From celebrated Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma’s famous painting of Goddess Saraswati, adorning a golden silk saree, with her veena and vehicle peacock at side, to lord Krishna portrayed in Navarasas, the second edition of Divine Deities Art Show by Ojats Art has a lot to offer for art lovers. By Saritha Saraswathy Balan
Kadam is an evergreen tree and considered as the favourite of lord Krishna. Might be artist Harshvardhan Kadam’s connection with nature started from his name.
Known for his blazing imagery, Kadam has created Brahmini, Vaishnavi and Rudrani in big canvases for the Divine Deities show. “In epics, vedic trinity is mostly depicted as heroes from a worshipping point of view. I took the liberty to create the female versions of the same. Here Brahmini is depicted as the Mother of the Trinity. I am trying to establish nature’s connection with the divine”, Kadam says.
His Vishnu is Vaishnavi. The Goddess created by Kadam is relishing a personal moment. Here also, he says he took the freedom to elaborate. Based in Pune, Kadam’s collective transformation together with his eclecticism have produced powerful visual art conceptually and from an animation point of view.
“Nature is the creation of the divine and the other way too. I have a personal understanding of all these. Even I am named Kadam which is a tree and I am well connected with nature”, he says.
Keshav, another artist participating in the show, has created lord Krishna in numerous forms. He has brought out lord Krishna in navarasas and in various dance postures as the friend of elephant and cow, to cite among a few. Keshav makes use of various designs, costumes, environs and nationalities to reinvent himself while drawing Krishna, using water colour and Indian ink.
He paints Krishna every day. “It began in 2002 and has become a habit now. Krishna is the form of happiness and he has so many virtues. I try to experiment with his paintings in numerous ways”, he says. A cartoonist by profession, Keshav relooks at Krishna. “The stories in epics communicate through symbols. As an artist, I try to understand the symbols and their abstract qualities”, Keshav adds.
Abhishek Singh, who is also known for his graphic novels and comic book works, has created Samudra Manthan (Churning of ocean) in a huge canvas. He stayed in Varanasi to finish the work, on the banks of river Ganges for five days.
Singh has recreated all the characters, same as in the mythology, in his mass work in which lord Shiva is the lead.
“My message is to not pollute rivers and clean the water body which is very much socially relevant now. Through the churning of an ocean, the fight between good and evil and the need to have control over oneself is depicted. Along with nature, we can realise ourselves”, says the artist. He is the co-creator of Ramayana 3392 by Deepak Chopra and Shekar Kapur.
Ujan Dutta, a self-taught artist and a graphic designer, has also brought out the connection with mythology and nature in his work. There are flora and fauna in his paintings where he has portrayed Radha and lord Krishna in romantic moments. “I wanted to make mythology in a contemporary style and included all beings in nature so that people can easily connect with them”, says Dutta. While he depicts the divine images from Hindu mythology, his work style is inimitable.
And there is all the famous divine paintings by none other than Raja Ravi Varma, the first man to give faces to Indian gods. In the first edition of the exhibition Ojas showcased only the ace artist's work. “The show is an interpretation of the divine by Raja Ravi Varma and four contemporary artists. This year I thought that the contemporary artists who are working in the genre of the divine should also explore the platform”, says Anubhav Nath, curatorial director of Ojas. Asked on why Ravi Varma, Nath says that he is the master of divine art. “There is almost no artist who has not been influenced or inspired by him. We have grown watching his paintings of gods. The works at the exhibition were chosen to fit to the theme, divine”, he says.
The exhibition consists of more than 100 art works: paintings, oleographs, digital prints, sketches, drawings and watercolors, ranging in size and starting at an affordable price of 3,500.
“But I won't call it a homage to Ravi Varma. My idea was that artists should come up and their works should stand on their own”, Nath concludes. The exhibition is on till 13th October.