Hello Art Lovers!
Today I want to share an amazing experience I had at a very well known 5 star hotel in New Delhi:The Taj Palace. Here I was waiting for a friend who got delayed due to the Delhi traffic caused by water logging .
It was the usual hustle bustle there, that’s when I decided to have a cup of coffee at the Coffee Shop. As soon as I got up to go there, I saw a signage which read “The Taj Tea Lounge” just in front of the lobby. I decided to go there and wait for my friend while sipping a coffee.
I found a comfortable, greenery facing seat with beautiful décor where I was greeted and presented with a menu card. It was no less than an encyclopedia of uncountable variety of Teas and coffees from around the world. To help myself I took suggestions from the waiter who informed me that Taj tea lounge has the most elaborate Tea service in the traditional English style. It has the widest variety Single estate Teas and Single origin Coffees. Hearing this I decided to go for Tea instead of coffee, hence ordered one of the English Tea the guy there suggested.
While sitting and waiting for my cup of tea, I noticed lot of paintings spread across the entire Tea Lounge and a young guy painting a new one. Curious to know more I got up and went to the guy to enquire about it. On chatting with the him I came to know that Taj Hotels has been consistently championing the cause of promoting arts and artisans. In continuation of its initiatives of corporate social responsibility, Taj holds a live art show at the Tea Lounge in its endeavor to promote ‘young talent’ by providing them a platform to showcase their works.
The guy showed me around his work and looking at those I admit I was truly impressed. I also clicked some pictures from my mobile which I have shared in this post.
Overwhelmed by this, I returned to my seat to have my tea. Yet another surprise was waiting for me. The sheer presentation of the tea was something which I have never seen before. Just looking at the presentation I was amazed. The guy placed an hourglass in front of me and asked, how do I like my tea. This was a set of 3 hourglasses each marked with “Light”, “Medium” and “Strong”. I decided to go for strong, and there it was, within minutes my tea was ready and amazing is the only word I have to describe the aroma and taste.
The setting is perfect for Art lovers and patrons, tea lovers and all those who just want to have a good time. It’s a never seen before experience in New Delhi.
Thanks :)

What can be more endearing than a work of art created by children who live an under-privileged life yet show a spirit that never fails? Pratham UK, the overseas chapter of the charity Pratham India which is engaged primarily in providing education to under-privileged children in India is all set to showcase The Light, world’s largest hand-cut paper chandelier, in a fund raising event titled ‘ARTiculate’ at Old Billingsgate Market, London on September 11, 2010. Created by 8000 Pratham children in India in tandem with Saanjhi artisans of Mathura who excel in the art of paper cutting craft, the installation is a specimen of the incredible spirit of Pratham’s children and of India. In addition, a smaller version of the installation measuring 5x2.5 feet will be auctioned at the event. A series of hand painted Bamboo stems and Painted Alphabets using different traditional Indian handicrafts and methods will also be auctioned at the event. The 93 letters and symbols of the Painted Alphabets signify the two major written and spoken languages in India: Hindi and English. The paintings on their surfaces are a reminder of a method of communication and storytelling still prevalent in many parts of the world today. Each of the 200 handpicked 18 foot long Bamboo stems have been hand-flamed to create surface patterns and a cloudy black background, before being embellished by traditional masters in the traditional Indian painting style of either the ‘Gond’ tribe from in Central India or the Palm Leaf painters from Eastern India. For this year's fund raising event ‘ARTiculate’, Pratham UK had commissioned Indian design consultancy KAARU to create a design concept that could highlight the incredible spirit of Pratham’s children and of India. Keeping this in mind, Kaaru, co-founded by Sanjib Chatterjee and Anjalee Wakankar, has designed the world’s largest hand-cut paper chandelier called ‘The Light’ which is a giant ceiling mounted paper installation in the shape of an inverted pyramid. This was created out of approx. 3,000 paper screen panels of fire retardant paper, covering about 28000 sq. ft. in surface area. It has been worked upon by more than 8,000 children of 15 different Indian states, and several hundred Indian artisans. 15,000 pieces of paper were drawn on by Pratham children, then hand-cut by master artisans of the Saanjhi craft (the traditional Indian art of paper cutting) in the region of Mathura, in Uttar Pradesh, transforming them into individual paper screens. The screens were assembled in the form of a hanging inverted pyramid, to be suspended from the ceiling and lit from within, creating a monumental glowing center-piece for the event. The installation is 26 meters in length and 11 meters in width. The top point is 6 meters from ground level. It has consumed over 20,000 square feet of paper. The conceptualization and prototyping took about 45 days. The making process took ten months to complete. The design of this installation was inspired by the work that Pratham has been doing in India since the past ten years. It began with the simple idea of achieving an extraordinary result by bringing together many ordinary elements which at some point of time has made a small difference in the lives of Pratham’s kids or their parents. Each year, with the support of PRATHAM UK’s Art Advisory Committee and the curatorial expertise of leading independent design and art curators, PRATHAM UK will commission artists to create amazing pieces around the theme of literacy, which will then be produced in limited-editions and available for future orders through Pratham UK. ARTiculate will be the ultimate annual event supporting literacy in India and the first non-profit initiative to offer such an extraordinary and unique panorama of India's traditional artistic practices in the UK. Pratham UK is the overseas chapter of the charity Pratham India which is engaged primarily in providing education to under-privileged children in India. It was seeded in Mumbai by UNICEF in 1994 and has reached 33 million children across 19 Indian states till date. The focus of this endeavor is not just to raise money for millions of children but to also get a glimpse of their astonishing human spirit that survives with joy in the middle of some of the heaviest of odds.

