I have often felt that abstract paintings and sculptures are like nirgun paintings. Artists worship a formless God that only they are able to see when going through the throes of creation. And when others see it, it becomes a process of perception that has its own rules of “seeing” and forming an amorphous metaphor that takes “shape” at various levels of consciousness. The practice of creation too has a methodology that might differ in artists.

Many artists do not touch colour to the canvas until they create the entire painting in their head, and only then just “download” what they have created in their head or heart. One of my doctor friends often recounts how prior to a surgery, he goes through each step in his head in detail and the actual surgery is then like retracing those steps.
And then there are other artists who see themselves as mere mediums of the creativity to reveal itself. They are happy to be surprised, wanting to fall in step with spontaneity as it gurgles and surges like an unbridled river. One such person is senior artist Suhas Nimbalkar. At his latest show, he allowed himself the luxury of letting his colours do the talking, as they take him by the hand into crannies of the works. His palette traverses the entire spectrum of joyful and buoyant to somber to nearly dark. And yet there is a continuity of thought and emotion that binds them together.
Nimbalkar is a sensitive artist who explores an almost poetic thought processes in his works. His interplay of colours is subtle and refined — rather like the man himself. Somehow, I have often associated hues of white with his work in keeping with his earlier series, but he has played with colour with equal aplomb this time. Knowing him, he must have gone over the works several times and have the ruminative quality, so missing in this day of “instantness”. Some works were marked by “sameness” and seemed repetitive only in terms of colours.
Now that full-fledged summer is round the corner, galleries are not mounting any important shows but often using the time to showcase their younger artists and collections acquired over the year. Gallerie Nvya’s latest offering Within Reach is an interesting mix of paintings, sculptures, serigraphs, drawing and installations where M.F. Husain’s signed prints rub shoulders with young Maya Burman’s paintings. The target audiences this time are youngsters and potential collectors. This is a burgeoning group that needs to be addressed and even converted.
I use the word converted deliberately because this audience has the interest and the money to pay for their taste but somewhere along the line, its sensibilities need to be refined. For there were many works done mostly by very young artists that I found wanting in aesthetics. It is my contention that if there is no beauty in art, where does one look for it? I often say that one can judge a person’s age by the kind of music he or she likes. So is it with visual art. The harsh and sometimes confusing life situations that are part of their experience have resulted in the youth revelling in some horrifying ugly art, as its creators, perpetrators and consumers.
The other important factor is the end of the romantic era. There are fewer Devdas’ — believe you me, there was aplenty in my parents’ generation — and more acid throwing avengers in this day and age. And contemporary art by its very definition, is after all a mirror of its own reality. And when I lament the end of romance, of course younger people can think of me as fossil — but I sure hope not!

Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist