HYDERABAD: The recently-concluded exhibition ‘The Pleasure of Paradox’ by Gulbarga-based artist Basavaraj L Jane held at Ailamma Art Gallery offered a statement not just on design elements and techniques, but on various aspects of womanhood as well.
His paintings are near-to-perfect apogee of abstract and figurative in various colours that overlap the palette to provide the canvas a unique sense of amalgam. And this culmination is a reflection of the artist’s perception of the world with its woman: marginalized and sidelined, juggling with daily struggles and her body, her psyche and the world around her. The artist manages to bring the contrast onto the canvases.
In one of the paintings, one sees the huddle of human bodies, both men and women in different shades of orange, red and yellow as if they were enveloped in flames of fire. But the colourful chaos is broken by the lines that converge over one another giving shape to a sort of calmness that unites them in the same frame. It’s interesting to note the presence of animals like horses and cats in the artwork that seem to run toward the lines and dots of the curvatures that dominate the white space.
In another opus, the canvas area is ruled by sad expressions of women in the frame. Their gloomy faces are marked by the dark, sombre hues the artist has used. Their eyes are low cast that sometimes appear to be liquid with tears, perhaps.
The only time the canvas gets vivid is when we see yellow and green coming into focus. A look closer to it tells that there seems to be spring on the paper as one can’t help but notice large white flowers that seem to have escaped some ordeal of the season given it appears spotted with grime. What’s remarkable in the oeuvre is that the figures seem to be in sync with the colours. But the overall message that flows from the work is of harmony in disorder.
— Saima Afreen
saima@newindianexpress @Sfreen