Do we wear a mask all the time? A mask to hide hope, despair, doom or delight! But when a mask fascinates an artist, new meanings, insights and expressions get unfolded. This is the end result when artist Kanu Patel chose ‘Mask’ as the theme to draw a whole series of paintings. At an exhibition held recently at the Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, his paintings spoke a great deal not just of his creative genius but also of his deep spiritual quest.
Born in Visanagar, Gujarat, the 42-year-old Kanu Patel (Kanaiyalal F Patel) is winner of many prestigious honours.
From the time he got the best painting award at the 16th Gujarat State Yuvak Mahotsav in 1984 when he was just 18 years of age, Patel has scaled new heights. A winner of best painting and graphic awards in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, Patel was specially honoured by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in 2004. Also an artist who has won at least five best actor awards, Patel has held his one man shows throughout the country.
A wide range of images emerge on Kanu Patel’s canvas – masked nymphs, clowns, Shankaracharya, Buddha and also self portraits. The presence of Shankaracharya and Buddha expose his quest for spirituality in the series.
The many self portraits – depicting him in varied roles – make his work of art a narrative of his personal journey.
During a visit to Europe, he visited a carnival mask shop and found the masks interesting. But later, when he got an e-mail from his overseas friend which had the images of those masks it stirred his creative consciousness. He couldn’t resist the temptation and began to sketch one. The experience was so overwhelming that one image led to the other and resulted in a show entirely dedicated to the paintings on the theme ‘Mask’.
Speaking to Sunday Herald, Patel says masks are a part and parcel of our daily life. “Don’t we see people wearing multiple masks everywhere in society?” he asks. When asked about the self portraits, he said he was influenced by the many roles he once played as an actor. The first painting of the series has a gazing eye with the painter’s mask and clown like hands of an unknown figure trying to mask the mask. He has also tried to weave destiny and death in one of the paintings with the images of horoscope and magical stick with a globe of glass on its top.
His student Sanjeev Bhatt, whose exhibition ‘Nightscape’ coincided with Patel’s exhibition, said, “You will notice that my teacher has used two different colour textures for a single stroke. Along with his favourite knife strokes, he has also used soft and smooth brush strokes.”
It’s interesting to see Buddha in the series, emerging as a result of Patel’s visit to the caves of Ajanta-Ellora.
There’s Buddha meditating under the Banyan tree and also a woman (Yashodhara) with a partial mask with her longing eyes.
All the paintings have subtle imagery keeping them together.
Each painting has a clue that leads to another — a feature that has made the narrative engrossing.
The last painting symbolically depicts a complete sense of surrender where all masks are cast off before Buddha, including that of the painter himself. Sanjeev Bhatt said, thanks to the generous support of Gujarat State Lalit Kala Academy, they were able to hold exhibitions throughout the country. Patel is working on his exhibitions in Mumbai & Bangalore in November.
