Four-Day United Art Fair Begins at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan

Over 600 young Indian artists have brought nearly 2,000 art works in an independent display-cum-sale of contemporary art at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi at the four-day United Art Fair from Sept. 27–30, 2012.

The fair has provided maximum free space to the emerging artists to interface with buyers, collectors, curators and theorists without the interference of galleries. The artists are from the smaller towns around India.

The art works have been curated from across multi-disciplines—paintings, sculptures, photography, new media and print-making.

The fair, divided into segments, has a special section devoted to Raja Deen Dayal, the pioneer of Indian photography. Nearly 30 photographs from the Raja Deen Dayal estate in Hyderabad have been brought to the fair by Priya Singhal, who heads the estate.

A special section, "Mind the Gap", will feature upcoming artists and masters to explore the chronological evolution of Indian contemporary art and the changing art practices down the decades. A video lounge of 15 artists has fused aesthetics with visual technology.

A Masters' Corner and Printmaking section have tried to present a holistic picture of Indian art—from the early prints to the avant garde oil compositions by modern masters like MF Husain, Akbar Padamsee, Anjolie Ela Menon, Krishan Khanna, J Swaminathan and Ram Kumar.

Four seminars, "Photography Today," "Photography Today Presentations," "Curatorial Practices" and "Arts Administration" supported by the Lalit Kala Akademi will also be held.