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Master of many moods and mediums
The sheer range of styles and media—from graphite, ink, ballpoint pens, watercolour, and collages, to making burnt marks on paper—strike you as you take in the 150-odd works by Delhi-based artist Amitava on display at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA). Titled If We Knew the Point, the exhibition gives expression to the abstract imagery that is rooted in subconscious thoughts, using a minimal colour palette.
Born in Shimla in 1947, Amitava studied at the Delhi College of Art, graduating in 1972. In his early days he was a member of an artist group called ‘New Group’ that lasted a little over one year. “In 1970s there were hardly any galleries in the country. So, artists came together to share the economic burden and support each other,” he explains.
His own art began reflecting on elements depicting the environment, flora and fauna, interrupted by human figures, as though attempting the age-old ‘man vs nature’ dialogue. Akin to the modernist Manjit Bawa’s leitmotif bulbous forms and a minimal palette, Amitava’s early works had clearly recognisable forms populating significant and central presence on his canvas. However, his bodies were tormented and distorted. Amitava began to distort the figures more aggressively and eventually moved towards complete abstraction.
The 77-year-old artist’s thoughts and visual manifestation were heavily influenced with the creative works of The Hungry Generation literary movement. “From the silent-era films to Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and French New Wave films, I discovered something new. Subtle things like Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s middle tones and repeated frames impacted my work,” he says.
Little wonder that the body of works produced in this period provides a reading into the socio-politico society and the Naxal movement of the time. Later, he worked as an exhibition designer where he planned not just art shows but also large-scale industry fairs at an international scale. Elements of design and geometry percolated down into his art.
Commenting on the obscurity of his imagery, Roobina Karode, Director and Chief Curator of the museum, says, “His approach is aligned to the idea of art as a fertile space, where ideas, emotions, materiality and process come together in imaginative and aesthetically challenging ways. Since Amitava’s approach is intuitive, it is the journey that holds importance for him, while the end product is left open for the viewer’s interpretation.” For instance, a piece of gauze with red colour and a micro tape crossed over it suggests a bleeding wound, and a black heart signifies a personal loss.
The exhibition title is both a somatic and rhetorical coinage, drawing from the eponymous poem by Roberto Juarroz. The term ‘point’ comprehends an array of meanings, on one hand, it means a particular fact, idea, or opinion that somebody expresses, or a primary piece of information, while it also means a statement or an objective.
On the other hand, ‘point’ or a dot is an essential unit of making art, which reminds us of a range of art terminologies from ‘pointillism’, to the dots used in various indigenous art forms. While Amitava does not actively draw parallels between the indigenous style and his work, there are definite points of references that can be traced back to folk and tribal cultures.
Slowly, he began to use banal and mundane objects in his work. Price tags, train and bus ticket receipts, and even soda-can tabs can be seen forming his imagery. His fascinating use of commonplace material opens up the possibility of a fluid and limitless approach to art making. In a sense, the Japan mono rail ticket or the London tube pass form a timeline or a travel diary and self-archive for him, but eventually something to be experienced and not reasoned out.