The journey that began 50 years back has cemented new roots in
artistic talents amongst Goans as Goa College of Art completed a glorious
Golden Jubilee Celebration. On the occasion, a beautiful exhibition by the
students gave a glimpse of work they undertake during their applied degree
course.
Five decades of art education has gone
through the grind due to the efforts of some reputed master artists and
educationist starting with Prof VK Patil, as the principal when the college
took its baby step at Altinho in 1972 with just 20 students. Subsequently, it
moved to Savitri Niwas, Miramar. with painting section housed in Dr J C Almeida
mansion and then finally settling down at the more spacious present day campus
under the guidance of late Prof Laxman Pai in the eighties.
Thousands of students have honed their
skills learning the fundamentals of art, design, visual language and colour,
basic of anatomy, drawing from objects, humans and nature to carve a niche at
national and international level. The exhibition which was organised for
college students demonstrated in the painting section, the graphic presentation
by students of first and second year evolving from lines, shading, texture,
colour schemes, value of colours, varied tones and 3D concept.
One of the students Nash Carneiro, a second year student from
Navelim explains about his art and 3D clay model. Associate professor Deepak R
Shirodkar and assistant professor Loretti J Pinto were in charge of painting
section. Briefing about the exhibit, Loretti notes, “In all 52 students
displayed their visuals in this section. What you observe is the final selected
work, but no one will imagine the initial sketches and drawings, many of which
were rejected. Lot of hard work goes into coming up with good work. Both
physical and mental strength plays very important role. Also, one has to bear
in mind that students come from different background. One needs concentration
and good memory to develop concept, idea and skills.” For an artist, object in
mind is the focus, balancing the space in the work and right colour contrast
matters.
Right from art to preparing a frame is part of the programme
with hands-on-experience in all aspect which prepares every student to take
independently a commission assignment once they pass out, she adds. While
painting is mandatory subject in the third and fourth year, the student can
choose one of the options from murals, portraiture, printmaking and sculpture.
The exhibition had host of 3D design, calligraphy art, sketches,
portraits, murals of mundane folks, sculptures, engraving on metal plates,
intricate artistic designs in applied art, and the popular themes of
advertisements which we often see in the newspaper. The next time if you see a
beautifully conceived visual in print or electronic media, don’t be surprise
that it could be the handiwork of your next door artist. Students presented
their art in different medium such as water colour, pen and ink, charcoal and
dry pastel and technique of intaglio, etching needle and engraving on metal
plate like true professionals.
The grand jubilee event also marked a transition period as the
principal of the college Prof Sabita Prabhudesai passed on the baton to Prof
Wilfred Goes on her superannuation to begin a new dawn in creative art.
Prof Wilfred Goes has been associated with the Department of
Applied Arts at the college for 30 years and prior to that, he worked for six
years on lecture basis in the college. “The college was established in 1972 and
the Golden Jubilee was celebrated during the 2022-2023 academic year, with this
exhibition marking the closing of the jubilee celebrations. In this 50 years,
there has been a lot of development, in terms of infrastructure as well as
syllabus that has been timely revised to suit the present times in the world of
art. There have been numerously teachers who have contributed to the growth of
the college. The past principals, right from the founding principal, Prof VK
Patil to Laxman Pai, Mrungank Joshi, Datta V Navelkar, Avinash Dev, Ashok
Shirodkar, Mahesh Vengurlekar, Rajiv Shinde and Prof Sabita Prabhudesai, all
have contributed immensely to nurture young artists,” says Prof Wilfred.
He
is very proud of the artists that are alumni of the college, “There are many
artists who have made their name in the national and international art scene
which include Bismark Dias, Sera D’Souza, Blasco Andrade and Shekhar Mayenkar
in the Applied Arts section and Querozito D’Souza, Francis D’Souza and Sanjay
Harmalkar are some of the artists in the painting section,” informs Prof
Wilfred.
