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Multi-cultural
images from the heritage of Egypt, Mexico and India find their
way into Mohan Samant's works, as do unusual objects like plastic
toys and 'whatnots'
His works
cannot fail to entrance you, as they speak volumes, yet say
nothing obvious at all. There is a vibrant use of colours, wires,
plastic toys and even skeletons by Mohan Samant, for an exhibition
of his works from February 14, at the Birla Century Academy
of Art.
Picnic
at Paradise Island, Celebration of the Dead, Ashva-Megha, Death
of Jatayu and Sita Harnam, Dancing Angels, The Bird Watchers,
Mother Earth, Surya Vanshi, Sufi Dancer... these are the names
of only some of Samant's works.
Says Samant,
pointing towards Death of Jatayu and Sita Harnam, “I never
take a subject matter at the beginning. It comes through only
after the work is 70 per cent finished.” The painting shows
a forest, and looming large, Sita, Ravan and Jatayu. While the
work started with the forest, it built up to much more.
“I
wanted to have fine lines on my works like in miniatures. So
I used the book binder's wire. It is pliable and not springy”.
All though
his works look very complex, they are all one-stroke paintings.
Says he, “I don't want them to look simple because the
human mind is not simple. It is not viable in art, to do simple
things, or simply.”
Samant
stayed in the US, but never met any known painters. “I
never had any heroes, not even myself. If an artist or painter's
work is alive, it speaks for itself. Shakespeare was a master.
His sentences made you think, and they had their own inertia.
The colour and power you put in a painting, can come alive either
simply, or after deliberations.”
In 1963,
Samant was one of the 102 artists of the Dunn International
Show, held at Beaverbrook art Gallery in Fredericton, N B and
later at London's Tate Gallery. He has been living and working
in New York for a long time now, and has had many exhibitions
abroad. He was part of the Progressive Artists Group, which
included M F Husain and F N Souza.
Samant
plays the sarangi with the same ease that he paints. “Dynamism
in facing a white canvas, is the same as that which any composer
will sing even though he may close his ears. When Rembrandt
looks at a model, she is not a three-dimensional sculpture.
“When
he is painting, it also all the aesthetic masala that you have
inside you, that has to be transferred to the two-dimensional
canvas. He is not a camera. He has to deal with canvas inch
by inch. He is not putting dead sentences. Because he is alive
to us, even today. He defied time.
“So
also, when you make a masterpiece, you have defied time. I don't
believe in all these 'isms'. When they talk of modernism and
post modernism. it's because they want to remove the old and
put in something new.”
Samant
doesn't start his work with a subject matter. The reason being,
he reveals, that he uses more than just one thing for his work.
It's not just the oil or water colour. He uses wires, skeletons,
plastic toys, and has even used the head of a Barbie doll for
the head of Medusa in Medusa on the Moon. The works show influences
of Egyptian, Indian and Mexican images, which he loves.
So when
you walk in to the gallery, you will without doubt be confronted
by an astonishing variety of images from different legends and
cultures.
At Birla
Academy of Art and Culture, from February 14 to March 5.
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