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For the
past 35 years, Mohan Samant has been living and working in New
York. but the recent exhibition at the Gallery B.A.I. in Soho,
his first one-man show in 20 years, proves that his Indian roots
still dominate.
The 17
works on display, which include 'Death of Jatayu and Sita Haran',
'Sufi Dancers' and 'Medusa on the Moon', are provocative. Wire
figures are juxtaposed with ancient Mayan. African and Egyptian
influences in a blaze of colour reminiscent of Indian miniatures,
to create a contemporary synthesis of images.
Samant
adds dime store plastic toys and doll's eyeballs to his works,
using them like celestial relief figures in ancient Indian sculpture.
"Art is after all a reflection of the societies we live
in. Remember how Picasso turned a bicycle seat and handlebars
into a work of art?" he says.
Samant,
born in Bombay, was part of the Progressive Artists Group, which
included M.F.Husain and F.N.Souza. He worked in Italy and England
before coming to New York on a John D. Rockefeller grant. Over
the years, he has exhibited at the Smithsonian Gallery, Museum
of Modern Art in Oxford, and his works can be found in the collections
of John D.Rockefeller III, Asia Society and Museum of Modern
Art in New York.
In the
spacious skylit loft apartment which he shares with his wife
Jillian in lower Manhattan, caged parrots and lovebirds chirp
amidst a lush splash of greenery. The sun-drenched room with
its high ceilings and vast interior is lined wall to wall with
paintings and books.
Though
living in voluntary exile, India continues to be the most important
influence on Samant's life and works. He loves to play the sarangi
and Indian books, music, art and cuisine remain his favourites.
"A lot of our gods and goddesses have four arms, three
heads and whatever not, and this is absolutely modern. Modern
art was never new to us - we were just bombarded with very mediocre
realist painting under the British for 200 years," he says.
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