Wonderland-Fantasy
Recent Paintings of Albert
Ashok
7th Solo Exhibition of Paintings by Albert Ashok
Wonderland-Fantasy
Recent Paintings of Albert
Ashok
The title of the exhibition
of the present series of paintings by Albert Ashok, which happens to be his 7th
solo is ‘Human, Humanoid and Poetry in Wonderland’. He has some
preference for the world of grotesque and fantasy, which he calls ‘Wonderland’.
He titled his last exposition as ‘Chaos in Wonderland’. This wonderland
is not far off from his existence, from the environment he lives in, that is
from the contemporary times. But in the process of fantasizing, the known world
and the present time gets transformed. Elements of past and future, elements of
myth and imaginary world creep in. But the aim of the artist is to unmask the
various layers of reality that darkens the present state of existence. Albert
is basically a romantic rebellion. The absurdity of contemporary existence
haunts him. He tries to find a way out, some times in the form of anguish,
often in the form of apparent sobriety and lyrical transcendence. In this
exhibition there are works of both these trends,
Fantasy is an essential mode
of expression in visual arts. Literally or lexically the word means an imagined
state of situation usually pleasant and often to some extent caustic or
sarcastic. In Greek aesthetics the entire field of expression used to be
classified in two streams: mimesis and fantasia. Mimesis reflected the natural.
When the image deviated from the natural, it used to be categorized as
fantasia. In Indian classical aesthetics the term ‘chamatkara’ was devised by
the aesthetician Visvanatha to indicate the essence of fantasy. Abhinabagupta,
another aesthetician assimilated ‘chamatkara’ with ‘rasa’ to give the term
greater validity. However in Indian classicism ‘chamatkara’ was elevated to the
state of the transcendental. But the situation of primitivist and modernist art
is different. In both these trends fantasy is a general and very significant
trend of expression that tends to enter deeper both to mystify and demystify
the reality, to dissect it. Fantasy is often used as a form of rebellion, as
has been done in expressionism, cubism and surrealism.
The forms of Albert Ashok are
based on naturalism. He transforms the voluminous illusionist three dimensional
rendering into a state of comic ridiculous situation to mimic the pseudo-valor
and expanded egoistic ambition of human being, often to find a pleasant
situation to indicate peace and tranquility. The way he transforms the natural
is akin to the ridiculous situation of fantasy. When he tries for tranquility
his expressions reflect some elements of ‘chamatkara’.
Albert Ashok is a self made
man and self taught artist. From a blank situation he has struggled hard to
come to his present position of an established artist. The struggle has given
him an insight to look into and realize the human situation and the state of
affairs through which the contemporary civilization is soaring high with a deep
void within it. To him the entire situation is ridiculous, a sort of wonderland
and pulsating with a possibility of annihilation. His fantasy grows out of this
void.
In the present exhibition we
see his large format canvases painted in acrylic showing various forms of
fantasy, vibrant and tranquil. In the painting titled ‘Humanoid’ he
paints a couple on horse back. Out of the dynamism he extracts a sense of void.
In ‘Happy Moments’ a couple sits on a sofa, the man with a guitar in
hand, the woman with a book. In some of the other works like ‘Sohag’,
where a woman takes a bath in a pond, ‘The Blue Musician’ playing
guitar, ‘Yellow Bird and a Cowherd’, a pleasant pastoral scene, the
artist creates different faces of ‘Wonderland’. The myth is far from existing
reality. ‘Wonderland’ is a tragic void.
MRINAL GHOSH
4 Feb 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment