An abstract journey

Five abstractionists have come together for Uma Nair’s show Five Quartets at ArtKonsult that commences on May 23. It is a study in explorations in abstraction. Four works by each of the five artists will be on display.

“ The idea of bringing together artists such as Syed Haider Raza, Seema <g data-gr-id="48">Ghuraiyya</g>, Akhilesh, Manish <g data-gr-id="49">Pushkale</g> and Yogendra Tripathi is a step into the realms of abstract <g data-gr-id="50">practices-to</g> reflect that the journey is one of deep contemplation, it is a reckoning that becomes less rigidly structured, it’s a solitary lampooning that permeates with visual rhythms and pictorial contrasts  the juxtaposition of forms, colour fields and geometric tonalities engendered” says Uma Nair curator. Among the <g data-gr-id="43">canvasses</g> Raza’s Shanti Bindu is the most important work specially created for the show last month. At 93 Raza is the giant of Indian abstraction and the last of the moderns other than <g data-gr-id="51">artiste</g> Ram Kumar.

Next come the canvasses of Seema <g data-gr-id="33">Ghuraiyya</g> who creates palettes in white – they are statements of soothing calm and solitude. Then there are mesmerising canvasses by Akhilesh and Yogendra Tripathi who are both exceptional artists in the abstract domain. Manish <g data-gr-id="34">Pushkale</g> large runner like canvas has many <g data-gr-id="35">tones</g> of autumnal instincts and is more like an ode to a season of plenty and mellow light tones.

“My Bindu is primarily a philosophical expression, an act of faith in the Infinite, an affirmation of spirituality,” Raza declares. “When I sit down in front of one of my paintings to contemplate it, I suddenly feel a great expansion of the spirit, I feel like a man liberated from the wants  of material <g data-gr-id="41">desires ,</g> like a man who belongs to the vastness of the present and the  past .”

The Shanthi Bindu will be part of Five Quartets at Art Konsult Delhi – an exhibition that explores abstraction in five contemporary artists including Raza. At best this work that will form the core of the show will present the Shanthi Bindu as a mystical icon of inter-dimensional travel and the perpetual change and flow of matter into energy, body into spirit, material substance into void.

Most artists in the modern day scenario think that abstraction is a practice of application of colour and strokes. This show with five serious abstractionists is created just to point out that abstraction is a journey -and not a destination or a mere kaleidoscope of colour.

For Raza abstraction is both symbolism and a flashback into his <g data-gr-id="39">past ,for</g> Seema <g data-gr-id="45">Ghuraiyya</g> it is a silent and serene embracing of solitude. For Akhilesh it <g data-gr-id="38">as as</g> resonant and rhythmic as the sonata in his dalliance with colour and form. For Yogendra <g data-gr-id="37">Tripathi</g> it is about the tensile strength in earth tones that loom like little membranes in the <g data-gr-id="46">innner</g> journey. For Manish <g data-gr-id="36"><g data-gr-id="47">Pushkale</g></g> it is the little windows that re akin to the stained glass Romanesque niches in Europe that speak and echo the yesteryear.