| "Artist Displays Wizardry at Foothills Art Center. Manick
Sorcar, a lighting engineer and artist from Golden, specializes
in feats that will astound. Taking on sleight of hand few would
attempt the artist has created portraits of Asian and American newsmakers,
using as his medium - newspapers!" |
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-The Transcript, Wheatridge, CO, USA
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"Street Musicians"
life size figures carved out of styrofoam |
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Manick Sorcar
has a formidable array of artistic achievements, but all his aesthetic
successes, all of his daring experiments with various art forms
and media before the mid 1980s appear to have been steps culminating
in path-breaking art. Sorcar cut his teeth on his father's stage.
His father was the most famous magician that India ever produced.
When his father's magic shows toured the world, young Manick Sorcar
was responsible for the lighting, artwork, painting, and elaborate
backdrops for all the shows, which eventually led him to become
an artist and electrical engineer. |
In USA, in his basement studio he perfected a dazzling variety
of art forms: painting with water color and acrylic on bamboo, clay,
fabric, and tiles; life size sculptures of styrofoam, newspaper
collage portraits, spice paintings, two books of cartoons on the
lives of Indian-Americans, several music cassettes of children's
songs, critically acclaimed several art exhibitions. In many ways,
Sorcar's animations represent the convergence of all these other
artistic achievements.
After arriving in the United States following a scholarship to pursue
his Master’s Degree in Washington, his interest and love for
the arts flourished side by side his professional career as an Electrical
Engineer. In the past few decades, he has had several art exhibitions
throughout the United States and has been recognized as a very innovative
artist. |
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Sorcar in front
of a collage of his "NewsArt" |
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| Here is Manick Sorcar's odysseys of the Art World... |
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1954-68 |
Painting backdrops/Lighting effects in father's elaborate
stage magic show |
| In USA (Art Exhibition in a variety of
media & techniques) |
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1971 |
"Refugee", University of Washington, Seattle,
Washington |
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1978 |
"Folk Arts of India" at Hill Jr. High School,
Denver, Colorado |
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1978 |
"Folk Arts of India" at Jefferson Library,
Lakewood , Colorado |
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1982 |
"Faces of India" at Thomas Jefferson High
School, Denver, Colorado |
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1996 |
"Images of India: Animation/Transformation"
at Foothills Art Center, Golden, Colorado |
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2000 |
"Images of India" at Denver Center for Performing
Arts, Denver, Colorado |
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2000 |
"Images of India" at Thomas Jefferson High
School, Denver, Colorado |
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"Baby Ganesha"
made out of grains and spices |
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Tile paintings of
the icons of "Temple Khajuraha" |
Sorcar uses a variety of media for painting as well as carving.
One of his latest creations, which he calls NewsArt is a gallery
of portraits of famous people with newspaper clippings. It
could take him years to complete just one of these works of
art as the entire portrait is made up of news clippings, from
newspapers all over the world, about that person. |
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He created a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi (which
he called “Our Gandhi”) made up of newspapers pieces
of all sixteen official languages of India (Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati,
Marathi, Kashmiri, Oriya, Bengai, Kannarees, Tamil, Malayalam,
Telegu, Assamese, Urdu, Sanskrit, Hindi and English) signifying
Gandhi’s power to bring about unity through his country.
Similar pictures were created of Princess Diana, The Jackie and
John Kennedy, Mother Teresa, Former Denver Mayor Wellington Web
among many others. Each carrying a history that tells a story
of their lives.
Over the years, Sorcar has produced a wide variety of unique
arts, appealing equally to people of all ages. His first exhibition,
in1970, was held in Seattle, Washington, which displayed many
rural paintings of Bengal. At the time he was a university student
and felt deeply for East Pakistan refugees who poured into India
from the war-torn nation. Through the years he has had several
art exhibitions displaying various forms of art.
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The portrait of
Mother Teresa was created with news clippings about her
from Bengali newspapers and magazines of Calcutta |
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Alongside the serious exhibits of "Refugees",
"Folk Arts of India" etc., Sorcar introduced another kind
of art which not only was astonishing, but also funny. He painted
a portrait of President Carter on a peanut - half a peanut - to
be precise!
HIs other work also included several other world leaders on peanuts
and President Lincoln on a grain of rice.
The mischief of peanut portraits were the early signs of his eventual
interest in animation. He realized he could combine comedy with
his art to get a message across. |
| His latest exhibition was in Denver, Colorado titled Images
of India: Transformations/Animations. This particular art show
was chosen for the Critic’s Choice. A selection made out of
211 artists who displayed their work in 96 galleries. He continues
to paint all the backgrounds on a large scale for the shows he directs
that are currently touring the world. |
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