I want you to focus on developing a vocabulary for describing art. Here are a couple of websites to start with. You could also look through the “Art” section of my blog. I thank Minal for supplying the following website.
New Delhi based blogger on art– Johny ML
Could the class please upload their posts in the comments section below?
Thanks.
Chardin (1699-1779)
Chardin is known to be one of the greatest masters of still life during the 18th century. Chardin during his period is known to change the art form from Rococo to more real life art form. During the period, Rococo was a popular art form that was a pretentious style crammed with allegorical images from classical mythology swirling with ornate decoration. Chardin found Rococco as intellectual and started painting his interpretations of the real life objects.
I like Chardin’s paintings because they are an art in the simplest of household items. Additionally, it is also encompasses certain structures in his paintings.Chardin portrayed items from his own house and were selected by him for their shapes, colors etc. Most of his pictures had these objects blending closely with the background colors. It created an overall effect of the objects emerging out slowly from the background.
Chardin looked for beauty in the common objects. A Beauty that a normal human being did not see as we all are very close to such beauty embedded in our day-to-day lives.
Chardin’s ‘Glass of Water and Coffee Pot’ contains many of the key elements of his deceptively simple still lifes. His subject matter is always secondary to his search for the compositional balance of tone and colour. The subject comprises three common kitchen items arranged on a concrete shelf: a glass of water, a charred copper coffee pot and a few cloves of garlic. It is the harmonies and contrasts that he builds into the visual elements of these ordinary objects that make this painting extraordinary.
All modern artists share some basic principles of arts with chardin – an art form that is without any superfluous details and reached through the drawing of pure forms.
Amrita Shergill
Amrita Shergill is a Hungarian born Indian painter who, in certain circles, is referred to as India’s Frida Kahlo. Her work is considered to be on par with the Masters of Bengal Renaissance. Born to an Indian father and a Hungarian mother, Amrita’s career as a painter started under the tutelage of her uncle, Ervin Baktay. From such distant beginnings, Amrita moved with her family to India at the age of 9 and eventually came to be recognized as the most expensive woman painter of India. Amrita’s career was initially influenced by European painters such as Paul Gauguin among others. After a couple of stints in Europe – in Italy and France – during the early parts of her painting career, Amrita return to India in 1934 in answer to her inner calling: “feeling in some strange way that there lay my destiny as a painter”.
Amrita’s paintings can be classified into two sections. The European, specifically Hungarian, influenced earlier part of her work and the quintessentially Indian, later part of her work. The second part of her work began with her never-ending journey in pursuit of the traditions of Indian art. In India, Amrita was influenced by the Mughal miniatures, Pahari paintings, and the Ajanta cave paintings. Her travels in the southern parts of India resulted in her South-Indian trilogy paintings: ‘Bride’s Toilet’, ‘Brahmacharis’ and ‘The South Indian Villagers’.
Perhaps one of the most impressive and accomplished Indian artists belonging to the pre-colonial era, Amrita was the youngest and the only Asian to have been elected as an Associate of the Grand Salon in Paris. Amrita’s work, which she herself admitted was her artistic mission, reflects her deep passion for painting, her sense of color, and most notably her empathy for her Indian subjects, depicted through their poverty and despair.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amrita_Sher-Gil
http://www.culturalindia.net/indian-art/painters/amrita-shergil.html
My view about Cesar Pelli’s work:
Born in Argentina, Cesar Pelli is a world renowned architect best known for designing some of the world’s tallest buildings and major urban landmarks. Pelli is often praised for using a wide variety of materials and designs, seeking new solutions for each location. He believes that buildings should be responsible citizens and that the aesthetic qualities of a building should grow from the specific characteristics of each project such as its location, its construction technology, and its purpose.
In one of the books, he discusses what makes architecture unique among the arts: that it stands at the junction of a profession and an art, that its completion is final, that it is meant to be inhabited and taken over by its inhabitants.
