HYDERABAD: A selection of paintings that induce meditative and spiritual process and content, ranging from philosophy, divination, mandalas, sacred geometry and organic nature forms, is what ‘Sacred Breath’ is all about.
As one enters Iconart Gallery, one is greeted by various paintings that take the viewers to the spiritual world through abstract painting. “These are paintings that shows spirituality through abstract art,” says the curator, Avani Rao Gandra, while talking about the unique collection of metaphysical art for the first time in India.
“This is a collection for those who are looking for a meditative experience and is very close to my heart as it is something unique that we have tried,” says Gandra.
With collections from nearly 13 artists, all the paintings show a different way to spirituality; while some use nature to attain spirituality, some used ancient Indian Tantric elements for the purpose.
For example, while Anil Gaikwad, one of the contributing artists, uses nature because he feels that presence of nature, as consecrated and revered form, connects with the inner landscape of solitude, in quiet isolation. On the other hand, Jeet Aulakh, an artist from Canada, uses sacred geometry because he sees sacred geometrics, as a collective symbol, a combination of colours and metaphors that tune with higher consciousness.
There are some artists like Srinath V who makes the colour himself and scrapes it repeatedly like “repeating a mantra to attain that ultimate spirituality,” said the curator.
Gandra also says that she could come up with this collection only because Iconart does not worry about the commercial value of the painting, but looks at its aesthetic value.
“Commercialised establishments tune themselves to public taste.
This does not give the audience a chance to grow,” she opines adding that the main purpose was to promote young talent and raise the standard of common man’s understanding.
To do so, she says that the people will have to keep themselves open to changes and hence just enjoy a particular artwork without going into its intricacies.
In order to promote art, Iconart also prompts the companies to use child art on their t-shirts. They also allow women and kids to advertise their work for free on their website www.iconart.com. The gallery also plans to hold art appreciation lectures that will introduce the participants to aestheticism and other concepts of art appreciation.
The next show that the gallery has planned is about poetry and art where the work artists who make use of poetic elements, will be displayed.
