Paramjit Singh is 91 years old now, and his love for the fields and forests of his childhood, and the wonder with which he looked at nature, remain intact. He fondly recalls his long walks through the fields of Punjab with his grandfather — a “very mystic” man. Those wanderings, it seems, remain etched in his memory.
The artist brings these memories to life in ‘Liminal Geographies’, on view till April 10 at Delhi’s Vadehra Art Gallery. Marking five years since Singh’s last solo presentation, the exhibition features works created over the past year and a half. These paintings, made in oil on canvas, reflect Singh’s connection with vast landscapes as well as individual trees, streams, and paths, which have been depicted through textured brushstrokes, somewhere between abstraction and realism.
For the exhibition essay, writer-curator and long-time friend of the artist, Kishore Singh, writes, “Paramjit Singh equips us not just with new eyes but also with ways of seeing: that first discovery accompanied with a sense of hesitancies about the unfamiliar. The surreal had informed his work from its very start, when still-life, landscape and the shadows of old structures resulted in a language of dark and light and shadows that held their secrets close.”
Painted memories
Singh was born in 1935 in Amritsar. “Our life in childhood was an outdoor life,” he tells TMS. When he joined the Delhi School of Art at Delhi Polytechnic (now Delhi Technological University) at the age of 19, under the guidance of painter Sailoz Mookherjea, students were regularly taken outdoors to sketch from life. He recalls admiring his teacher’s paintings for their outstanding use of colour and technique, describing him as a remarkable colourist. It was during these sessions that Singh’s own interest in landscapes began to grow. He also enjoyed painting still objects.
The painter eventually started combining the two in creative ways, placing motionless items in natural settings of expanse. He remembers, for instance, a painting from about 45 years ago of a green jar painted against a wide orange-yellow desert. In other works, he drew gardens with benches and arches, bringing together still objects and landscape elements. Even when painting portraits, in the background was a landscape.
Singh’s recent paintings at the exhibition are primarily marked by texture and beautiful, bright colours. The beauty is in the simplicity – the purple and deep blue skies, with softly brushed clouds, across the limitless sky; streams of water and narrow trails running through green fields or wilderness; warm golds and fiery reds hint at shifting seasons; clusters of pink, deep red and light blue flowers blend perfectly into the scenery.
The essence remains
In the current exhibition, Singh notes that all the works are untitled. Although his earlier works were not so, the artist says that over time he felt that to title his work limited the viewer’s interpretation.
“I wanted to put my painting before the viewer so that the viewer thinks of his own title, in his own way,” he explains. The meaning is, therefore, not forced upon the viewer. “I don’t want to interpret my painting myself,” Singh remarks.
Singh does not paint from photographs; most of his works are inspired from observation and memory. He stores impressions in his mind. The details fade over time and only the “essence” of a place is left behind. The familiar, recognisable feeling is then painted out of that distilled “mood”.
Learning the approach
A founder member of ‘Unknown’, a Delhi-based artists’ group of the ’60s, Singh held his first solo exhibition in 1967 at Triveni Kala Sangam. He received the National Award from the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1970 and later worked in printmaking in Oslo. Over more than six decades, he has exhibited in India and internationally, while also serving as a researcher and professor at Jamia Millia Islamia University.
Having taught art for nearly 30 years, Singh reflects on the younger artists today and their approach to art itself. While he acknowledges that many of them are “very intelligent,” he feels they often rely too heavily on technical tools. According to him, the discipline of sketching and developing a facility of hand is becoming less common. “They react mentally to the objects and collect objects very intelligently, but how to create from your own hand — where the mind and hand become synchronised — that is lacking,” he says, noting that this is merely his personal observation.
He emphasises the importance of returning to the fundamentals of visual language. Young artists, he suggests, should spend more time engaging with “the language of line, the language of form, the language of colour, the juxtaposition of colour,” and explore how these elements can express their emotions and inspirations.
According to him, artists may choose any subject — figures, abstract compositions,or even landscapes — but understanding the vitality of the medium itself is important. “The medium of painting should not die. It is a beautiful form that creates a direct connection between the human mind and the hand.”