By Neeta Omprakash

GALLERY Geetanjali, in an attempt to encourage young talent by giving them exposure in Goa, held an exhibition of paintings from April 3 to 9 by eight artists from Maharastra, who are part of the Himalaya Art Trust. The only common feature among the artists from Nasik, Pune and Mumbai was their qualification — a Government Diploma in Art (GD Art).

Many art schools in Maharastra continue with the old syllabus, culminating in a GD Art certificate after five years of study. The faculty who teach there have the same qualifications as well. Very few students from these schools who are from other regions of Maharashtra, pursue further study or travel to metros to study the contemporary art scene. Because of this, we tend to see the same approach to art among artists from these smaller centres.

COMMON THEME

THE most common theme chosen by artists from smaller parts of Maharashtra is ‘landscapes in water colour’, very often depicting the monsoon season. They can create the atmospheric effect of the monsoon with grey sky, wet ground, tiny figures in the rain with umbrellas seen from a distance, which does not give them any specific identity. The buildings look hazy, which give them an appearance of weightlessness, or they sometimes appear to be made of paper. The trees spring to life with bold brush strokes, letting the colours mix on the paper itself.

Three artists — Sushma Pawar, Ashok Dhivare and Ganesh Hire — exhibited their work which were landscapes in water colour. Hire’s choice of theme - railways and heritage buildings of Mumbai — set him apart from the other two. For a person living in Mumbai, local train journeys are an essential part of life; the Mumbai local has been around for more than a century. Through his art, Hire pays tribute to the magnificent heritage buildings and trains. His painting of a rickshaw-puller is remarkable because of the effect of the front wheel that represents speed and movement. All of Hire’s paintings exhibited here were in blue while Ashok’s paintings were rather dull and monochromatic. However, Sushma’s landscapes had very specific, bright and natural colours. One could feel the weight and mass in her forms. They did not dissolve into the atmosphere of the paintings, unlike in the other two artists’ buildings or any other structure.

Abstraction is another trend in the art scene in Maharashtra, specifically amongst those from the JJ School of Art and Architecture in Mumbai. Abstraction as a style has been adopted by many successive generations of students; they are either ardent admirers of their teachers or find it an easy way to paint. Abstraction can be difficult to continue for a long time as the artist can get to a point of saturation. However, at the same time, it is escapist. Artists Anil Naik and Hyalij Nimbaji exhibited abstracts in monochrome. Nimbaji’s paintings show a deep influence from artists Prafulla Dahanukar and Prabhakar Kolte from Mumbai.

ABSTRACT LEGACY

ANIL, being a senior lecturer at the JJ School of Art, continues the legacy of abstraction handed over to him by his seniors, whether by choice or by compulsion is not known. He is known for his skills in portraiture. He does demonstrations of portraits and creative paintings at various art schools. He is very versatile in handling different mediums and modes of expressions. It is curious how an artist balances between two genres of expression in art. When an artist expresses himself in an abstract piece of art it tends to mean that he identifies with an inadequacy in conveying his emotions. The identifiable form has limited meaning (though one may try to find different interpretations, there is a limit to how much meaning one can derive from an identifiable visual form).

Sanjay Sable’s work was distinctive in terms of his theme and its depiction. It appears that he is still grappling with the human form, however the extent of elongation is rather unnecessary in certain cases. The use of black in the series ‘Brahmin’ effectively balances the surrounding space filled with a cross hatching of lines. The almond shaped eyes penetrate directly into the viewer, evoking the debate surrounding Hindu fanaticism and Hindutva.

The attempt by Manoj Kumar of the Himalaya Art Trust, to encourage lesser known artists as well as Miriam Koshy of Gallery Geetanjali certainly deserves appreciation.