He bases his analysis on eight principal “connections”: time, construction, place, purpose, culture, design process, constituency, and oneself. Each connection has a historic and contemporary view attached to it. For e.g. Petronas Towers – the world’s tallest buildings in Kuala Lumpur, is twin star-shaped skyscrapers to reflect Malaysia’s Islamic heritage. This project and others, including Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., and the World Financial Center in New York City, demonstrate that large and complex structures can both maintain and enliven the cultural character of the built environment.
Though Pelli was trained as Modern architect in 1950’s, I find his work as late modernism. With the efficacy towards colors and historical and cultural expressions in his designs, we can stand him as unclassifiable architect.
Skyscraper is not only about the length of the building but also about the energy it reflects. The grandness of Pelli’s work is reflected in all such sky scrapers. The use of striking colors and glass consistently across the design is something that makes us familiar with Pelli’s work. The use of glass appropriately suggests his inclination towards ecology and environment. An example to site this is Rainbow center mall and winter garden in Niagara Falls, New York. The main entrance welcomes visitors with a 120-foot tall glass-enclosed conservatory filled with exotic lush landscaping, small pools, stone pathways and raised walkways. The glass admits maximum amounts of natural light, making the building an escape from the rough winter climate of upstate New York.
His design strategy is also inclined towards flexibility and future expansions. Hotel Aria at Las Vegas is a one example I can think of as of now. I have personally visited that and it gives the grand feeling on looking at its exteriors. It is one of the Hotels that does not symbolize any major vis-à-vis other hotels in Vegas such as Paris or New York- New York but still the glass work and the simplistic design makes it stand out from the rest.
Pseudo-real Art by Devajyoti Ray
Devajyoti Ray is credited to have brought in the pseudo-real form of painting into the Indian art market. Pseudoreal art consists of amalgamating individually abstract shapes and figures into an imagery that appears real. Ray’s brand of pseudorealism involves depiction of everyday scenes in Indian life, treated in an offbeat manner using offbeat colours and abstract symbols. Some of his popular works are titled Goodbye, Mother, Toiletry and Bangle Seller.
The origins of pseudo real art can be attributed to the propagandistic and pseudo imagery being created by modern artifacts such as the media and politics. Ray’s art most significantly is a reflection of the manner in which several abstract and individually baseless ideas can be put together into colourful imagery that seems to make sense to the casual observer.
SABITABRATA BANERJEE – On Rabindranath Tagore
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A bullock cart, laden with earthenware, driven by Bansi while his nephew Madan manages the pots and pans, strolls through the village roads towards the Friday haat… This was my first introduction to Rabindranath Tagore. As I read through the poem, the world of imagination engulfed me forcing me to enter into the canvas of my little slate a bullock cart.
The genius of Rabindranath Tagore lay in his ability to showcase beauty in simplicity.
The phantoms of faces, Come unbidden into my vacant hours. Fondly indulgent is my Mistress of the Line to the errant in the poet.”— Rabindranath Tagore
Although Rabindranath Tagore had sporadically experimented, his earlier career as a painter flourished in the first half of the 1920’s. Tagore went on to produce close to 2,500 paintings, exhibited across India, Europe and Asia. This period also saw some of Tagore’s most sensitive writings on art and aesthetics, apart from the setting up of Kala Bhavan, the institute of art that he saw as an integral part of his experimental university. Clearly the “mistress of lines” whom
Rabindranath so dearly nurtured had a deep fascination for him.
Key to Tagore’s artistic vision was the idea of personality and harmony. Impressionism appealed to Tagore’s individual perception of reality. Some of his landscape paintings and his self portrait definitely reveal impressionist tendencies. Tagore’s use of color too reveals idiosyncrasies as he experimented with pigmentation to produce a boldness that was largely absent in contemporary Indian art.
Tagore’s fascination for geometrical shapes is also manifested in several of his paintings. For Tagore, these shapes seem to be strangely imbued with the expressionist revelation of deep psychic pain.
