Rich tributes were offered to Odisha’s senior woman artist Chitra Patnaik on her first death anniversary with an exclusive exhibition of her works at the Odisha Modern Art Gallery here on Thursday.
Founder-chairperson of the Odisha Women Artists’ Forum, Patnaik was the convener and curator of the annual women artists’ camp, Art Era, the only of its kind in Odisha, since 2009. Born in 1952 at Cuttack, she was the second woman to study art at Tagore’s famed Shantiniketan. Well-exposed to European art traditions, she was in london for a few years to study Western art. She worked as an illustrator for children’s books with a prominent publication house in New Delhi followed by her profession as an art teacher in Bhopal and Bhubaneswar till retirement. She served St Joseph’s High School in Bhubaneswar as an art teacher for the longest tenure of 16 years.
Chitra Patnaik participated in a number of exhibitions and camps mounted in several cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhopal and also joined the 6th biennial print and drawing expo hosted in Taiwan. Recipient of the lalit Kala Akademi Fellowship, her artworks have found place in prestigious collections of Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan, Rashtriya lalit Kala Kendra at Bhubaneswar and Bhopal, Birla Academy of Fine Art, Kolkata and Odisha Tourism Development Corporation.
“Tarakant Parida Odisha Modern Art Gallery’s co-founder and Secretary of Odisha lalit Kala Akademi took personal interest in collecting the 25 works of Chitra to mount this touching and timely exhibition,” acknowledged the artist’s husband Satish Chandra Patnaik.
Odisha lalit Kala Akademi President Raghunath Mohapatra, who inaugurated the show, observed that Chitra holds a place of pride in the hearts of Odias and Odia artists as the second woman to study art at such a famous university like Shantiniketan. Hailing the Gallery’s initiatives to keep the artist’s memories keep alive through the exclusive exhibition on her first death anniversary, he dwelt upon the women artists’ forum members to carry forward the late artist’s vision of bringing together the woman artists of Odisha.
Tarakant Parida described how Chitra’s humility won over the people and how her commitment for promotion of the much marginalised female artists of Odisha through the annual art camps being hosted by the Gallery for the past seven years.
Among others, forum members Atasi Basu, Mamata Samantaray, lipishree Nayak, Sasmita Kamila, Manjushree and Priyadarshini recollected their late leader’s role “as a mother figure” for the female artists.