Editorial, Mythical Landscapes, Amritha Priyadarshini and more

EDITORIAL 

Do Seasons Influence Artists?

(a painting by Caspar David Fredrich)

Do seasons influence artists? Great writers, musicians, dancers and visual artists including photographers and filmmakers have drawn inspiration from changing seasons. Some artists like wintry days, some sunny and some like the music of rain. Some are influenced by forests and some by deserts. Artists traveled many miles to capture sun, moon and their effects on earthly things. The great men and women who stood on the heights of creative pinnacles alone and watched the passing clouds in silence came back to their studios created those moments that had the ability to change the course of human history. And artists like Da Vinci led by curiosity traveled into the body and soul of human beings with imaginative, scholastic, poetic and scientific verve.

Have we lost it, the sensitivity to be affected and moved by seasons? Have we become too conceptual to think about nature? Has our over reliance on projects and never ending pursuits after newer mediums taken us away from the finer aspects of the vivacious nature and its several mood swings? Why do we think these days about settling back into a fine studio and manage our art like managers of assembling units? Has globalization and the changed realities caused by internet revolutions forced us to think alike, taste alike and feel alike? Why don’t we do different art which expresses our nature and our issues thereby create works of art that could universalize such experiences?

I come across artists these days who think a lot about working on projects and then finding opportunities to exhibit in galleries or places of importance. They live in/with a sort of impatience and walk along the edges of depression. I believe this overindulgence with projects and idea based art causes a lot of depression amongst the artists as these days they do not find any support to continue with their art practice. Our art scene, in that sense is in a state of degeneration. Most of the artists create unconvincing works or works of art that look like something that has been adjudged as ‘successful’ or they do cold and detached works of art or they imitate themselves. This repetitive coldness is not only seen in visual arts but also in every field of creativity including films, literature, music, dance and theater.

Before degeneration sets in completely like gangrene and asks for amputation of thinking minds, it is high time that artists go back to their primal simplicity and humaneness. They need to leave herd mentality. Each person should stand alone and travel alone. Each artist should get inspired by the immediate and then translate it into the universal. Only honesty and simplicity could do this. An artist should become a researcher of his/her own path. And the micro worlds would reveal the secrets of life of today and of future. The days of spectacles are over. Time asks us to walk into the micro worlds of nature and self. It is not the time of trees but the age of seeds and saplings. 

I sit here at a computer, away from my studio, far away from my work place, and listen to the music of rain and think about the artists of this country. I can see each of them thinking of being alone. They are feeling an intense longing for breaking free from the clutches of ideological and generic thinking. To think unique and act unique, one should see the worlds that lie behind the perceivable worlds. Those worlds are there in the changing seasons and everything that are touched by these seasons. Stand alone and walk alone. The time has come to speak to the excluded. The included are already in the malls, multiplexes, museums and galleries. Speaking to/about the excluded is the future. I will see you there in that bright future.

JohnyML

NEWS

Mystical Landscapes of Monsoons

(a painting by Anand Bekwad)

The onset of the monsoons in the country bring out the best artistic expression in artists and other creative beings. Proof of the effects of showers on stirring creativity after a sultry summer are in the exquisite landscapes of artist Anand Bekwad, in a show titled, ‘Mystical Landscapes’.

Anand is greatly influenced by mountains, rivers, valleys, the sky and effects of light on  these nature’s elegant fixtures. He incorporates them in his water colours on paper in this show and urges the viewer to engage with the visual, and approach it with their own sensibilities, while not deviating from his own as a creator and an artist.

Primarily the works are landscapes yet, Anand crosses the line beyond definitions and monotony and wanders freely into the unchartered territories of abstraction and semi abstraction through is very style and visual language.

The show Mystical Landscapes is being held at the Atrium, Alliance Francaise De Bangalore, and it on view till the 12th of June 2013.

Inspired by Mythology and Nature

(a painting by Amritha Priyadarshini Balan)

La Galerie D’Expression, Chennai presents a solo show of works by young artist Amritha Priyadarshini Balan. The show displays her works done during her college years, and are an eclectic mix of various mediums explored and styles imbibed to form her unique visual language. 

A Bachelor of Visual arts from Stella Maris college, Chennai, she has participated in group and solo shows with the display of her paintings and photography works alike.

The artist works mainly on themes which are inspired by nature, landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes and more rendered in oils and acrylic on canvas. She has displayed works which have been richly inspired by mythology and religion. Taking inspirations from the great master’s works of art, this artist forms her own unique interpretations. The works in the show are vibrant in colour and form, figurative in style and rich in texture and tonal values.

The show is on till the 15th of June 2013.

Art Blossom show

(a painting by Rahul Mhetre)

Genesis Art gallery, Bangalore, presents a group show of works of four upcoming contemporary artists from India. The show titled, ‘Blossom’ displays works of artists, Nilima Sikhrakar, Mahesh Patter Paramesh Jolada and Rahul Mhetre. 

Ranging from figurative work to abstraction and semi abstraction, the works on display portray a variety of themes and thoughts behind the works. The works are rendered in various mediums like water colours, oil and acrylic on canvas, charcoal and pencil on paper. The landscapes and city scapes are captured in charcoal and ink on paper, while the medium of  oil and acrylics can be seen used in depicting human relationships in the figurative works forming a distinct narrative. The works on display have an innate lyrical quality in them.

The show is on view till the 16th of June 2013.

Structures of Abstraction

(a painting by Somenath Maity)

Tao Art gallery, Mumbai presents a solo show of works by artist Somenath Maity. The show titled, ‘Structures’. Somenath is one of the emerging artist from the Bengal school of art with a bright potential in the Indian art scene.

The works on display at the ‘Structures’ exhibition are a unique series of semi-abstract and abstract landscapes and cityscapes. The works are rendered in oil and acrylic on canvas. The visual usually is a blend of geometrical shapes and vibrant colour interspersed with strategically places breaks and blurred spaces.

This gives the illusion of depth and space in an over crowded scene of a city scape. Somenath effectively portrays with colour the vibrancy and myriad hues the silhouettes of cities from his imaginations.

The show is on view from the 18th of June to the 2nd of July 2013.


(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)