As one moves through the later paintings of Tagore there is an overpowering sense of darkness and the grotesque, an aspect that is also brought out in the numerous mask paintings that depict the subject in pain.
Tagore moved on and collaborated with Nandalal Bose, frequently drawing from him the representation of the everyday details. With Nandalal, Tagore also embarked upon the woodcuts of Sahaj Path, the Bengali primer where images from everyday life were used for pedagogic purposes.
Bansi and Madan taking their earthenware to the haat arouse the child’s imagination and perhaps it was Tagore’s way of introducing a child to the world of literature and simultaneously inspiring him in expressing his imagination on a canvas.
A write up on Jitish Kallat:
Jitish Kallat, a graduate of the Mumbai’s prestigious JJ School of Art, is among the leading figures of contemporary Indian art. He works with varied media including paintings, sculpture installations, photography and video. Mumbai, the city where Jitish was born and is currently based, forms a recurring theme across many of his works. He has a bold visual style, sometimes using advertising imagery and often inspired by scenes from Mumbai, while being dramatic.
In this write up I describe a few of his works from previous exhibitions, some of which I liked and all of which I believe, form a representative sample of his works.
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Sweatopia
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The triptych series of which Sweatopia is a part (including Eclipse and other works like Horrorificabilitudinitatibus which has more than 3 panels), is very symbolic of his work style and his primary inspiration – Mumbai and its denizens. The painting comprises of a photo montage scene of people (in the other works individuals, children, etc). Their hair is replaced with sketches of chaotic Mumbai scenes (slums, traffic, animals, etc). The name is a play on Sweat and Utopia and the works symbolize the daily struggle of the average Mumbai citizen while exuding hope. The style is very pop art, almost kitsch. Somewhat reminiscent of Andy Warhol and yet the language is distinct and very individualistic.
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Eruda
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This is a large sized sculpture installation again inspired by scenes from Mumbai. It depicts a child selling books at traffic signals. The sculpture is stark, made of black lead and dramatic. The child is probably illiterate and evidently poor, but is not seeking pity. Instead his pose is quite defiant. His feet are shaped like houses, symbolizing his nomadic nature – his home is where ever he chooses to put his feet. Another work in this series is the Annexe depicting a child with a thick rope to lash himself, asking for alms – again not out of pity as charity, but as a fee to watch him lash himself.
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Death of Distance
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A very simplistically executed and yet hard hitting work. This was inspired by a news report of a school girl committing suicide because her mother couldn’t afford to give her a rupee. The installation consists of a large 1 rupee coin placed in front of 4 panels displaying alternately (depending on where the viewer is standing), a news report on BSNL charging 1 rupee for STD calls and another news report of the school girl’s suicide).
One could accuse Jitish of exploiting poverty, pandering to western notions of India to create art that would sell, but I like to see his work as a response to his surroundings and a labour of love for his muse, the city.
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Aquasaurus, Autosaurus Tripous, Collindonthus
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A series of installations of vehicles in skeletal form starting with Aquasaurus, a water tanker depicted as a fossilized skeleton. The works are very dramatic and in your face. And lend themselves to multiple interpretations. For example does Aquasaurus depict the end of water woes or the end of cities themselves? Among his works, I am unable to connect with this series – they seem attention grabbing in a macabre sense (somewhat like the works of Damien Hirst).
Paresh Maity
I first came across Paresh Maity when I read about “The Indian Odyssey”, a massive 800 feet long oil painting commissioned by GMR for the new T3 terminal at Delhi. The painting is purported to be the largest contemporary work of art in India. Having researched a bit about Maity, it was quite obvious why he was chosen for the job. He is after all one of those contemporary artists in India especially comfortable with large canvasses. Moreover, his impressionist style combined with the use of vivid basic colors is quite suited to represent the celebration of India.