Shrine Empire Gallery presents 'The Road Taken', an exhibition including new works of gouache, acrylic, ink and collage as well as a large-scale animation by New York artist Fawad Khan from 3rd September 2010 to 1st October 2010 at 7, Friends Colony West, New Delhi 110065.

The exquisite explosions of Fawad Khan's work combine the bourgeoning issue of war with several automotive motifs that represent different cultural experiences and influences throughout his life. His works question the use of the automobile, an invention used for the purpose of transportation but becoming more and more a tool of destruction. Of Pakistani roots, born in Libya and growing up in suburban Maryland, Khan focuses on car bombs, Pakistani buses and US muscle cars, putting them in conversation with one another. Surrounding the deconstructed car forms are the spiraling forms of disintegrating camouflaged figures. The disintegration of military fatigue prints results in a Deconstructivist manipulation of wave-like camouflage forms where one can almost hear the silent explosion of the car bombs.

Ambiguity is an important element of Khan’s work. Khan is interested in the relationship between the viewer and the artwork. The seemingly scattered elements in each drawing or collage demand the active participation of the viewer. Though the collected parts of each work are suggestive, the conversation about the meaning of each picture can only be complete when it is informed by the viewer’s personal background and experience.

Fawad Khan was born in Tripoli, Libya in 1978 to a father born in Ajmer, India and a mother of Punjabi-Kashmiri roots born in Sukkur, Pakistan. Khan currently resides and works in New York City, exhibiting nationally and internationally, most recently in New York, Canada, India, and Hong Kong. His work has been featured at The Armory Show, Exit Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art (organized through Deitch Projects), The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Rotunda Gallery, Dunlop Art Gallery , University of Saskatchewan and Smack Mellon, among others. Fawad Khan's first solo exhibition was held in 2008 at 33 Bond Gallery in New York City. In 2009, he was a recipient of the Lower East Side Printshop's Special Editions Residency and has lectured on his work at numerous venues.

'The Road Taken' marks Fawad Khan’s first solo exhibition in New Delhi, India.

	Top 10 Expensive paintings list summary
	The top 10 most expensive paintings belong to the Mordern and Post Modern artists. They represent the movements Abstract expressionism, Cubism, Symbolism, Pop-Art and Post impressionism.The oldest is from 1890, painted by Vincent Van Gogh.   It also not surprising to see that half of the top 10 paintings were sold in 2006, the peak of the art market boom. However, this list does not represent the most expensive paintings per se but the most expensive paintings that has been evaluated till now. Eg: the Mona Lisa is said to be worth considerably more than the ones below.
	Did you know? - in the top ten list…
	3 paintings are works of Picasso
	2 paintings have the same model - painted by Klimt
	1 painting has a double of it, differentiated mainly by the colour, painted by van Gogh
	the latest of the lot was sold this year in May 2010, for $106.5 million
	1 painting is actually not a painting at all - its screen printing by Warhol
	3 paintings have the artists' mistress as models
	50% of the top 10 paintings were sold in 2006

To read more of the interesting article : http://www.monsooncanvas.com/List-most-expensive-paintings.htm