Form within a formless form : Art of Rajesh Srivastava

Ved Prakash Bhardwaj There was once a conversation about abstract art with senior artist Jai Zharotia. He stated that no figurative painting can be created without the foundation of abstraction, and similarly, no abstract painting can be created without the foundation of shape. The saying meant that the intangible and tangible are both interdependent. Yesterday, on the afternoon of March 11, when I arrived at the Kohl Art show at Bikaner House and saw Rajesh Srivastava's paintings, I remembered Jai Zharotia's words. I've been following Rajeshji's work for over a decade and a half. His primary medium is oil on canvas. That's why he doesn't do much work. He starts a series and then works a lot.Recently, he started discussing Kabir and referring to one of his couplets 'Pathar Puje Hari Mile to Main Pujo Pahar', and said that he is working on this idea these days. I have also been working on Kabir's line 'Jhini Jhini Bini Chadariya'. The ideological side has been strong in Rajesh Srivastava's work from the beginning. He has an amazing ability to express any subject completely but in a symbolic form. This ability of his has come to the fore in new works.

The exhibition at Kohl Art includes both large canvases and smaller paintings. Some of the larger paintings are titled "I am a stone lady," but the smaller ones are untitled and depict a woman's shape. Rajesh Srivastava's art begins its journey of experience, feeling, and thought here.

The figure of a woman, or any human being, has been shaped like a stone in the paintings featured in this exhibition. It expresses that man has been turned to stone or forced to become stone, but its other side can also be found in Indian philosophy, the realisation of life in stone. There is also a contemporary context in which petrified sensibilities are a major source of concern. Here we're able to observe how Rajesh Srivastava's art takes on multiple interpretations.

वेद प्रकाश भारद्वाज एक बार वरिष्ठ कलाकार जय झरोटिया से अमूर्त कला को लेकर चर्चा हो रही थी। उन्होंने कहा कि बिना अमूर्तन के आधार के कोई भी फ़िगरेटिव पेंटिंग नहीं बन सकती, इसी प्रकार बिना आकार का आधार लिए अमूर्त चित्र नहीं बन सकता। कहने का अर्थ यह था कि अमूर्त और मूर्त दोनों अन्योन्याश्रित है। कल 11 मार्च की दोपहर जब बीकानेर हाउस में कोहल आर्ट के शो में पहुंचा और राजेश श्रीवास्तव की पेंटिंग्स देखीं तो जय झरोटिया की बात याद आ गई। पिछले कोई एक-डेढ़ दशक से राजेशजी के काम देख रहा हूं। कैनवास पर ऑयल कलर उनका मुख्य माध्यम है। इसलिए वह बहुत ज्यादा काम नहीं करते हैं। वह एक सीरीज शुरू करते हैं तो फिर उसपर खूब काम करते हैं। पेंटिंग्स के साथ ही पढ़ना और कला पर चर्चा करना भी उन्हें पसंद है। ललित कला अकादेमी के गढ़ी केंद्र में उनसे लगभग रोज ही मुलाकात होती है।

पिछले दिनों उन्होंने कबीर की चर्चा शुरू की और उनके एक दोहे 'पाथर पूजे हरि मिले तो मैं पूजूं पहार' का जिक्र करते हुए कहा कि वह आजकल इसी विचार पर काम कर रहे हैं। कबीर की पंक्ति 'झीनी झीनी बीनी चदरिया' को लेकर मैं भी काम करता रहा हूं। राजेश श्रीवास्तव के काम में वैचारिक पक्ष शुरू से मजबूत रहा है। किसी भी विषय को सम्पूर्णता में पर प्रतीकात्मक रूप में अभिव्यक्त करने की उनमें अद्भुत क्षमता है। उनकी यह क्षमता नए कामों में और अधिक निखर कर सामने आई है।