Maity’s works are predominantly either watercolor landscapes or oil on canvas figures of people. Although a keen photographer, he has used watercolor to bring alive the picturesque landscapes. A central theme of many of his watercolors is the sea and the seashore, lined with boats. Unlike certain artists sticking to their genres, Maity is prolific with both watercolor landscapes and strikingly different oil canvas figures. His paintings depict figures of Indian people, especially women. You can deduce it is a Maity oil painting from the sharp features of the figures (nose and eyes) combined with an embedding of peaceful birds, fish, etc…Maity’s paintings are without exception peaceful and happy; there is no place for misery or horror on his canvas. He has also created quite a few sensual paintings; however I do not personally find them attractive, although he infuses a similar style as his oil canvas figures embedded with birds, into these paintings.
Caravaggio
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One of the key artists whose work has impressed me is Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio—an Italian artist from the 16th century, more popularly known simply as Caravaggio. I was lucky to see some of his paintings during my travels. I have seen several of his paintings but some of his works that have particularly impressed me are:
• The Taking of Christ – National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
• The Supper at Emmaus – National Gallery, London
Some of the key reasons for my interest in his paintings include:
1. Medium- Most of his works are oil paintings which I tend to appreciate more than other mediums like watercolours.
2. Religious themes: Several of Caravaggio’s paintings are based on religious themes, particularly those from the Bible and these exemplified the Baroque movement of which he was a leading figure. In these paintings he has used life-like figures and the expressions and the emotions of the people depicted are as natural as it can get. The usage of shades and lines in his work is such that it gives his characters a very strong sense of three-dimensionalism even though his medium is two-dimensional. No wonder he is considered a prime exponent of naturalism and realism.
3. Chiaroscuro usage: Caravaggio was the master of the chiaroscuro technique which is an extreme contrast of light and dark value. The figures seem to be simply emerging out of darkness and the faces have a radiance completely in contrast with their dark surroundings. This is particularly prominent in The Taking of Christ. The usage of light and the reflections created by it is a critical element in his work.
4. Natural settings: Most of his work, although depicting specific religious themes do not have grandiose settings and there is hardly any usage of lavish or luxurious surroundings.
Salvador Dali
Salvador Dali was prominent surrealist painter from Spain. He started his career as a draftsman but became famous as a surrealist painter. His painting The Persistence of Memory was his most famous and also among the most famous works of surrealist art.
I saw Dali’s works at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. The exhibition was titled as “Dali – The late works”. This covered Dali’s work from the 1920’s onwards. I had heard Dali’s name but had never before seen his work; much less did I know how relevant his work was for the 20th century. I was fascinated by what seemed like impossible and absurd stretch of imagination.
Of all the pieces, I was most impressed by “The Maximum Speed of Raphael’s Madonna”. The first thing that attracted me was the choice of colors. The playful use of colors with the dominating blue theme, with the blue sky and the blue ocean seem to symbolize the other world. The painting as the name suggests uses Raphael’s painting of Madonna as the other world Christian vision, as its backdrop. In the modern 20th century this assumption of the other world had come to pass. As I understood it, Dali was trying to show that it was still relevant, marking his return to Christianity. The particles all over the place seem to indicate the breakdown of the earth by nuclear physics and thus return to Christianity. Although I am not a Christian, I was able to appreciate the originality of the idea of linking particle physics to the afterworld and faith.
The “Debris of an Automobile Giving Birth to a Blind Horse Biting a Telephone” seemed like a wonderful work. Although, the connection between the automobile, the horse and the telephone seems contrived, this piece illustrates Dali’s originality. The various poses of Dali and his moustache all through the exhibition were all over the top, giving it a very energetic jest.
Since the exhibition I have tried to see connections in modern day to Dali’s work. As I watch the television, I increasingly note patterns of advertising borrowed from Dali. One may not agree with Dali’s constant desire for self promotion all through his life, but should still be able to appreciate Dali’s work. To me, Dali’s work is probably the most significant artwork of the 20th century.
