There was no escape from the endless night, within or outside. As the decade stepped into the
long shadow of grief and solitude, home became a prison, where the artists went on to discover a rare, introverted freedom by travelling deep into themselves.
The second edition of the recently concluded Delhi Art Week (August 24-31) brought to life the potpourri of these emotions and more, reiterating our collective hankering for a simpler time that found resonance, like never before, during the pandemic.
Keerti Pooja’s works exhibited by Champa Tree as part of its exhibition, titled Garland of Memories, evokes yearning for lost time, not just in its sepia-tinted wasli paper, but also in the delicate, pencil-like use of her brush that renders her watercolour paintings sketch- and life-like at the same time.
“It is as if you can almost smell the flowers that she has drawn,” says Champa Tree director Archana
Bahl Sapra of one of Pooja’s paintings ‘Collected Story’. In the 2022 work, two pairs of hands with visible age lines try to hold on to a bunch of roses, some of which inadvertently spill over—alluding to one’s inability to hold on to all things dear.
The modernist section of Delhi Art Week saw several works that were a kind reminder of our glorious past—in art and in life—that seem to reinforce the need to press pause and enjoy the little things. The expansive retrospective of Gandhian artist Nandalal Bose at the National Gallery of Modern Art, titled Hastantaran, is stunning with large-scale murals on display, but it is his minimalist paintings of the hills in Darjeeling and the Gopalpur beach that show how the humankind has been finding solace and strength in nature. In Bose’s own words, “Previously I sought divinity only in the image of gods and goddesses; now I try to find it in sky, water and mountains.”
Two of KS Kulkarni’s Untitled figurative works at Aarushi Arts, which show two bodies entwined in the act of love, executed in simple lines, strike a chord with the most basic of human yearnings. The gallery also had on display a parallel show titled Untold Stories, featuring works by Chandrapal Panjre. The artist, hailing from Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat, uses the kantha weave as his canvas.
He layers them with old fabric to create colourful landscapes as an ode to his own journey. He says, “Kantha carries within it the philosophy of life. After getting old, lines, textures and shapes start emerging on it. The colours of kantha pink, blue, yellow represent colours of folk culture, which I relate to.”
Speaking of landscapes and memories they evoke, Baaraan Ijlal’s acrylic on paper series comprising 12 small-scale works, titled ‘Phool Bano ka Khwaab’, at Shrine Empire, epitomises modern-day nostalgia and freedom more than ever, now that we have been prisoners in the concrete homes that we so lovingly built. It speaks of a woman’s longing for her childhood garden that visits her in her dream and the conversation that ensues.
A similar resonance can be found in C Douglas’s works exhibited at Akar Prakar. Among the few artists still based out of Chennai’s Cholamandal artists’ village, his life has been marked with grief at different points of time, one of his major losses being the passing away of his friend and fellow artist K Ramanujam in 1973.
The artist’s anguish comes through in his predominantly dark palette comprising ashy greys and ferrous reds, and fragmented subjects. Even the paper that he uses as a base for his works is crumpled, and layered with sand to introduce an uncomfortable yet familiar unevenness.
Siddhi Shailendra, who has curated the show, says, “Douglas has been painting isolation for decades. After the pandemic, we can now relate to what he has been saying, which is why this show seemed timely.” Art imitates life, and Delhi Art Week managed to capture, almost to a tee, the life in the last two years. Good thing, then, that those who missed it, can still catch these shows, many of which will continue till the end of this month.
Other shows to check out:
Is The Water Chavdar?
Rajyashri Goody; At GallerySke; till October 1
Between Vows and Words Anupam Sud; At KNMA; till November 10
A Matter of Materials (Group Show); At Art Centrix; till September 25
The Virtues of Landscape; At Exhibit 320; till September 15