कोहल आर्ट की प्रदर्शनी में बड़े आकार के कैनवासों के साथ ही छोटे आकार की पेंटिंग्स भी हैं। कुछ बड़े चित्रों का शीर्षक 'आय एम ए स्टोन लेडी' है पर छोटे चित्र शीर्षहीन प्रदर्शित हैं जबकि उनमें भी स्त्री के आकार का आभास होता है। यहीं से राजेश श्रीवास्तव की कला अनुभव, आभास और विचार की यात्रा शुरू करती है। इस प्रदर्शनी में शामिल पेंटिंग्स को देखें तो स्त्री की, या किसी भी मनुष्य की आकृति को पत्थर की तरह का आकार दिया गया है। यह मनुष्य के पत्थर हो जाने या उसे पत्थर होने को मजबूर किए जाने की अभिव्यक्ति है। पर इसका एक दूसरा पक्ष भारतीय दर्शन में भी मिलता है, पाषाण में प्राण की प्रतीति। इसका एक संदर्भ एकदम वर्तमान में भी है जिसमें पाषाण होती संवेदनाएं एम बड़ी चिंता का कारण हैं। इस तरह से राजेश श्रीवास्तव की कला अनेकार्थी हो जाती है।

Jogen Chowdhury retrospective show

Ved Prakash Bhardwaj

Jogen Chowdhury is a senior and important artist of our times. Jogen Chaudhurys name is included among the artists who contributed the most in giving an ideological basis to contemporary art. A retrospective exhibition of his art journey of over 6 decades opened on 8 March 2023 at Bikaner House, Delhi, organized by the Art Exposure Gallery, Kolkata. The curators of this exhibition are Jesal Thackar and Shoumik Nandy Majumdar. This is such an exhibition only after seeing it we can get acquainted with the world of a great artist like Jogen Chowdhury. Along with realistic human depiction, how his art has reached its present form through abstract paintings, can be understood from this exhibition. The suffering of human, his anomalous social position, and his life amidst systemic conflicts is the essence of Jogen Chowdharys art. About 350 paintings and drawings are on display in the exhibition, many of which are being seen by most people for the first time. Many art collectors present at the opening of the exhibition were also heard complaining about why the works were not shown to them earlier.

Born in 1939 in Faridpur, Bengal,  Jogen Chowdhury studied at the Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata, from 1955-60, followed by a stint at L'Ecole Nationale Superior des Beax-Arts, Paris, in 1965-57 on a French Government Scholarship. Afterward, he spent five months in London. He returned to India in early 1968. He was appointed as a textile designer on the Handloom Board in Chennai. In 1970, he joined the Calcutta Painters Group. His first collection of poems Hridoy Train Beje Othey was also published in the same year.

He quit his job at the Madras Handloom Board in 1972 to join the Art Gallery of Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi as a Curator. Due to this new job, he moved to New Delhi. He founded the Gallery 26 and Artists' Forum in New Delhi in 1975 along with some leading painters of New Delhi. In 1986, Jogen represented India in the 'Festival of Art' in Baghdad.

In 1987, Jogen Chowdhury joined Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan as a professor of painting. Besides his numerous paintings and exhibitions, he has written extensively on contemporary art. He was also appointed as Judge in several exhibitions.

His recent solo exhibitions include 'A Calligraphy of Touch and Gaze', presented by Kalakriti Art Gallery at ICIA, Mumbai, in 2008; and Abahoman: Flowing Life at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, in 2007. Chowdhury has also had solo exhibitions at Gajah Gallery, Singapore; Gallerie Foundation for Indian Artists, Amsterdam; and the Fine Art Resource, Berlin.

 

 Dramatic, uninterrupted strokes and lines are merged to form and grip human figures in the works of Jogen Chowdhury. He is known for his honest portrayal of humans in unaccepted social conditions and their pain, an innate part of human existence. Although prolific in various mediums, such as ink and pastel, watercolor, oil, and pen, the bulk of Jogen Chowdhurys artworks feature unbroken, meandering lines in ink and pastel. The distorted human figures in his artworks stand out in overpowering, unfaltering lines across the canvas, giving him the label master of unbroken lines.

