All India Radio, Calcutta
An extract form a Bengali news item broadcast
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Joint Art Exhibition By three Artists                                                                                March 1994

Three artists who made their appearance form different walk of life arranged to hold this exhibition with their paintings and this is the most salient feature of the exhibition.

Mrs. Sheila Malhotra displayed here seven painting as ‘surrounded by barbed wire’. This barbed wire is frequently noticed in her paintings as allegory. Sometime it appears as a hindrance in endeavor as in her painting ‘Barbed’ sometime as an obstacle in the dream of child as we see in her ‘child dreaming’. The sorrow of a deprived soul is the main feature of her paintings. The restlessness of society, which curbs the freedom of its people in every sphere, inspired her. But she is an optimist and by applying bright colours in all here paintings she is able to cherish hope. The paintings in oil are of early 1994. But the only exception is ‘Barred’ which is her early 70s work. This painting depicts the pains of an imprisoned person. In here present work where she treated society as a prison she is able to tie up in chain the flow of time and thought of her early work of 1970.

The varied collections of those three artists made the exhibition very attractive. The exhibition will remain open till 20th of March.

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