Sensing the intangible 

Against the visual directness and intensity of definite recognitions in a world brimming with existential issues, one tends to forget abstraction, especially that a great majority of it here is concerned with cultured decorativeness. It had its role during High Modernism as a means of affirming the autonomy of art and the centrality of its aesthetic concerns. On the other hand, there is no representation without some degree of abstracting, like there is no abstract art without a reference to real experience. What art does in the end is enable a sensation of things, whether those are focussed on concrete situations and thoughts or on less definable phenomena. 

Sheetal Ghattani strives to probe some of the latter. This still young painter from Mumbai exhibiting at Sumukha (April 7 to 25) ventures into the seemingly contradictory endeavour _ in a tactile way to capture the intangible _ the pure feel of being among space, light and texture, among the environment or the matrix of life. In order to delve into the core sensations and to sublimate them she renounces representation or even allusion to reality. To make the same hold strong she relies on palpable qualities of the surface texture which imparts intimacy and immediacy.

In her wish to reach the authenticity of the subtle, Sheetal avoids firm gestures, neither building clear originality nor going in for spectacular formal effects. Her idiom has grown perhaps from the lineage of Gaitonde and Mehili Gobhai in a quiet, patient manner finding its own language. 

The method has its merits and its limitations. The calm squares and rectangles of her paintings let in an association with peeling walls as well as escape its literalness thanks to the abstract painterliness preoccupied with tasting itself. They are unframed, but mounted on boards they suggest expansion into the surface, air and depth of boudless atmosphere. The water colours are layered carefully on several varied strata of paper tissue which conjure slight yet rich permutations of grain, rhythm and level, of comparative smoothness and rugged edges. The monochromatic compositions have certain amorphousness, their muted hues remaining on the edge of colour, as though non-colour yet full of many potential shades of it. Traces of dry hues other than the main create soft, indistinct pulses that may spread calmly throughout, condense, approximate a horizontal divide or nearly vanish. The new acrylics on canvas soften the impact further, the elongated flow continuing without sheet joints, however, carrying the raw finesse of the aquarelle along with the textures.

Predictable majors

Divergent Discourses’, an exhibition put up by Tangerine Art Space for the evening talk by Saffron Art’s director Dinesh Vazirani (Royal Orchid Hotel, April 14), hardly did justice to its title. In fact, the paintings and graphics by 17 well-established artists harmonised as a whole of often very consummate but pleasing styles. While Jogen Chowdhury's work always has its strength despite the repetitiveness, the exceptions were Krishen Kahanna’s drawing and the subtle realism of V Ramesh.

Saleability and predictability underlying the selection, it resulted in some sophisticated Laxma Goud works being displayed with their derivatives in T Vaikuntam.

Similarly, some familiar and accomplished abstracts of a decorative nature neighboured sentimental ones.

Light obviousness

Suhas Chavan who showed a vast number of his sketches at the Alliance Francaise recently, has a simple, direct understanding of what art should be. His black and white pen and ink drawings capture scenic sights in a traditional way _ as realistic impressions. They follow fairly conventional choices of vistas and execution. Their sincerity may be touching, but it stays obvious and a déjà vu. The viewer responds better when the lightness of the approach translates into some reduction of detail and a strengthening of the image captured in nuanced near-parallels strokes.

Open Eye

Kuchanna Srinivasan’s photography exhibition of this title (Lakshana, April 12 to 16) offered many rather consummate shots without yet proving originality of exceptional sensitivity. The images of picturesque Indian landscapes and exotically viewed rustics and takes from other countries seemed quite predictable with too much of somewhat artificial sunset hues. Much more successful were the calm, minimalist close-ups of scenery and earth which brought out the inherent beauty of natural pulses and formations.