Painting exhibition of veteran artist N.C. Desai in Hubballi

A painting exhibition of N.C. Desai, veteran artist, would be organised in Hubballi from November 1 to 4, 2025.

This is part of the birth centenary celebrations of the Karnataka Lalit Kala Akademi awardee, known for his portraits of Swami Vivekananda and the Global Ganesh series, his family members said in a release. Sri Gurusidda Rajayogindra Swamiji, Moorusavira Math, will inaugurate the exhibition at the Vijaya Mahantesh Lalit Kala Mahavidyalaya near HDMC office on Lamington Road in Hubballi at 11 a.m.

Mr. Desai’s contributions

Born in Agadi village of Haveri district in 1924, Mr. Desai was a student of art educator G.S. Dandavatimath and a graduate of Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art, Mumbai. His paintings of Swami Vivekananda and Vishvavyapi Ganesha, are exhibited around the world. His research brought to light the forgotten medieval era artist Solapur Shubaraya, and gave exposure to the art of tribal communities like Warli of Talasari, Chitari of Sawantwadi, and Patta of Odisha.

While based in Mumbai, he regularly contributed to Kannada journalism from the 1970s through to the 90s. He designed front pages of magazines, wrote articles on art criticism and introduced young artists and singers. His photographs appeared in Marathi and most south Indian language papers and magazines. He contributed to Kannada magazines and papers like Kasturi, Tushara, Taranga, Sudha, Mayura, Prajavani, Kannada Prabha, Samyukta Karnataka and spiritual magazines like Sadbodha Chandrike and Viveka Sampada.

In the last few decades of life, Mr. Desai ran an art studio in Hubballi. He earlier served on the design and communication team of Premier Auto Limited. He passed away in Hubli in 2003.

10,000 pages of work digitised

Servants of Knowledge, a Bengaluru-based digital archive group has digitised around 10,000 pages of his work including articles, paintings and photographs and uploaded them on archive.org. A QR Code will be released during inauguration to access the material.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, artist and member of Karnataka Lalit Kala Academy Basavaraj Kalegar, seers of Anandavana in Agadi Shri Gurudatta Chakravarthy and Shri Vishwanath Chakravarthy, Honorary Executive President Aravind Kubasada and Honorary Director Shashidhar Sali of the Shri Jagadguru Moorasavir Math Vidyavardhaka Sangha, retired Health Officer of HDMC V.B. Nithali, and others will be present.

The exhibition will be open to the public from November 1s to 4th from 11 am to 6 pm.