The glittering new- Shailaja Tripathi, THE HINDU

Shobana Udayasankar’s deep engagement with Mysore art is commendable but what’s even more striking is her reinvention of the tradition. At her ongoing exhibition in Bengaluru, the first one in the city, this aspect is hard to miss. The art form which once adorned the palaces and the temples of the Wadiyars is rich as usual but Shobana renders her touch to make it more contemporary. “Otherwise how will those who don’t know this art form become interested in it?,” asks Shobana looking at the visitors streaming into the gallery at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath to see 64 paintings created over a period of 24 years.

As expected, the works draw from Indian mythology but the number of goddesses on the canvases have exceeded the norm. In ‘Samudra Manthan’, a well-known occurrence in the Puranas, Shobana focuses on the emergence of Goddess Lakshmi during the churning of the ocean. “While the common perception is that Samudra Manthan was done for the nectar, in this work, she portrays the goddess as the central figure while Vishnu is depicted in his Varaha avtara. As compared to Lakshmi, he appears small in size (in the painting),” says Krishna, Shobana’s daughter.

She continues this trend of showing the female deities and characters in more powerful positions in her Ramayana composition where Sita is seated beside Rama, teaching Hanuman the Tarak Mantra. It is one of the rare compositions where you see Sita in action and not merely sitting. “If you notice, even the size of her figure is as big as that of Rama. Usually, only the main figure will be the biggest one,” says the Bengaluru-based artist. Depictions of Balinese dancers and Cambodian musicians are other examples of her innovations in the repertoire.

That’s also a tough path to walk on. “You can’t really take chances with a subject like this which is why for Lalitha Durbar, she consulted scholars. While everything is done as prescribed in our Shilpa Shastra, my mother has still managed to bring in new aspects within the ambit of tradition,” says Krishna, proudly. Born and brought up in Bengaluru, Shobana, a Tamilian, was deeply attracted to Mysore art.

“Everyone knows about Tanjore but people outside the art circles still don’t know about Mysore Art. Though I have clearly mentioned that this is a Mysore Art exhibition, visitors are still coming and asking me if this is Tanjore.” To an untrained eye, the two art forms may look similar. In reality, they are different.

“The figures are more round in the Tanjore art, even the facial features are different. Colours are also subtler here. In the Mysore style, we use 22 Carat gold, which is extremely fragile. Applying the gold is most challenging.”