I like the graphic arts produced by artist M.C.Escher. He is well known all over the world for his so called impossible structures, such as Ascending and Descending, Relativity, his Transformation Prints, such as Metamorphosis I, Metamorphosis II and Metamorphosis III, Sky & Water I or Reptiles.
These pieces of art probe the mind to think beyond what meets the eye and dwelve deeper into the creation. So each time the painting is viewed, a different aspect is highlighted and this leads to a very dynamic picture. And most of his paintings usually form a leeway into lithographs and other wood carvings. After seeing a few of his paintings and their unexpected transformations, it is very engaging to guess the transformations in the other paintings and what new installation it might lead into. Most of his works try to change something that is two dimensional into a three dimensional installation and thus make a completely incomprehensible pattern into one that makes reality wondrous, comprehensible and fascinating.
But at times some of his works can feel slighlty repititive like the similarities between Castrovalva and Atrani.
Dear Guru: First of all, congratulations on your marriage. Thanks for bringing an artist who I hadn’t viewed in a while to my attention. I went on the web and looked up all these piece. I enjoyed your last line, but I didn’t really understand it
Let’s discuss it in class. Shoba
Prabhakar M Kolte’s Art:
Prabhakar M Kolte belongs to the category of abstract painters. His paintings do not convey any perfect meaning and challenge one’s imagination. It is easier to grasp two or three different meanings in one painting. He uses dull and dark colours. He exhibits lot of empty space with shade of a single colour and different geographic shapes here and there. Some of his paintings also appear to express something and hence abstract expressionist.
His work appears similar to that of Paul Klee. But the difference lies in the colours and shadings used. Paul Klee used more bright colours and his paintings were more inclined towards expressionism.
Motivation:
I started by searching for Indian contemporary artists, as I wanted to do this assignment on Indian artists. I decided to just browse through paintings and pick up the ones that I like. By this I tried to avoid any prejudice for selection of the artist. I did not know why I liked but I just liked the paintings of Mr. Kolte. Thereafter using image search functions I looked for similar paintings and found paintings of Paul Klee. After observing I found the similarities and have mentioned those above.
As I reflect back, I find that abstract artists reflect their opinion on life through the art.Their art work is related to attitude, outlook and way of living life. I am an introvert and at times feel secluded in the crowd. The complexities, glamour, luxuries and relations simply appear nothing to me. I long for a world which is simple, peaceful and tranquil. I see myself as a unique and differentiated part of it. This is what the paintings of Mr. Kolte reflect in some sense. Lots of blank space in dark & dull colour reflects that emotion. Some specific objects is his own inner-self that he is trying to project. The difference in paintings of other artists that I browsed was I simply moved ahead without longing of observing for longer time. I did not stop and looked upon with the kind of intrigue that paintings of Mr. Kolte generated.
Rabindranath Tagore: The Artist
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was India’s greatest poet and the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for literature. Apart from being a poet he was a philosopher, an educationalist, an economist, a theatre director, the founder of a university among many other things by the mid-1920s when his paintings began to flower.
Rabindranath Tagore took up drawing and painting at the late age of 67. Although he has inspired later generations of painters, he was dismissed by peers and critics as a bad and untrained artist during his lifetime. Rabindranath transformed his lack of formal training of art into an advantage and opened new horizons in the use of line and color. He was prolific in his paintings and sketches as he was in his writing, producing more than 2,500 drawings and paintings within a decade. Over 1,500 of them are preserved at Vishwa Bharati University at Shantiniketan.
In the Spring of 1930, when on a tour to France, Tagore was advised, by some art critics of local newspapers who saw his paintings, to hold an exhibition in Paris. He held the first public and international exhibition of his paintings in Paris in May 1930, at the Gallerie Pigalle. Subsequently, exhibitions were held in England, Denmark, Sweden, Rome, Germany and Russia in Europe and USA & Canada in North America.