Jogen Chowdhury's hallmark is the elaboration of unusual meanings out of ordinary shapes. He uses local references in his art but in the final conclusion of the composition, it becomes a narrative of the universal condition of man. Epoch consciousness is an essential element of his creative world that separates him from other artists. While composing with a time reference, he gives a global basis to the composition. Early in his art, the influence of the Bengal School is visible, but his later works create a global atmosphere while maintaining a local identity.

Jogen Chowdhury expresses his culture as well as the social conditions of his time in his art. Sometimes, there is also a sense of sarcasm indirectly in his work. In the words of Shakti Burman, Jogen's work is simple but beautiful. This applies to his drawings which have a simplicity of line which is beautiful. The distortion in his art expresses the anomalies of our times.

In the beginning, Jogen Da did a lot of figurative work. In that period, human figures are simple in painting as well as in drawing, but in them, we get a glimpse of the future of Jogen Chowdhury. The densest moments of human suffering appear in them. His experiences of the Partition of Bengal in the early period can be seen in these paintings.

Initially, Jogen was associated with the Communist Party, but he was not directly involved in politics. Connecting with the condition of the common man at the level of sensitivity brought him closer to the communist movement. This association is visible in the work of many Bengali artists who were his contemporaries, but for Jogen, ideology and social commitment remained at the level of art, separate from politics. The result was that he was more conscious and experimental about form. His experimentation with form can be clearly seen in the gradual change in his art.

To understand Jogen Chowdhury's art, you must first understand those dimensions of our society which have hidden layers of inequality, violence, and injustice. As a socially conscious painter, Jogen sees those layers and expresses them in his paintings in a way that is not limited to any one context. Jogen's art is not free of context. He also says that I keep an eye on the social and political conditions of the country and the world along with the people around me. In fact, keeping this view also includes the analysis of those situations, the final form of which we can see in Jogen's paintings. Jogen's art demands thought as well as viewing. If you leave his paintings and drawings only at the level of a visual experience, then believe me, you will never reach the real meaning of his art. The more beautiful his art looks at the level of invisibility, the more disturbing it is at the conceptual level. Just as poetry contains multiple meanings, Jogen's work also contains multiple dimensions of meaning. For example, we can take one of his paintings in which a man is seen cutting a woman's chest and abdomen with a knife. This picture is not limited to the violence of men against women. A fetus is visible in the womb of a woman in the picture. Now if this picture is seen in symbols and other meanings apart from just action, then it also indicates female feticide, it also indicates future murder, and it also expresses the suicidal violence of man against the earth. Many such references go on to add to this picture. And this happens not with many of Jogen's paintings, but with most of them. Jogen Chowdhury has been identified as a figurative artist but it is not that he has not created abstract paintings. This exhibition includes many of his abstract paintings and drawings. The force of the brush strokes in a similar large painting reveals the impulse of a sensitive artist amidst the socio-political conditions of the time. Many such pictures and drawings are in this exhibition. By the way, the presence of abstract structures can also be seen in his figurative works. The concreteness which appears as a shape on the surface turns into abstraction at the level of emotion and thought.

A single line is mysterious and when it establishes a relationship with other lines and gives birth to a form, the same mystery becomes deeper. A shape does not allow the analogy to remain mysterious, but Jogen turns this analogy into a mystery. The human figure emerging on the canvas transforms this analogical image into a mystery with its gesture. In this, the artist takes the symbolic marking planted in the original shape away from the meaning of the surface to the world of meanings that are hidden in some mystery layers. The viewer can access these mysteries through his own consciousness and experience. In this way, Jogen raises the possibility of the active participation of the viewer in his art. In a way, he demands participation from the viewer in his art. You can't just look at his paintings as a simple visual descriptions, and if you do, you're sure to miss their real meaning. Jogen's art does not expect a viewer to merely be seen but solicits thought. That's why the art value of his paintings is higher than the market value of the artwork.

