A way from illusion, to art

Abstraction is a genre that is understandably very close to my heart – and that is an understatement considering I am a practitioner. But having said that, I respond to abstract music and classical dance too that way – in a way it is like I am left handed and left footed and left eyed (by the way it is possible to be all these)! So when there are two solo exhibitions of abstracts at any point of time, it is like having a veritable feast! The two artists I am referring to are Gopi Gajwani and Akhilesh: Feast it certainly is to see a substantial body of their work. While Gopi’s show is taking place after nearly ten years, for Akhilesh it is a shashti poorti landmark show.

Gopi’s exhibition titled A Symphony of Abstracts is truly like a “Meditative Silence” that the artist refers to in his note. I allude to it for I feel that none can express it better than the artist himself – again I speak from personal experience. “There has been a constant struggle within my calm conscience for some time to invade into the vast mindscape to search for the limitless and infinite existence of mysterious, intangible forms into the arena of creativity. As the mind dives deep into the core and roves through in search of images, it moves with uncertainty and fear before giving life to immoveable forms. All this may sound simple and facile. But this is where a creative, restless mind uses its sensitivity to create a powerful and harmonious ensemble, playing with different forms and whispering tones splashing with many colour.”

Gopi’s abstractionism is almost instantly identifiable as square, and rectangular grids form a dominant part of his paintings. These are usually divided or united by a line or lines that reach a junction or form a holding pattern. But he is far from repetitive. His work from a certain time is distinguished by the colour grids and placement of lines in a particular order. His paintings are all about emotion and moments of fleeting tenderness. There is a glimpse of affection in his work that peeks into the world of love as well as the abyss of despair across which hope emerges as a beacon. They are replete with sentiments sans any tinge of melodrama. The audience is only allowed a glimpse of the artist’s thoughts, an evanescent epiphany as it were.

There is an almost autumnal brooding in the grey soliloquies of Gopi. At the same time, there is a celebration in equal measure of the bold colours that appear from a dark background. They are almost as though they have been ripped off from the top of deep colours to show the rainbow hues underneath. The colours in his paintings appear winking and blinking, directing the audience to their collection of memories.  He has determinedly brought texture in his works. It’s almost a tactile quality that the audience is tempted to touch.

 For Gopi, a sliver of colour, a band or line may seem trivial that it could be deemed insignificant, yet it holds the dominant shades in a loving bind, it could be a lyric, a heard line from a song, the snatch of music that has stayed with him. There is a suggestion of poetry as he moves from one verse to another.

Gopi likens his works most to music, perhaps for its changing quality to move from one fine rhythm to another, but they could be many things  the burst of spring in delicate greens, the bloom of summer, sombre Scarlets and burnt umbers of autumn.  Gopi employs it with so much painterly grace that it is impossible not to hear the alaap and the taan in the raga of his paintings. In a noisy, chaotic world, he builds us a refuge and then gives us a melody to cling to and to make our own.

Bhopal-based Akhilesh, who is celebrating his 60th birth anniversary or shasti poorti, with an exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculptures titled The Past Was Yesterday. The show traces the artist’s career and includes works from the early phases of his life to recent times. In recent years the canvas is marked with closely packed sparkling geometric vignettes and a textured surface. There is a move towards exploring bright colours and experimenting with unconventional pairings of colour, which astound the eye with their utter impudence.

While Akhilesh’s canvas is marked with closely packed sparkling geometric vignettes and a textured surface.

The sparkling magenta of the bougainvillaea that grows in wild abundance around the city of Bhopal appears on the canvas as if to rejoice or celebrate the defiance in mind. The artistic temperament is joyous and the spirit is liberated. Akhilesh is ready to push boundaries and walk on the unchartered path. Colours have always consumed him, and he recalls watching enviously as Raza or Manjit Bawa experimented with colour and the way Swaminathan brought the shades of yellow alive on his canvas.

 “When I am painting, the images and colours before me are my immediate realities and my fantasies come to life. Momentarily the world outside fades away. In its place, the magnificent strains of Pandit Kumar Gandharva fill my room, and as the musician’s voice ebbs and soars, I sing along as I paint. I am always at a loss for words in front of an artwork or the sound of music. Sometimes, my eyes tear up when I am alone listening to my favourite singers. The world around may have transformed, but fortunately, some things remain the same,” says Akhilesh.

When the artist says, “I am not nostalgic by nature and never tend to revisit familiar places in my paintings. Benaras and Jaisalmer were two places that I yearned to visit from my childhood. Perhaps it was the romance associated with the places? It didn’t happen for a long time, and I started painting Benaras without ever visiting the place. Years later, when I had my first show on Banaras, all the viewers said they found the spirit of the town in my works. I have yet to explore it, though! I visited Jaisalmer after many years and found some kind of connection between us, an inexplicable bonding. Spirituality is one thing, which cannot be claimed, and there are times you see a place and know that you recognise its lanes and skyline from another time. Every landscape is a fiction, and all fictions are landscapes. I believe that much like the music that plays on after the concert is over, the impressions of the painting remain in your subconscious mind.” And one can’t agree more.

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted onalkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com