Exhibition from :
8th April to 20th April, 2001.
Time:
11.00A.M to 7.00P.M(daily)
At
Krishna's Collection Art Gallery
New Delhi-110024

Although, at a glance, my mother and my works may look vastly dissimilar, a closer look will show that our paintings are more complemental than different. Indeed, the title of our joint exhibition - Attitudes, sacred and profane - establishes this visual kinship.

While "the panoply of flesh" that peoples my canvases have lineaments of gratified and grateful exhaustion, my mothers figures area transcendence of this is nakedly loud sensuality into something elusive and mysterious. Mystical even. Which is not to suggest that the gross cannot be subtle. Or the subtle gross. Take the Krishna legend and the Ras Lila. At one level is the erotic element in Krishna's dalliances with the Gopis. And, at the other, subtler level, is the symbolism of self surrender. This is precisely how our paintings are to be seen: as two currents of the same life force: one gross and loud, the other subtle and understated.

From her early water colours to the later oils and acrylics on canvas, hers has been a sombre of inner resolution. The Byzantine austerity (of a host of iconic personages) and somber palette giving way to meditative calm and lighter, more sparkling splash of colour.

Evident in her new work is the charming spontaneity and innovative spread on patua scroll. The figures are now considerably more attenuated, stringy, almost joyful and spunky.

Indeed, taken together our work can be seen as a visual analogue of a poem she once wrote. It would be nice to quote it.

"I breathe and fill my lungs
with the odour you have left behind -
where the husk of a single, solitary,
lusty moment lingers.
I press the husk with my naked limbs.
Like you ft breathes for a fleeting second.
My thoughts abscond and settle in the bosom
of a mango tree bent with desire."
- Gauri Pant
 

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