26.06.2018

Visions of Himalayan Spleandour

A week-long exhibition of paintings by a Himachal based Israeli artist Kelly Mor opened in the IRMT Conference Hall on June 26, 2018. The Guests of Honour at the opening ceremony were the visiting Indian artists Ram Sevak Shakya (Lucknow) and Prince Chand (Delhi). On behalf of the International Roerich Memorial Trust the artist was welcomed by Mr. Ramesh Chander, Indian Curator, and Mrs. Larisa Surgina, Russian Curator.

Titled “The Authentic Himalayan Art,” the exhibition displays a number of her extremely colourful Himalayan landscapes and portraits of local people executed in expressionist style. Most of the depicted locations were visited by Ms. Mor while many of the depicted men and women are personally known to her, which makes her vision of the Himalayan region truly authentic.

With an eye for ethnographic detail, Ms. Mor depicts the common people of the Himalayan region, particularly the residents of Kinnaur and Kullu (including such remote parts of it as Banjar and Malana village), the mood and rhythm of their daily life and festivals. Ms. Mor’s works cannot fail to draw one’s attention with their gay festive colours, inner dynamism and exuberance that seems to literally ooze from each of them. “India is the land of colour and I freely splash it on my canvases,” says the artist commenting on her artistic vision of the local nature and culture.