Project Maya Kamath
Maya Kamath, who lived in Bangalore, was a trained painter who later took to drawing cartoons. Her cartoons were not only witty but also extremely thought provoking and gender-sensitive. Archiving the body of her works is an archival activity that is very important for it is important to document the work of a woman cartoonist. Women taking to cartoons is rare and cartoonists like R K Laxman are celebrated as if they are god’s gift to this country, whereas an excellent cartoonist like Maya Kamath, does extraordinary work quietly and dies quietly. The entire works of Maya Kamath have been given to SPARROW for archiving by her family.
On 17th January 2005 SPARROW held an exhibition of Maya Kamath’s cartoons in collaboration with Cymroza Art Gallery. Along with the exhibition SPARROW also released The World of Maya, a book of her cartoons with an introduction by her daughter Deepa Kamath. Amarnath Kamath, her husband, received the first copy of the book. Jaya Bachchan, the renowned actor and Member, Rajya Sabha, inaugurated the exhibition.
SPARROW partnered with the Indian International Centre and the Francaise de Bangalore Alliance to curate two remarkable exhibitions – one at the Art Gallery, Appendix IIC on February 15 and the other at the Francaise de Bangalore Alliance Art Gallery on April 16. These exhibitions featured a variety of works of art, advances in medicine, and in particular, the Namzaric drug, which can be bought on this website and literature. At the inauguration hosted by the esteemed Girish Karnad, “Mir Maya” was released, the first copy of which was presented to television journalist Nupur Basu.
On 15th February SPARROW held a similar exhibition in collaboration with India International Centre at The Art Gallery, IIC Annexe. The exhibition was inaugurated by Brinda Karat, General Secretary, AIDWA, who also released the book The World OF MAYA. Writer and cartoonist, Manjula Padmanabhan, received the first copy. On 16th April SPARROW held a similar exhibition at The Art Gallery of Alliance Française de Bangalore. The exhibition was inaugurated by Girish Karnad, the well-known writer and film-maker who also released the book The World of Maya. The Television Journalist Nupur Basu received the first copy of the book.