News and Events /Press Release 13 Jan 2007

The Russian Centre of Science & Culture, in collaboration with the Gallery Pioneer and www.ishtart.com, is organizing the Paintings & Drawings Retrospective (1973-2006) Show by Surjit Akre, to mark the visit of Mr. Vladimir V. Putin, President of the Russian Federation, to India, being inaugurated at the Russian Centre of Science & Culture, 24, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi, on Friday, January 12, 2007, at 6.00 p.m. The Exhibition will remain open from 10.00 a.m. to 6. 00 p.m. every day till January 27, 2007. H. E. Mr. Vyacheslav I. Trubnikov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to India, is the Chief Guest at the function.

Mrs. Surjit Akre, an eminent Indian artist in her own right with several accolades to her credit, is one of India's finest contemporary artists and the first post-graduate from the Ilya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad). This fortnight-long Exhibition comprises selected retrospective works of the artist spanning the period from 1974 to 2006.

A well-recognized Indian artist with deep, constant connection with Russia, Mrs. Surjit Akre, after her return to India after completing her education in Russia, continued to be associated with it one way or other. First, she looked after the Art Section of the then House of Soviet Culture, then she became the President, Indo-Russian Academy of Fine Arts, and now she continues as the President of the Roerichs' Art Society at the Russian Centre of Science & Culture, New Delhi. For the past two decades, she has been continuing the great job of promoting Indo-Russian friendship through the medium of art. All these years, she not only organized a number of exhibitions on her works, but also visualized and materialized many of the exhibitions of Russian as well as other artists.

Active in her creative endeavours, Mrs. Surjit Akre's simplicity of expression, compassion and sensitivity are emphatically portrayed in her works. She is quite sensitive towards the social issues, and her expressions always give some positive message to the society. She has always tried to achieve the objectivity and honesty in her art and the same is admired by the art fraternity the world over. Her involvement with issues of humanistic concerns and universal nature is pictorially interpreted by her in the several series that would enrich the contents of the exhibition. She has imbibed nature, beauty, passion and love in all her works, which reflect a genuine artist's emotive maturity and gentleness. She is oriented towards giving existence to emotional unity, and she portrays true colours of life in all her paintings. With her superb ability over line, form, light and shade, Mrs. Surjit Akre does her alma mater proud.