Moscow: Celebrated Indian sand artist
Sudarsan Pattnaik has won the `People`s Choice` gold medal at
the 4TH World Sand Sculpture Championship here for his work
`Leonardo`s Smile`.
The theme of this year`s championship, which ended
today, was the art of Italy.
Sudarsan`s sculpture "Leonardo`s Smile" attempts to
unveil the mystery how Leonardo da Vinci produced the optical
effects that created the Mona Lisa`s enigmatic smile.
The sculpture depicts half of Mona Lisa`s face covered
as a mask by another half of the famous self-portrait of da
Vinci.
"There is a theory that Leonardo painted Mona Lisa
from his reflection in the mirror and there is a striking
resemblance in their smiles," Pattnaik said.
Sand artists from 11 countries, including US,
Belgium, Canada, Poland also took part in the championship.
The grand prix was won by Italian artist Leonardo
Ugolini for his sculpture "Forgiveness", showing the
complexities of today`s human life due to techno-world full of
Internet and other modern gadgets.
"Thousands of visitors have highly acclaimed
Sudarsan`s sculpture as an attempt to resolve the mystery of
the smile of Leonardo da Vinci`s immortal Mona Lisa," Pavel
Melnikov, one of the organisers of the championship said.
Melnikov, himself is a noted Russian sculptor, has
been closely following the art of Pattnaik at various
international sand art competitions.
"Sudarsan is one the greatest sand artists of the
modern times," Melnikov underscored.
Last year also, Sudarsan won the medal for his sand
sculpture of Raj Kapoor under the theme `World cinema` and the
artists were required to give their vision of famous movies
from famous directors with famous actors in their sand
creations.
Pattnaik had earlier won the Berlin world championship
for his sand sculpture spreading awareness of global warming.
Pattnaik, who has been making sand sculptures since
the age of 7, has set up Sand Art Institute on Puri Beach
which is first of its nature in India.
His recent sculpture End of Osama bin Laden has
also won world acclaim.
PTI
