| |
| |
| Ref No.: |
12 |
|
| Birth Year: |
1931 |
| |
| Education: |
Arty Trio
Gayatri Rajwade
This is truly a happy week for art—an exhibition of paintings and drawings by three of India’s senior artists, Jivan Adalja, Prem Singh and S. K. Sahni throws up a tremendous body of work, technique and creativity.
On show at Panjab University, this trio has been exhibiting together for the past two decades (since 1985) simply for art’s sake.
“Art plays a vital role in the search for relationships and we celebrate our togetherness by exhibiting together,” smiles Prem Singh.
What they saw was that touching quality in each other’s works. “We like what each of us do and respect that individuality which brings us all together,” explains Singh further.
Delhi-based Adalja’s work is marked by his figurative forms. His faces in muted tones in a variety of mediums that range from crumpled paper to paper napkins to even gauze reflect his playful spirit but it is his subject, his expressions that hold true meaning for him. “I draw from the mundane-ness around me. People sitting, working, thinking—in different moods, with different emotions flitting across their face—that tiredness welling around their eyes at the end of a long day softened by a single glad thought—these things move me,” he explains.
So his faces in water-colour washes and black ink are stark reminders of a life filled with sadness and happy moments, “except those blissful moments are few and far between”.
Fisher-folk, homes, lanterns, birds—everyday images find moving life in his art. “I say to God if you have put me into art, make me swim otherwise you should not have given this to me,” he smiles.
Prem Singh’s work contrast’s sharply with the others. For, his art is inspired from nature. “There is a celestial song playing all the time weaving patterns and design in nature and it is this lyricism which inspires me. So much so I see with my ears and listen with my eyes and visa-versa.”
Singh’s beginnings in art were figurative but then having realised that unlike a raga there is no bandhish (binding) in art he decided to set himself free from forms, from conventions and conditioning, and interpret his nature in a free-flowing style. “It is a dialogue with the canvas for each blank space is a challenge so why not deal with that first? I fill it with colours from a passion and meaning that wells up inside me and after that I fill in the strokes, consciously, working on the rhythms that sprung up in the first play with the canvas,” he explains.
The result is a riot of colours capturing the silent, evolving activity of nature, the dancing cadence of nature in hues from icy blue to warm yellows, startling reds and even brooding blacks.
S. K. Sahni’s turns the “pure, unsentimental, unconditional” straight line into evoking different moods, emotions and feelings while placing them in conjunction with other lines. Exploring this, his art traverses to realms unknown, flowing, converging and making forms that are strikingly appealing. No two works are the same and that perhaps is the challenge, which this artist has mastered so admirably in the past three decades and continues to do so. |
|
| |
| Profile: |
|
|
| |
|
Exhibitions
Artist Catalogue
|
The Planet of Indian Contemporary Art, Finest resource of India art, Online art gallery, artist directory 