When Tagore began painting, he was surrounded by eminent painters of the Bengal School like Nandalal Bose, Ramkinker Baij, Benondbihari Mukherjee, his own brothers Abanindranath and Gaganendranath and Jamini Roy. However, very surprisingly, his paintings did not show any influence whatsoever, neither technical, nor stylistic nor thematic, of any of his contemporaries, which would have been perhaps very natural for any lesser being. He used very simple material – any available paper, colored ink, crayon, gouache pigment, brush, rags and fingers. Tagore primarily painted heads, figures, bizarre animals and flora and landscapes of the mind which initially seemed so unreal that he was dubbed a surrealist. However, on deeper inspection, one finds that Tagore’s paintings are mostly figural in nature. The figures are meant to be almost archetypal and universal. A very prominent trait of Tagore’s paintings is that, they try to do away with all kinds of immediate particularities: technical or thematic. Thus, painting for Tagore became the language through which he could communicate universally. There is an attempt at reaching out towards an art which is universal in nature in terms of it being comprehended irrelevant of the boundaries of language, culture and nations. To this end, Tagore declined to provide titles for his paintings.
He was most likely red-green color blind and this resulted in works that exhibited strange color schemes and off-beat aesthetics. Tagore’s cross-cultural encounters during his many trips abroad – tribal artifacts of the Pacific, ancient bronzes from China, arts and crafts of Japan, and European modernism – also influenced his visual art and allowed him to create images that were rhythmically articulated pictorial forms. His artist’s eye for his handwriting was revealed very early through the simple artistic and rhythmic leitmotifs embellishing the scribbles, cross-outs, and word layouts of his manuscripts.
In June 2010, Tagore’s painting at Sotheby’s auction in London fetched Rs.2.13 crore.
References:
1. http://www.goldentwine.com/blog/rabindranath-tagore-the-artist
2. ‘Tagore’s Paintings: A Creation of Genius” – Rajdeep Konar, JNU
3. http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/exhibition/tagore
4. http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2815/stories/20110729281508900.htm
My area of interest in Art is the Figurative Art and more precisely the Baroque Form which used exaggerated motion and grandeur to produce an effect similar to storytelling. My favorite artist of Baroque Form is Peter Paul Rubens who propagated this form through a series of wonderful creations like the “The Fall of Man”, The Portrait of Duke of Lerma” and many more. Rubens was a prolific artist. His commissioned works were mostly religious subjects, “history” paintings, which included mythological subjects, and hunt scenes. He painted portraits, especially of friends, and self-portraits, and in later life painted several landscapes. Rubens designed tapestries and prints, as well as his own house. He also oversaw the ephemeral decorations of the Joyous Entry into Antwerp by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand in 1635.
Most of his drawings are extremely impactful but not detailed; he made great use of oil sketches as preparatory studies. He was one of the last major artists to make consistent use of wooden panels as a support medium, even for very large works but he also used canvas. For altarpieces he sometimes painted on slate to reduce reflection problems.
His fondness of painting full-figured women gave rise to the terms ‘Rubensian’ or ‘Rubenesque’ for plus-sized women. The term ‘Rubensiaans’ is also commonly used in Dutch to denote such women.
About Figurative Art
In simple words, Figurative art means art which represents something that you can ‘figure out’. They normally represent human figure or an animal figure. However, while most of the time, this is true, it need not be true always. In more broad sense, figurative art deals with real world. The imaginations, the ‘story’ behind an art is given a form which one can relate with as real world entities. It is not abstract. Some of the popular forms of figurative art are paintings and sculptures.
All figurative art is dependent on line, colour, shape, light and dark, mass, volumes texture and perspective. Picasso said ‘ There is no abstract art. You must always start with something figurative.’1
Figurative art has a very long history. The earliest examples of figurative art are at least 35000 years old.2
Why do I like Figurative Art?
