CHANDIGARH: The prestigious 50th National Exhibition of Art is being organised by the Lalit Kala Akademi, the National Academy of Art, at the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh  from March 26 to April 8,2008.

While stating this here Tuesday, the Secretary of the Lalit Kala Akademi, Dr.Sudhakar Sharma said that it was for the first time that the National Exhibition of Art was being organised in Chandigarh.    

He said that the exhibition would be inaugurated by an eminent scholar, administrator and Pro-tem Chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi, Ashok Vajpeyi and he would also confer the National Awards upon 12 winner artists on March 26 at 6 p.m. at the auditorium of the Government  Museum, Sector 10-C, Chandigarh. Each award constitutes Rs. 50,000, a copper plaque and a citation.

He said that the award winners included Ashim Pal for Etching, Bijoy Kumar Basak for ink and  pen on paper, B. Sadhik Basha for etching and serigraphy, Dimple B. Shah for metamorphic distillation etching, Yati Jaiswal for acrylic on canvas, Vipin Kumar Yadav for acrylic and charcoal on canvas, Vipul Kumar for black marble, Shunmuga Sundaram for water colour, Nagasamy Ramachandran for installation, Mithun Kumar Dutta for fiber and metal, Mazhar Elahi for colour photograph and Jyotirmoy De for acrylic on canvas.

He said that in all 2879 artists had submitted their 7388 exhibits for the exhibition. The jury including Prof. N.N. Rimzon, Ram. Palaniappan and Arun Ghose had selected 135 exhibits of 119 artists for display in the exhibition. Further, the Akademi had
received 124 exhibits out of which the award winners were selected.

The jury which selected the award winners included Anjolie Ela Menon, Prof. B.N. Goswamy, Prof. Paramjit Singh and Gopi Gajwani.He said that as against the provision of giving away 15 awards, the jury chose on 12 artists to confer awards.

In reply to a question he said that there were four participants from Haryana and one each from Punjab and Chandigarh.

He was also appreciative of the artists in Chandigarh. He said that it was in the year 2002 that the Akademi decided to hold the National Exhibition at different places in the country and such a beginning was made the same year by holding the National Exhibition in Guwahati.

In all, the exhibition had so far been organised at five different places, other than Delhi.

Dr.Sharma said that the inaugural function would be followed by a Hindustani Classical recital of Sagun and Nirgun poetry by Kalapini Komkali.

The 50th National Exhibition of Art will remain open till April 8, 2008 daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m, he added