A silent synergy of masters in Delhi

Time of India

5 days ago

Critic and Curator Uma Nair has been writing for the past 35 years on art and culture She has written as critic for Times of India and Economic Times. She believes that art is a progressive sojourn. She learnt by looking at the best shows in Washington D.C. and New York. As author her most important books are Reverie with Raza and Meditations on Trees by Ompal Sansanwal. LESS ... MORE
Step into 108.Projects at ARTIX at the Claridges Hotel in Delhi to partake of a silent synergy of Indian abstract Masters at an Art Fair in a hotel. Tarun Khanna is a curator of incredible thought and history ,he brings together abstract masters like G.R. Santosh, Ambadas Khobragade , Achuthan Kudalloor and Sohan Qadri with zest and fervour. Ascension and transcendence both wrap around your senses in this little room that speaks beyond words. Begin with the great Indian abstract master Gulam Rasool Santosh. Order, intensity and yogic discipline all come together in this salient masterpiece.
Geometry and symbolism in Santosh
Santosh's oeuvre emerges from a syncretic Kashmiri culture in which Hindu practises developed in dialogue with Islamic Sufi traditions and Mahayana Buddhist practises. Santosh who took the name of his wife, moved between Kashmiri poetry, and a modernist mooring in oil paint.His work is testimony to a lexicon of what is modern as well as universal in a specific Neo Tantric tradition of the South Asian subcontinent.
He uses the yogic posture and takes the dual aspects of the human form to transcendental experience. Known for works in Museums across the world he said: ' Indian tradition is based on the universal concept of the ultimate reality manifesting itself in a myriad shapes and forms in time and space. My own self is preoccupied with the same universal concept…My paintings are based on the male-and-female concept of Siva and Sakti, and therefore, construed as Tantra.'
Ambadas Khobradas' rich marblings
The abstractionist who desired virginity shorn of romanticism and European accents, Ambadas Khobradas belonged to Group 1890 founded by Jagdish Swaminathan in 1962 .His swirling contours have their own kinetic energy.Colour and contour meshed into his own process of technique and depth of density created its own synergy.
Layers of paint seem to coagulate and drip into their own dense drama.Melting down the length of the canvas in a shimmering iridescence, it seems to take on the characteristics of molten lava burning through a geological stratum of hot colours. Ambadas' deliberately dense chromatic fusions of colour shades punctuated by yellow swivels captivate the eye, which revels in the depths of colour present. His penchant for creating rich marblings takes on a tactile quality of moving lava within elastic patterns.
Achuthan Kudallur's dense charisma
Abstract master Achuthan Kudallur created works that mirrored the beauty of his native land Kerala and the Palghat hills. This verdant vermillion work is a corollary of charismatic moorings in which fragments float in fluid intensity within the pool of his explorations in abstraction. For Kudallur who spent many years at Cholamandalam it is the miasma of multiple moorings that kept his brush both pliant as well as passionate to the core. Achuthan was an artist of deep merit and gravitas. He neither wanted the hollow applause of the market nor did he seek fame, for him his art was about seeking his own soul over the spectacle of superficial whimsy.
Sohan Qadri Beej
The seed of gestation, the seed of germination, the seeds were more than a meditative sojourn for the Guru the author, poet and abstract master Sohan Qadri. For Qadri a painting was about grasping philosophy as well as simply seeing different levels of sublimation. When you look at the paintings with seeds you know that art for him had to be both profound as well as born of a personal meditative experience. This work at ARTIX , reminds us of primordial seeds and poet Kabir's verses of Bijak.
Balaji in crimson tide
Bathed against the crimson tide of deep detailing is Jai Khanna's realistic composition of Balaji Sudarshan.At once its the ebony that grabs your gaze. Flanking the Balaji is a little hanuman who stands in obedient obeisance. Jai says Lord Balaji's miracles inspire millions.
They show him as the eternal protector and guardian of his devotees.There are numerous accounts of devotees witnessing unexplainable miracles, from sudden financial success to healing from ailments, all attributed to Lord Balaji's blessings.
This image with its fine rich embellishment in golds is as much about eternal devotion and faith, sacrifice, and a divine purpose.A sense of divinity pervades the room in which this is placed. The tilak on Lord Balaji's forehead represents the sacred Namam of Vaishnavism, denoting devotion to Lord Vishnu.
Jai adds that it is believed that Lord Balaji's eyes are so powerful that if fully opened, they can hypnotize and bless devotees beyond their karma, disrupting the cosmic balance.To protect devotees from the overwhelming power of His gaze, the tilak partially covers His eyes.This work has about it a cosmic energy. The Brahmanda Nayaka,the Lord of the Universe stands and beckons.
Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author's own.