It was an evening of soft laughter and sighs at the opening of Dilip Chitre’s painting exhibition. A tribute to the writer, poet and painter by Prakriti Foundation in collaboration with the Alliance Francaise, it celebrated Chitre through memories, poems and the mystic complexities of his paintings.
“Remembering Dilip is like remembering the lack of poetry in our lives,” said Prabodh Parikh, a poet, writer and Dilip’s friend.
Chitre’s paintings are lucid, usually a play with monotones, drawing one to reflect on them. They are mostly untitled.
A torrent of dark colours merges with the light and swirls into oblivion, perhaps like a whirlpool, in ‘The Deep End’. ‘Kerala Backwaters’ is more vivid, the painting looks like a landscape on a rainy day — the clouds are ashen, the rain falling on a red boat, the calm waters and the green fields. But the downpour is so fierce that the colours merge and everything looks grey.
‘Pandhurang’ depicts a figure painted in a light sandal shade with a halo, perhaps like a woman seated on the ground with a mossy green figure inside her. The halo around the woman seems to glow brighter every time you see it.
‘The Last Keertan of Tukaram’ is a painted sketch, where the poet is seen leaning against a tree, singing his last keertan, as crowds gather from all over to listen to him, entranced.
‘Do We Know What Liberty Is?’ needs a lot of introspection. There are human figures expressing joy in different ways. They run and jump with arms flailing. Many of Chitre’s paintings have dark swirling rings that are like clouds, enveloping them. An untitled painting, done in 2008, shows a black canvas with many faces. They express a gamut of emotions — anger, happiness, serenity, sadness and so on.
Dilip Chitre’s painting exhibition is on at Alliance Francaise till December 21. The proceeds from the sale of these paintings will go to Chitre’s family.
