Summary
Nivedita says, ‘Whatever I am today is because of my father. For years I wanted to dedicate this ‘solo show’ of my works to her. Sorry he is not there to see it today. The theme of the exhibition is ‘Shiva, Shakti and Vishwas’. Years of hard work have gone into this work. Every figure or craft has some emotion and each has its own story within…
This year’s Women’s Day is very special for Nivedita Mishra, who has been trying for years to take her father’s legacy and her artistic vision to a height. You can see and feel Nivedita Mishra’s finest sculpture and sculpture everywhere in Delhi’s Triveni Art Gallery. The name of this exhibition of Nivedita, which started on Women’s Day i.e. March 8, is ‘Nity’. Nitya means regular. Hailing from Bolangir in Odisha, Nivedita’s father Nityanand Mishra was a Congress MP from 1980 to 89 for nine years and said goodbye to everyone in July last year at the age of 92. He sent his daughter to be an artist, from the Delhi College of Arts to the Slade School of Fine Arts in London.
Nivedita says, ‘Whatever I am today is because of my father. For years I wanted to dedicate this ‘solo show’ of my works to her. Sorry he is not there to see it today. The theme of the exhibition is ‘Shiva, Shakti and Vishwas’. Years of hard work have gone into this work. Every figure or craft has some emotion and each has its own story within.
In the main hall of Triveni Art Gallery, you will find all the forms of Shiva in about eighty sculptures. Nivedita tells that since childhood, Shiva’s Rudra Tandava has been very influencing her and especially the stories of Sati which are at the core of our mythological scriptures and Shiva’s orgy. Dakshaputri Sati was Shiva’s wife and in anger by her father’s insult to Shiva, she jumped into the Havan Kund. Then Shiva angrily took the body of Sati and did such an orgy that the earth trembled. To stop Shiva’s anger, Vishnu cut Sati’s parts into 51 pieces with his Sudarshan Chakra, which fell in different parts of the earth. The same 51 Shaktipeeths are recognized today.
Nivedita Mishra has tried to bring alive the imagination of all those parts along with all the gestures of Shiva in his craft. She says that drawing from hands, feet, fingers, nose, ears, lips to Sudarshan Chakra and Trishul with references and expressions of that era has undoubtedly been a difficult task. But today this task is in front of you.
Nivedita does not forget to credit her contemporary sculpture and painter Advaita Ganayanayak, who is also her husband and Director General of the National Gallery of Modern Art, for her support in this work. Normally, there are not so many celebrities in an artist’s exhibition, as many were seen in this solo show of Nivedita. Most of the small and big artists of Delhi were present at the inauguration of this exhibition and were trying to understand this memorable work of Nivedita Mishra by taking a closer look.
Apart from Sati, a part of the exhibition is dedicated to all the forms of Kamakhya Devi and women power. You can also see the forms of Goddess carved out of black marble and granite stones. As soon as you enter the gallery, in its outer campus, you will also see huge structures of all forms of Navagraha made by Nivedita Mishra. Nivedita has exhibited all the artistic structures carved on various metals and stones with their different themes in Mumbai, Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar, Delhi and London. But after a long time, art lovers can see this solo exhibition in Delhi till 23 March.
Expansion
This year’s Women’s Day is very special for Nivedita Mishra, who has been trying for years to take her father’s legacy and her artistic vision to a height. You can see and feel Nivedita Mishra’s finest sculpture and sculpture everywhere in Delhi’s Triveni Art Gallery. The name of this exhibition of Nivedita, which started on Women’s Day i.e. March 8, is ‘Nity’. Nitya means regular. Hailing from Bolangir in Odisha, Nivedita’s father Nityanand Mishra was a Congress MP from 1980 to 89 for nine years and said goodbye to everyone in July last year at the age of 92. He sent his daughter to be an artist, from the Delhi College of Arts to the Slade School of Fine Arts in London.
Nivedita says, ‘Whatever I am today is because of my father. For years I wanted to dedicate this ‘solo show’ of my works to her. Sorry he is not there to see it today. The theme of the exhibition is ‘Shiva, Shakti and Vishwas’. Years of hard work have gone into this work. Every figure or craft has some emotion and each has its own story within.