Initially, the forms in his paintings were more simple which later changed due to distortion. This change gave more effective expression to his social sensibilities. His passion for poetry became his assistant in this. The poetry of Jivananand Das impressed him more. This gave him a more transparent and realistic view of society and time.

The style of the cross-hatch gave a new dimension to his art. This helped him to more effectively express the true state of man with his mood. In his art, he later gave more importance to lines instead of colors. Apart from the works of the crosshatch, which are his pastel, charcoal, etc. drawings, lines are the main ones.

This exhibition includes his own portraits. Apart from this, there are many other personal pictures in which the expression of emotions is the main. The reclining figure in an old painting shows that humans doubled over by suffering began to be expressed in his art from the very beginning. He also says that I keep an eye on my surroundings as well as the social and political situations of the country and the world. That's why in his art we get an indication of the activities happening not only around us but also in distant countries. He does not show public events directly. He simply creates something in a picture that reminds us of several events at once. The status of women in society and the violence against them cannot be targeted in many of his paintings.

Many of his sketchbooks have been displayed in this exhibition. Looking at these sketchbooks, one can understand his process of producing a painting or drawing. One can understand from these sketchbooks how many sketches one goes through before a painting is made.

Dr. Sushma Yadav: a pictorial journey of women's life

Ved Prakash Bhardwaj Graphic artist Dr. Sushma Yadav's solo exhibition of etchings is a pictorial journey of a female artist, sometimes alone and sometimes in a group. The journey passes through both emotional and physical realms and creates an artistically evocative environment. In this environment, she keeps many faces of society in front of us. His solo exhibition was started on 1st March at the Visual Art Gallery of India Habitat Canter, Delhi, presented by Art Konsult Gallery.

Amidst the sky of aspirations and its limits, the life of a woman tries to remain nourished despite knowing the contradictions of her situation. A woman's life is not just her life. The social role of a woman may be underestimated, but she is the most important unit of society. Women's liberation movements of the twentieth century started reinterpreting her social roles. Women's liberation songs were also written. Due to this, there was a change in the behaviour of women in society, but still, her life did not change much. The changes that have taken place in the life of a woman are mostly visible in the external form only. The situation regarding the duality of her inner world has not been very clear because at the social level even today there is a dual mindset toward women. Sushma Yadav's art brings this situation to the fore. She does not seem to be trying to establish any kind of feminist narrative in her art. She simply puts before us the position of the woman with different aspects. In a way, we can call these pictures the shades of women's life.

Dr. Sushma Yadav's detailed and subtle vision sees and exposes those subtle moments of women's life, towards which people generally do not pay attention. The activities of a woman in daily life are often not appreciated which are important for her own life. The social role of a woman is reflected in Sushma Yadav's graphic Prints when she depicts them cooking food at home, sitting together, and eating food. But the vision of the artist does not stop here only. She shows him shopping in the market, working in the office, traveling, and so on in other forms. If we look at these pictures, many such images are seen which are ignored even after seeing them, whereas they have a deep connection with the female mind. For proof, we can take their clothes which reveal their aspirations. Sushma Yadav keeps a close watch on this. She views life as a journey. There is also a print of him with the same title. Apart from the flight, scenes of the rickshaw, bus, local train, and metro train are also here. The presence of a woman in these scenes reveals her different statuses.

Sushma Yadav creates an environment in her creation, in which many well-known faces are also visible. In one print a glimpse of his mentor Anupam Sood is seen and in one place Picasso can be seen. Similarly, a glimpse of film star lat. Parveen Babi is found in one picture. Many pictures have been created regarding cinema, fashion, glamor, etc. This is the metropolitan world in which the presence of women has been created. The women in most of the paintings appear to be of the upper class. The portrayal of women from other sections of society is rarely seen here, probably because while living in Delhi, similar images are more visible. The media is also full of similar pictures.

