Romartika's Splash'22 group show at Malaka Art Gallery brings in diverse personalities together
Besides the cornucopia of a curious blend of style and pattern from six versatile artists, there was live demonstrations by a few of them.
On Friday evening, artist Sudipta Adhikari stood before the canvas. But before he took up the brush, he confessed, 'If they expect a long drawn process of painting, they will be disappointed.'
Your correspondent was puzzled. Sudipta elaborated, 'I can not paint slowly. Moreover the canvas is too small. I need a canvas of at least four feet wide. I guess, this evening, I can not stretch my painting beyond ten to fifteen minutes.'
And there was a manic blast of passion. His hands crisscrossed the length and breadth of the canvas so rapidly that the transformation of the white blankness into a mystic landscape appeared to be a kaleidoscopic vision played in fast forward.
The following day, Artist Devayani Thakre was to paint side by side with Sudipta. But Devayani was worried. Your correspondent tried to understand the cause of the anxiety. Devayani replied, 'I must not violate the conditions of the gallery. They want to avoid a few elements in the paintings. But I am totally spontaneous! How can I remember the dos and don'ts? I have no control on what I paint. The canvas controls me.'
As Devayani began to paint, soon it was clear that the hands that applied the paints (not brush!) were inseparable from the painting in the making. Indeed the creator and the creation were unified into a single pulse of life. Her natural impulse of applying paint reminded of the famous saying of Jackson Pollock, 'I don't paint nature. I am nature.'
Artist Neetesh Misra did not consider painting before the audience in the beginning but the response of the crowd changed his mind. He did one paint his unique landscapes of ethereal clarity but produced a dazzling abstract.
Artist Vinay Joshi did not paint live. But his photorealistic portraits shocked the viewers. Perhaps, the miraculous return to the pink of health from the lethal grip of stage-III cancer made his paintings spring out of the frame with blazing flash of life.
This correspondent missed Joao Marques from Portugal. His presence would have made a difference because he is a proponent of the latest art movement going on these days. Neutral-ism. His paintings on display were unlike that of any one else. The images contained a kind of trapped impulse about to blast but not quite blasting. The hint of shapes appeared to be little openings through which the abstract expressions whispered a coded message.
Also, artist Pratik Mallick could not be physically present while his voyage series in ink on paper were on display. The images captured the dynamism of the climatic moments.
Overall, it was a grand celebration of creative orgy. This is the third week going on. There will be another group show in the last week of April'22 at Malaka Art Gallery, Pune.
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