& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Arpana Caur: A seasoned Indian artist with a love for Bengal
With its wide appeal, art has successfully transcended many geographical barriers. An epitome of the universality of art is renowned Indian painter Arpana Caur. Her prolific works have been exhibited practically all across the globe --Indian cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai to other places like Ottawa, Stockholm, London, Amsterdam and Singapore (solos). Then she has undertaken group shows in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Moscow and several Indian cities.
Many prestigious galleries across the world have prized collections of her work -- from the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi to Kunst Museum in Dusseldorf, Germany, Bradford Museum in Bradford, UK to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London to the Hiroshima Museum of Modern Art in Japan.
It goes without saying that she has stopped off on two visits to
Dhaka -- the first around 10 years ago to take part in an Indian women artists' show in the course of the Festival of India. The second trip was to participate in the International Biennale and art camp (organised by Bengal Foundation) in the early part of this decade. A testimony to her strong Bengali connection is her painting hanging in the Dhaka Museum of Modern Art.
If seeing is believing, this painting in Dhaka speaks volumes for the highly spiritual Arpana. The large painting, titled The Great Departure at the museum in Dhaka depicts the Buddha leaving his sleeping wife and child behind him to embark on a life of seclusion and after much rigour final enlighten-
Settling down to talk at her studio, she showed The Daily Star some of her stunning works. In these ranks are her current canvases -- The Bone's Prayer, which has three figures and flaunts the colours of blue, yellow, green and
white and the other called Day and Night, with a lot of black along with hues of orange, yellow, grey and white which depicts three figures.
The seven themes in her works are environment, spirituality, the passage of abstract time, romantic love, violence, the urban-rural divide and finally her public works of about 10 murals on display in India and abroad. The latter are a landmark since she has worked gratis on three murals in New Delhi and five in Bangalore. One is on display in Germany. Mostly the theme is environment, while the mural in Germany, titled Hamburg Muralthc first Indo-German mural was painted in Hamburg by Arpana jointly with Sonke Nissen Knaack.
The murals have grabbed public attention. In Bangalore,
says Arpana, thousands of people flock to the stadium where one of her wall murals (a 8 feet x 15 feet work) zeroes in on a tree that survives by fighting for existence amidst skyscrapers. With its dazzling swirls of colour the painting has been done free for Bangalore.
Arpana presents exhibitions, activities at her Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, set up by her mother, the well-known novelist and short story writer Ajit Cour and its other spheres such as a free reference library, two galleries, a miniature art museum, folk art museum and vocational training for underprivileged women in areas such as literacy, stitching, embroidery, beauty course and computers. “ This school runs from my paintings," says Arpana.