It is not easy to do great things in etching but Sushma Yadav has done it. She has also worked on three plates. Technically, his prints can be said to be of high quality. Creating a balance between black and white, the aura of shadow and light she has created gives depth to the paintings and makes them impressive. There are few single images of women here. In most of the works, she is in the group. Her triptych prints show women dressing up on a dressing table like actresses doing make-up for a play, film, or TV serial. But this does not complete the picture. In this, the figures of men peeping in the mirror change the entire plot. It is not just her lonely desire for a woman to look beautiful; it is also the longing of men. In this way, the artist takes one story in many directions while establishing another story. A painting that features a glimpse of film star lat. Parveen Babi commemorates the famous Italian painting The Birth of Venus. In some other paintings, we see the inspiration of other paintings. In this way, Sushma Yadav proves that there has not been much change in the social attitude towards women, and the male vision of seeing her as a body is still intact.

S G Vasudev: understand and express the life

Ved Prakash Bhardwaj The art of senior artist SG Vasudev is an expression of the human environment with different dimensions. He opens different layers of life in his paintings. In this process of seeing and opening life, he keeps the physical condition of man as well as his psychological condition in the center. He focuses on the interrelationships between all living and non-living elements of the world and the influence of the environment on the conditions of human life. Folk life with its cultural dimensions is reflected in the copper plate works. SG Vasudev's solo exhibition 'Containing Multitudes' is on at Bharat Art Space Gallery in Gurugram. Art critic Johnny Mll is the curator of the exhibition. Bharat Art Space Gallery is the new hub of art in Gurugram. In the last few years, Gurugram has emerged as a new art hub.

One of the challenges for the modern artist is to understand and express life in its contradictions. No one form of art, one style, or one medium is sufficient for this. That's why Vasudev works in different mediums. Continuous experimentation and change can be seen in his works. Sometimes the change seen in his work is a result of the medium or the art material. For example, when he does relief work on copper plates, he approaches the folk arts of South India. His love for folk arts is evident all over the world. It is a different matter that he gives a new identity to folk arts in his composition style.

If we look at the paintings included in this exhibition, there are more such paintings in which there is more abstraction. Vasudev's identity has been that of a figurative artist, but now abstraction has come in a more effective form in his works. There is often a face at the centre of his paintings, around which he creates figures with the effect of abstraction. In this way, he avoids the meaning of the picture being limited to the face. Some of these paintings are in this exhibition. Another composition of his appears with many faces. In such paintings, he adopts an abstract style instead of a completely realistic style. There are one or two such pictures in this exhibition.

Most of the paintings in the exhibition are abstract paintings, although their abstraction is a slightly altered form of the real world. For example, while creating a tree in an abstract style, he still maintains the possibility of imagining its real image. Not only this, he makes the tree come alive by creating human faces on it. The titles of his paintings Tree of Life, and Theatre of Life indicates how important the dramatic moments of human life are. Dramatization here does not mean the mere presentation of a written story on stage. In the drama of life, everything is not pre-written, not predetermined. Contingencies are central to the drama of life. There is uncertainty in that. Vasudev tries to reveal it in his paintings. He has given the title Theatre of Life to many of his paintings. Similarly, the title of some paintings is a rhapsody.

Trees are a major subject of his art. In many paintings, the tree has come in both its real and abstract forms. He expresses the depth of human relationship with nature in many ways. For this, he portrays humans and other creatures along with trees. In copper relief, he uses motifs from folk art with trees. Apart from this, the subject of many of his paintings is women. By keeping the woman in the center, he gives new expression to the emotional relations and feelings of life.

There are also some tapestries in this exhibition. The structure is similar to that of a painting. One such work is titled Human Space. In this, the use of many abstract motifs in one face makes the picture rich in meaning. Vasudev's color palette is mostly monochromatic. He adds depth to the picture by using different tones of that one colour. In some paintings, he uses other colours but he does not disturb the main colour of the picture. He works in oil colours. White colour has been used more in some of the paintings included in the exhibition. By the way, he mostly uses orange, blue, brown, and yellow ochre colours. His colour palette is multi-collared only in a few paintings.