M.F. Husain first endorsed it some four years ago when he came up with his ‘war’ series of ‘digital prints’. And then, there are talented artists like Sandeep Passan, son of Shyam Lal – among the few air brush artists in the 1960s in India – who also affirm their faith on the splendour of digital art.
Sandeep’s work ‘Transformation’, his first solo show of digital prints on canvas, is a strong statement on how the marriage of technology and brush can work wonders. Sandeep’s theme revolves around ‘merger’ of say nature and man, man and music, nature with God and so on. His subject – apparently a woman – personifies this merger through ‘emotions’ reflected through her body language and not facial features. This perfectly contoured woman with wet, long, loose hair, half-clad in flowing drapery enjoys her stay on the river bank, under the sky, or with musical instruments.
Sandeep’s romance with geometrical figures shows as they cut across every corner of his canvas and lend it an ‘impressionistic’ touch. His ‘air brush’ colours are subtle green, greys and earth tones, yet they don’t dull his works. There is a glamour in them untouched by frivolity. Says Passan, “Eighteen years of working in an ad agency and the practice of air brush since the age of 15 has perfected my fingers, apart from training from Delhi College of Art. I believe only the ‘hand work’ is not pure art. Technology is a boon for artists but the foundation has to come from knowing how to sketch.”
Technology on one side and divinity on the other through Suniyayta Khanna’s “Bimb-Pratibimb” complete the show. Her ‘subjects’ are Masyaavatar, Kashyap avatar Kamdhenu, Kalyug, Pralay and so on. She has divided her canvas into two parts showing God and His reflection in these forms. In one of them for instance she depicts Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh as ‘bimb’ and surya, chandra, and four ‘yugas’ as their ‘pratibimb’. Similarly Kamdhenu (cow) as the symbol of ‘aishwarya’ or luxury is reflected through a tiara, intricately carved throne and so on. Her expertise lies in detailing and producing water colour effect in oil painting. Says Suniyata, a trained artist, “Practising spiritualism and leading traditional way of life has made me get fascinated by such subjects.”
This show mounted at AIFACS concludes this evening.
