HYDERABAD: The idea of music depicted on canvas first came from Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky who brought a culmination of shades believing that colours communicate with each other to produce the perfect symphony of visual strings. And it’s not unusual for several contemporary artists to reproduce the magic that he once did with his paint brush.
The music of colours flowing from the canvas then shakes the insipid, stale air of closed areas filling its corners with notes than can be seen, can be read in the grammar of paint. The art walk of Park Hyatt Hyderabad is wrapped in musical notes emanating from the paintings by city artist Aqeel as part of the solo exhibition titled SoundScapes ‘17.
The opuses offer a blast of colours almost kaleidoscopic in appearance. The palette is ruled heavily by bright lapiz-lazuli, jade, jasper and shades of citrine. In one painting, the green of the tree is so lush that it seems to have come alive with its branches bent to a degree as if they were captured just before breaking into a mad dance. The blue, amethyst, ruby and topaz sky in the background appears to be a spectrum having multitudes of layers that seem to change colours every time an onlooker beholds it. The sun seems to flicker incognito from behind the screen of the hues.
The musicality of the oeuvres culminates to a point when expressed through musical instruments like sitar. In one of his paintings a singer holding his sitar almost merges with the canvas. It’s difficult to ascertain where his shape begins and when the canvas takes over.
The play of blue hue establishes a serenity while the curvature of lines seem to be emerging both from his ensemble and instrument. Another artwork of a drummer and dancer invoke an alacrity that captures the canvas. The lines are vivid and texture sparking vibrant. The mood of the layers also seem to be soaked with music. The artist has done justice with the theme he chose.
The exhibition is on till July 23