Dilemmas of the grand self

Ramesh Kalkur has always been concerned about and disturbed by the condition of the individual against and within contemporary urban life. Central to his art is the human body which as headless torso epitomises both the self and the site of his larger address. Contrasting and partly blending with superimposed on it scenes from reality, it reveals human relationship with the state of society, culture and the environment. Particularly poignant are Ramesh's photographic works which filter images of trees through torsos. The new paintings which were displayed at Sumukha (November 5 to 12), continue and broaden the line.

With a passionate, grave grandeur that comes from distress as well as caring, they focus on the dilemmas of the human soul in a world of globalising, consumerist individualism, where a person is freed to shape himself or herself but also forced to it, on the one hand, and on the other, remains steeped in the values, symbols and compulsions of tradition, while its own content is undergoing a transformation too. Referring to the fact that one is now one's own creator and that much of commercial, also archaic, imagery bases on dramatic effects, the artist has conceived the exhibition in metaphorically theatrical terms as "The great Indian show" in several scenes. The large number of vast paintings simultaneously makes the spectator imbibe the mode corporeally and psychologically to the edge of identification.

Quite in tune with the indigenous ethos, Ramesh lets the strong ingredients of the dainty, neatly depicted clash as well as interact with those of the rough, chaotic, tactile and ostentatiously displayed, until the obviousness of a direct, loud message absorbs warmth, poetry and complexity. Thus the torso is a firm but vulnerable place where objects or signs of what is desirable are positioned as a possibility both of clash and acceptance.

Sometimes the torsos under wide, lose strokes of turmoil look alien from the illusionist realistic objects-symbols of assets-values they confront (chandelier, western clothes, symbols of spiritual light). Elsewhere they acquire some formal properties of such objects (bonsai roots). This happens very well in the bodies covered by rich brocade motifs under the ornate throne of power and in those that acquire qualities of animal trophies. The torso of the self as the terrain of strife is given the ability and necessity to mould its choices and its soul. Hence, Ramesh makes it enact gestures of a puppeteer, magician and god, while a thread of lyrical musing pervades the whole.

As much as one admires his involvement and courage, one may not be entirely satisfied with the way many torsos have been painted. Their expressionistically loosened structure and surface is consistent with the meaning but not strong enough, slightly too vague to dialogue with the emphatically realistic objects. This dialogue does come through excellently in the oil pastels on digital prints with iconic heads and hands.

Moods around calligraphy

Amitabh SenGupta has been long known for his well painted but somewhat formally indulgent and nostalgic depictions of old architecture which paid as much attention to atmosphere as to realistic detail and decorative texture. The new series of paintings which were shown at Time & Space (November 7 to 17) appear very different at first glance only to disclose a similar approach.

The "Inscriptions" are inspired by ancient scripts of different civilizations from Brahmi to Far-Eastern ideograms and Egyptian hieroglyphics. The artist does not copy old words and texts but evokes his impressions around their world with its iconography, myths, spiritual and cosmic symbolism as well as with its immersion in the daily environment of people. He strives to layer these elements alluding to manuscript pages, epigraphy on stone, etc. also to walls, earth and sky besides an ingredient of somewhat vague abstraction.

Despite the multi-cultural references and the rather surface-bound efforts to make his compositions contemporary the acrylics seem to echo of the almost half a century old idiom of K.C.S. Panikar. The indigenised modernist figuration which in a sketchy shape recurs here and there recalls this source together with traditional Indian diagrammatic motifs. It is a cultured but merely pleasant imagery.

Romantic rusticity

Pushpa Dravid, a senior painter in Bangalore with a doctoral thesis on Nicholas Roerich, had an exhibition here after many years (WelcomArt Gallery, Windsor Manor, October 27 to November 4). Continuing the basics of her mainstream idiom, the canvases focus on a romantic vision of the countryside and village life. As such they belong to the lineage of Hebbar and, more so still, Bendre. With much compassion and sincerity perhaps, the scenes, nonetheless, aim at evoking the simple pleasures of rural folk but end up repeating a comfortable urban vision of it.

Vivacious and sensuous women here are seen as graceful, innocent and tender, and an amount of angularity does not truly express the ruggedness imposed by hard work and poverty. Quite predictably, the artist shows them at rest, with children, dancing and making music or wondering at the beauty of a bird. The simplified, geometry-guided figures are covered by flat colours and rhythmic linear strokes. The natural backdrops, too, follow a similar pattern, leaning and undulating planar divisions and lighter tones adding a sense of depth, while the separate, contoured forms hold one basic hue close to the surface with fields of vibrant hatched and daubed designs.

Cultured but familiar

The four city photographers at the CKP (November 2 to 4): Sunil  Kumar, Vinayak Das, Debanjan Das Gupta and Ashish Vanjari proved to be not only technically competent but sensitive and cultured in their compositions. With a fortunate absence of commercial glamour, they however appeared to stay within the limits of aesthetically appealing yet over-used precedents. Thus, their often fine images did not have much spirit. Quite often they followed similar formal options. The best impact was gained from attuning to the intrinsic forms of nature.

Conventional

Another instalment of lush Kerala landscape by Eby N. Joseph (CKP, November 2 to 15) brought variants of the same idiom where a literal kind of realistic rendering combines strong light and shade contrasts with a colouristic over-stress that incorporates popular tastes. One cannot deny the painter his skills, but the impact remains conventional and monotonous.