 18. The objective of IMD is to raise awareness about the fact that, “Museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples” according to ICOM. Last year, more than 37,000 museums participated in the event and this year they expect more participation. Museums have...