The 62-year-old, self taught contemporary artist, Ravi Gossain is back with his solo show, “Birds, Butterflies & Henry Moore”. Ravi, known for making large paintings with abstract forms, has taken a step forward by dedicating his work this time to the legend of abstract forms, Henry Moore. Ravi has been working on his series “for the last three years out of his studio in Gurgaon.
After his first solo show during 1970-71, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Ravi took a 25-year-long break and worked as an engineer with top corporate and companies travelling more than 35 countries.
“My father Madan Mohan Gossain, who himself was an artist, never wanted me to become an artist and pushed me for an engineering degree but I believe nobody can kill an artist inside you and I bounced back with art which is in my genes,” says Ravi.
“Throughout my life there has been one room in my house which was my studio. You can become a doctor, engineer or a banker by putting years of hard work and study but you can’t become an artist unless it’s in your soul,” he adds.
Ravi believes that the real art lies in the art of distortion. His work ‘Birds, Butterflies & Henry Moore’ reflects that in each of its paintings. His paintings are full of exuberance and kinetic energy which if the viewer enjoys, Ravi would cherish .
The 30-odd oil paintings, which are on display, have vibrant colours like red, green, orange and blue depicting the colourful birds and butterflies.
“My paintings are closer to reality. Science and technology combined with aesthetic thought leads you to reality and further to conflicts, and conflicts gives birth to art,” says the engineer.
Scheduled at Alliance Francaise till Aug 20, Ravi says, “The works try to capture the freedom of a spirited butterfly or the contemplative brooding bird as a mere observer. Henry Moore’s stylisation became more than a template to modulate further derivative forms that I exploited over the years and can now be seen emerging and evolving in an organised fashion.”
