The world’s first-ever Tibetan thanka fusion exhibition kicked off at the Jehangir Art Gallery in Kala Ghoda on Tuesday.
A thanka, also spelled thangka, is a traditional Buddhist painting depicting divinities or patterns related to Buddhism.
The four-day exhibition, titled ‘Calm’, features the works of artist Sudhir Katkar, with two 10x14 feet installations featuring hundreds of his oil-based paintings stitched together. The exhibition, his eighth solo one, also displays oil-based thanka paintings, each depicting portraits and scenes from the artist’s journey through the Himalayas.
“Each thanka installation tells a story. I had painted a lot of canvas paintings on my trips to the Himalayas and was wondering what to do with them, which is when I discovered the thanka art which are Tibetan-Buddhist paintings on cotton or silk appliqué, usually depicting the life of the Buddha, influential Lamas, other deities, Bodhisattvas or mandalas. I was so fascinated by thanka art, which brings the unique coming together of art and spiritualism, that I decided to put this concept in my paintings,” Mr. Katkar said.
The traditionally unframed paintings, mounted on textile with a silk cover in front, are significant as both art and religious works.
Mr. Katkar said the main challenge was to stitch the paintings together, as it takes intense precision to achieve the thanka style.
“I was lucky enough to find the monks who have travelled all the way to Mumbai to inaugurate my installations. These monks told me about Mundgod, which is a Tibetan base camp in the foothills of the Himalayas. I spent the majority of my time there, painting and getting these thankas stitched. It took me three months to get the two main thankas stitched,” he said.
Mr. Katkar’s work has mainly focused on portrayal of the dark with the bright, attempting to convey different emotions alongside each other with the use of the paintbrush.
“I have tried to infuse the same feeling into my current work with thankas,” he said.
During his work on the thankas, Mr. Katkar was inspired with the colours of the Tibetan monks’ flags, which are either white, red, green or yellow, and has made his paintings using white, red and yellow. He said he prefers the subjects of his paintings to be physically present while he paints so that he can capture their moods better, and was inspired by the picturesque Ladakh and other Himalayan ranges, which have been captured in his exhibition.