To me, the most interesting aspect of figurative art is the fact that it tells a story. Every creation, every piece of art comes from the backdrop of an un-told thinking of the creator. It not only depicts a real entity but it also brings forth much more contextual aspects. Like the culture of the time when it was created, like the lifestyles of the ancient civilizations, like the values of the society, like the most important events of the time so on and so forth. Further, since this story is presented as the real world entities, we can easily relate to it and indulge in the moment presented. No wonder, figurative art was used as means of communication in ancient times.
One more aspect that amazes me is the representation of emotion in the art. Be it the facial expressions of a painting or the way a rock is carved in a sculpture. Sometimes, the artist deliberately mixes the figurative art with something absurd and creates a lasting impression. If you would have walked on the streets of Oslo in Norway, you would know what I am talking about.
To me, figurative art provides that fine combination of imagination and reality which is easy to ‘digest’. The real world resemblance enables faster and better connection of viewer with the thought process of creator. I believe that having this connection is the most important thing in the world of art since every art is created to convey a message. Figurative art makes is much more effective – hence it is my choice.
References:
1. http://www.figurativeartist.org/
2. http://www.ehow.com/about_5402250_figurative-art.html
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism. Ai was commissioned as the artistic consultant for design for the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics, also known as the “Bird’s Nest”. Ai’s work is included in numerous public collections, among others the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. In 2011 Ai was imprisoned for criticizing the Chinese communist regime.
Ai exhibited his largest solo work named “So Sorry” at Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany in late 2009. The title refers to the thousands of apologies expressed recently by governments, industries, and financial corporations worldwide in an effort to make up for tragedies and wrongdoings – though often without shouldering the consequences or the desire to acknowledge let alone repair.
In October 2010, ‘Sunflower Seeds’ was installed at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London. The work consists of one hundred million porcelain seeds, each individually hand-painted in the town of Jingdezhen by 1,600 Chinese artisans, and scattered over a large area of the exhibition hall. The artist was keen for visitors to walk across and roll in the work to experience and contemplate the essence of his comment on mass consumption, Chinese industry, famine and collective work.
What I like/Dislike about Yusuf Arakkal’s Art
Yusuf Arakkal paints in expressionistic style (see his explanation about painting style in Quotes section below). His hard life growing up shaped his art, which is moody and often depicts life in the streets (examples include “Faces of uncertainty IIIrd world”, “Still on the pavement”). One aspect of his art that strikes me is his use of light and shadows (For example, see “After Kathe Kolwitz”). His palette is usually biased toward the darker shades – deep reds, dark blues, burnt sienna, and blacks dominate his paintings. His art gives hints of his struggles – straight lines run across the paintings, sometimes these lines are barbed wires signifying his angst. Even usually cheerful settings such as kites flying are juxtaposed on an unusually dark sky giving it a foreboding look (see “Kites”). He re-interpreted Picasso’s famous “Guernica” after Gujarat riots; upon learning of the riots, he rushed to Gujarat, such was his torment. Out of this endeavor came his famous works such as “”War, Guernica Re-occurs”, “Children of Conflict” series, “Gujernica” etc which, in typical Arakkal style, depicts vulnerable people, scenes of terror and angst.
Data
• Born in Kerala in 1945.
• Belongs to the Arakkal royal family.
• Parents died in his early youth, when he was only 6-7 yrs old
• Ran away to Bangalore at 15; worked as a mechanic and technician in HAL
• Trained under Jaya Varma (relative of Raja Ravi Varma); Diploma in painting from Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat
• Works exhibited in British Museum, Museum Of Modern Art NY.
Quotes
• “For an artist creating something that satisfies himself and others around him would signify success. It is not about the money my works bring or how many accolades they win. As long as my paintings sell for a comfortable price, I’m fine with it. What is most important is the satisfaction they bring me.”
• “I endeavor to arrive at a synthesis between aesthetic integrity and social responsibility.”
• “Portraiture is a difficult genre because it requires technical expertise. But as a creative art form, it can give away to tedium and mechanical repetition if the portraits are not dredged from memory and imagination”