Sarala's Art Centre & Artworld Express their most solemn condolences on the sad demise of Anjali Sircar - Chennais veteran art critic & promoter. With her pen she reached out to a great span of art enthusiasts,collectors,artists & collectors. May her soul rest in peace.

"Chennai has always been progressive as far as art is concerned," was a position Anjali Sircar held on to fiercely against any arguments to the contrary. But then she was fierce in her passion for the arts and, for some four decades, battled on relentlessly in the service of art criticism. Along with Josef James, S. Krishnan and Bhuharahavan, Anjali was among the first generation of serious art critics out of Chennai and many-a prominent artist today owes his/her fame to Anjali's assiduous writings in The Hindu and, over the past decade, in The New Indian Express. She was a notorious pest when she wanted specific details out of an artist and brooked no delays or prevarications. But beneath the stern and eccentric façade, there was a tender and affectionate spirit who went out of her way to help young, struggling artists.

In recent years I used to banter with her about, what I called, her 'conservative fondness for modernism' and she would retort with mock seriousness about my suspect post-modernist credentials. In her passing away, Chennai has lost one of the most sincere and faithful commentators of the art scene here. Any prospective history of art-in-Chennai of the past half-a-century will, of necessity, have to rely heavily on Anjali's unfailingly enthusiastic and regular columns. In an era when, let alone commentary, but even mere description of art practice has been reduced to meaningless gibberish in the media, this loss is bound to leave a deep void.

SADANAND MENON