River on canvas

A walk along the bank of the Ganga, a drive across the Gangetic plains and a boat ride through the Ganga.

These are the three segments of the exhibition, Ganga 21, that opened at New Delhi’s Indian Council for Cultural Relation’s Azad Bhavan auditorium on July 15. In 21 large canvases Australian artist Kevin Pearsh chronicled the 2,500 km journey of the river from an icy cave in Gaumukh to Ganga Sagar in West Bengal.

The canvases depicted the birth, ebb and flow of the river. The first canvas showed Gaumukh flanked by icy Himalayas. The subsequent canvases captured the river’s broad meandering curves on the plains and the bustle around it. The last compositions were of the river in its deltaic flow as it lashes against the eroding mud banks of Bengal villages. The exhibition was on in the capital till end July and will travel to Kolkata on August 7.