Vivid moods in black and white

Art Angle

An art exhibition entitled B&W — Many Moods, Many Themes, Just two colours — is on at Magnitude Art Gallery in Jayanagar. This is a gallery with a difference. “We have eight full-time artists working for us and they develop a theme which we give them periodically. This month it is black and white as we wanted a collection of art with a difference, completely devoid of colour so that it specially appeals to contemporary art lovers,” says S R Magar, Managing Director of the gallery.

The paintings are a mix of styles that range from surreal to abstract, from representational to still life. Dramatic, plain and even dizzyingly complex, the textures, brush strokes and styles and techniques vary in each picture. Geometric designs dominate many of the canvases while stark figures and faces form part of others in a compelling yet unobtrusive way. Concentric circles, spirals, black and white checkered blocks, hypnotic triangles and abstract compositions are juxtaposed in an interesting mix of styles and techniques.

The objective being to produce work that is quite clearly targeted to the art consumer, who is looking to embellish his home or his office with paintings that are customised to their individual tastes as well as affordable. “We encourage talented and relatively unknown artists from various parts of Karnataka by exhibiting and selling their work here. We give them a theme which we know our clients will like, and the ideas and inspiration change every month. Our artists work with all kinds of media like oil on canvas, water colours, acrylics, mixed media and even large-sized murals. The black and white series is especially meant for offices and corporate spaces where the atmosphere is businesslike and non-fussy,” adds Magar, who also describes this collection as ‘originals on canvas’ and says that his gallery does not stock reprints or reproductions of any kind.