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The good
news is that it's still possible for a stranger to walk into
a top gallery and get his paintings hung in a one-man exhibition
almost at once. It happened to Manmohan Samant, whose highly
impressive first American show opened at World House this week.
Even more interesting is the fact that Samant, who now paints
large abstractions, was trained in the rigid academic tradition
of miniature painting in his native India. The change started
in Bombay, where, he reports, there's a lively abstract school.
It was nurtured in Italy, where he went on a fellowship. The
outcome is an extremely personal expression (despite small whispers
of Klee's line and the shadow of Tapies' texture) that seems
to combine the romanticism of Italy and the mystery of India.
His canvases are almost reticent in their tan-grays that sometimes
seem lit from behind. He uses an impasto so thick it's almost
relief. Texture and tone are subordinated, however, to cleanly
and surely articulated construction. The pictures have a slow,
stately rhythm, suggesting the flow of broad rivers, the movements
of ancient rituals, the glow of fading days.
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