India has always drawn spiritually inclined people from other places and cultures some of whom deal with their experiences and search through art-making. While it may be natural and sincere for many a self-taught artist, more often then not they resort to over-familiar and literally treated traditional symbols, so largely retracing the already dated path of ethnic modernism.

 One should appreciate that the Serb Atila Schroeder instead has chosen to follow his intuition while attuning himself to subtle yet overwhelming spiritual recognitions (Gallery Art,  Zen at Windsor Manor, May 16 to 21).
The outcome of it has its virtues as well as limitations. The focus on sensing rudimentary but not quite definable sensations is adequately translated into a primarily abstract idiom. The painter achieves best results when managing to indirectly suggest certain lofty feelings where inner and outer pulses merge with a premonition of their material and immaterial substance.

The same, on the other hand, tends to either dilute in vagueness or, to the contrary, demand to be almost verbally clarified by more representative or symbolic elements. A fine connectedness between the feeling hand and pigments informs the canvas Vision of Human Soul. Its static-dynamic structure very lightly alludes to the cosmic circle within, as the soft rectangularity of the composition brushed in layers of tentative, partly erased and reapplied strokes evokes an elusive yet string process.

By complementary contrast, Soul Sunstance has an abundance of soaring, bubbly forms in pastel hues that succeed in immersing the individual motifs in the matrix around.

If the mood in the latter oil recalls somewhat Art Nouveau atmosphere, on the whole Atila’s work refrains from stylistic quotations, thus proving his genuineness. In a few other instances, however, he lapses into formalistic indulgency excessively relying on drips, pretty colours and design-like shapes.

This becomes rather loud in the images using hardly varied masses of glassy, throbbing globes. Whilst conveying rudimentary pulses, they do not quite point to the implied chakras. The meditating human figure in another canvas, too, would need better workmanship. Fortunately though, Atila returns to more minimalist and more expressive ways, like in the mutual approximation between the horizontal stretches of blue and yellow in Pulsations of the Soul.

Not so free
The drawings of Shan Re (Alliance Francaise, May 10 to 15), according to the self-taught artist, have been done in the method of free association. Nevertheless, if one expects intuitive or subconscious expressions from them, the effect is entirely contrary.
The thickly contoured silhouettes consist of a number of simple forms — almost straight lines, curving ones, triangles, loops and short, abbreviated ones. Whether consciously practiced or not, they add to a monotonously repeated repertoire of stylised forms alluding to, or more precisely representing, skeletal human figures.
The implied complexity of emotive situations does not come through from under the mannerism. One may trust the artist's intentions, but even in her figural paintings the cute sweetness of the faces and body poses against the design-like background diagonals act merely on the surface creating a popular, conventional impression.

Pattern-bound
The recent exhibition by the final year students of the Ken School of Art at the premises (May 12 to 15) had perhaps a less antiquated character than the earlier such events, yet still carried the heritage of formalistic, design-based composing along modernist methods with vague attempts at half-hearted contemporariness.
Although schoolish realism was not given prominence, a majority of the images were collaged loosely of obvious and patterned shapes, a dose of artificial juxtaposing and overlap meant to suggest profound meaning. Technical quality-wise, among several nearly amateurish paintings and prints the spectator could notice some relatively substantial examples accompanied by a degree of sincerity. Here one may have responded to the canvases of Geethamala, also to the works by Sridhar, Krishna Kumar, Shwetha K and Prabhakar.

Conventions
The Trois group of painters from Puducherry at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath (May 15 to 27) are equipped with solid workmanship skills. They employ those, however, towards a rather conventional and pleasing impact, which maybe should surprise in very young artists.
This is particularly evident in the hardly distinguishable water colours of Abel A and Ejoumale D  which, with direct detailing blanked rhythmically by strong daylight or blurred and bleeding under hazes, depict rather too familiar rustic scenes, townscapes and countryside.
Padmanaban T tries to be different conjuring an allegorical world of hybrid human figures with animal parts. Although not resembling any local idiom, the somewhat too sleek canvases hark back to 19th century Europe.