BENGALURU: After showcasing artworks of various artists for five successful years in Victoria Layout, Fidelitus Gallery has moved to a more spacious and green location in Basavanagudi, where it is hosting new creations of three senior artists from the city. The exhibition, titled Veterans’ Vision, features paintings by eminent artists CS Krishna Setty, Chandranath Acharya, and U Bhaskar Rao.
As you enter the space, the strikingly happy face of an emperor captivates you. Acharya, the artist behind these paintings, says this is his effort to connect with imaginations and aspirations of ordinary people. “The face of the emperor is very familiar, and his unabashed happiness is something we resonate or at least witness with modern politicians. It is an effort to strike a chord and also make fun of these elements,” he says. The 70-year-old artist was a cartoonist for more than 30 years, and this duration has had a significant influence on his work. “I specialised in etchings and engravings in my course, and for me, the dark deep lines on a smooth surface are almost musical,” he adds.
In another corner, the gallery houses many paintings with bursts of colour. Rao, a self-taught artist, paints what is observable in life. His series featuring puppets in various poses have become extremely popular. “I observed the vibrancy of the puppets when they are made to dance with the strings, and I was instantly drawn,” he says, adding that he has been adding to the series for over 7-8 years.
Setty’s work, on the other hand, is designed to evoke emotion. His work has been displayed in California, Los Angeles, New York, Texas, and Pennsylvania, among other places. The metaphoric visuals are dark, replete with unknown hieroglyphic symbols. “I have left my work untitled because the aim of the artwork is to draw in the viewers and force some sort of a reaction out of them,” he explained, saying that is the point of art -- to provoke people to think about it.
Talking about the thought behind the exhibition, Koteguddi S Ravi, an in-house artist at the gallery, says there is nothing common in the works of the painters, all of whom have received Karnataka Rajyotsava Award in the past, and they come from unique points of view. “The only commonality is that they have been artists for a vast amount of time, and the exhibition wants to show how diverse art can be, even if you have been involved in it for a significant amount of time,” he tells CE.