Aesthetic of Abstraction

Life is a mystery. 

So is the art and the artists.

I first met Kamal at his own art gallery which he courageously opened in Adarsh Nagar, Andheri, Mumbai, a locality popular with the TV and film industry. It was impossible for me to think of an art gallery, which was opened by an artist, who is new to the city and was staying in an rented apartment. I like the man and his gallery space, which I visited more than once.

Kamal kant was not a known name in Mumbai art circle at that point of time but he had spend time in Delhi, working in different discipline of art that includes- drawing, painting, sculpture and murals. But that is not enough. He was also active in writing on art and editing literary magazine in Hindi. He is a creative jargon, who loves to remain free when it comes to creating art. He believes- one can make living by doing various kind of works related to art, but when it comes to personal expression and exhibiting in galleries, your work should must be free from market pressures.

Once he invited me at Gorai beach, where at his friend's form house, he was creating  human heads with cement. I saw him working like a magician with cement.

Afterwards, there was a gap of many years in our personal encounter. Suddenly, he informed me about his exhibition of paintings at Studio Desh.

I have always enjoyed looking at his drawings. In that show, he painted his own bold figurative human form in bright colors. That was the beginning of his decision to devote more time for artistic quest.

The young man from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, has come a long way. Now he is painting bold huge colorful abstraction. I witnessed him working in his studio at Kandivali. He has brought a tremendous playfulness in his art making. His current set of paintings reminds us the urban walls, which is the most important human creations in the history of our planet. 

We have created walls around us- Walls of- Color, Cast, Race, Religion, States, countries, Society, Politics.

Walls- created out of insecurity of various types also create prison, and fills us with longing for freedom.

But colors of these wall-like abstract works, also give us unique aesthetic experience of vivid urban human emotions.

Ravi Shekhar  

http://kamalkant.com/index.htm           

memories of BENDRE FOUNDATION CAMP-2010

morning...8 am.

vikash has come with his blue cab. I have to pickup sharanu Alloli from his home here at Mira road. then we will go to Kala Nagar, Bandra, from there the whole group will move towards the Panvel. though it is november, but weather is just like monsoon. it has been pouring almost every evening and the smell of the earth is laughing at the calender.

Sharanu is with his big canvas. he has already started working on it as his process requires long working hours to complete the work. he is accompanied by his friend Amit Patil, who is also an artist, a year senior to Sharanu in Gulbarga art collage.

Sharanu, a student of Gulbarga Art Collage is very energitic and enthusiastic in organizing ventures. he has been the enrgy power house behind this 5 days long camp too, being organized by Mr. Padmnabh Bendre son of legendry artist
Late prof. N.S.Bendre, who's birth centenary will be commencing in the year 2011.  

the car is crawling in the morning traffic of Mumbai, as our discussion started on different subjects. most of the people , i will be spending time for the next 5 days are new to me and I wish to drag them in live conversations so that we get comfortable with each other to celebrate the togetherness.

the other artists who will be with us are
Sonalli Iyengaar and Vijaya Kalyan.

sonali is travelling with us in the same car but vijaya will be jining us soon as she is driving from Lonavala, as she stays there away from the urban chaos. I have seen her one person show at Museum Art Gallery, which had red apples as main source of inspiration.

somewhere between Panvel, Karnala bird santuary and alibaag is situated the heavenly lonesome modern architectural cube on a small hill just off the main road. the river flows to and from depending upon the mood od of the sea- I was told.

Vijaya joins us with her husband Nitin Kalyan in a black car. we reached to our final abode. Mrs. Shraddha Bendre, the better half of

Mr. Padmnabh Bendre has come with us to play a perfect host, which we were about to discover in the coming days.

road to the little bungalow has become slippery due to the rains. the wheels of the car was skidding while going up. we stop the car on the slop itself to walk on the pathway balancing carefully as guided by Bendres.

every one takes a walk inside-out of the location verballing  the words like- 'nature',  'peace' and 'silence'. clicks of camera were matching perfectly with chirping of birds hiding on the mango trees.

the bunglow has three stories connecting beautifully with stairs inside. top floor has the biggest hall with big windows and and a small rooftop. 

I sit on a big window chatting with Nitin, who is graphic designer, son of a portrait artist, who was running an art school in South Africa. Now Nitin is back to Mumbai and stays at Lonavala. 

The celebration begins with the cake as it is Vijaya's birthday. cakes and clicks were dominated the scene till the tea and breakfast happened.
we all will be working on a 3X3 ft canvases.   

Sharanu Alloli.

Sharanu Alloli is working on a canvas all black while is doing white on white.

Amit is working in the big hall upstairs- prefers working most of the time as his process is slow and needs much concentration for a long period of time. 

sky is cloudy and soon little water drops are seen moving in the clean air. but Sharanu is not afraid of rain. he is not running with his canvas to a safe zone, rather he is sitting in rain with his needle. "I wash my canvas with shampoo in the end."- He states.

Sonalli Iyengar   is setting up her canvas in the studio on a big old easel but she did not, because it was not straight. but soon with Nitin's help we manage to get it right and I put my canvas to start working with oils. this became the matter of historical pride for me, when Padmnabh Bendre appeared to announce that this old heavy duty canvas belongs to the senior Bendre. I will be painting landscape of changing space of Mumbai based on a photo taken by me near charni road. as I am ready to take risk with color treatment and composition taking views constantly with the fellow artists. I strongly feel that camp should be a collective way to discover something which can not be done alone working in the studio.

we are enjoying the songs pouring constantly from my mini music player. in between we are chatting about life, art, painting, music, films and the memories of the good old days. with a new set of people one can always talk a lot about lot of things. only thing to avoid is the bragging.  

in the evening we sat around the table talking. I request all my friends to speak one by one so that one can simply focus on listening, which not only every one agreed but followed with much respect for the all days.

I will not be able to write every thing we talked in that period of time, because I never intended to write a long report on the camp. as days go by, I felt the need to write down whatsoever I could, as a memory of the good time.  

                                                                                                                     Next day morning came

 Mr.V G Andani, a legendary artist and teacer who has taken the teaching art to a different hight in India. he is the founder and principal of M M K collage of Visual art, Gulbarga, Karnatak. 

Sharanu has told us, what can be told by a decent humble student about his teacher & mentor. after meeting a person like him, I only felt that words felt short in describing this kind of people, who just become an instrument in spreading all kind of goodness. he showed us the single copy of the book of his drawings, which we all wanted to have it.  I wanted to see him drawing. he agreed. and i saw him drawing effortlessly flowing lines. I do not know how to describe the moments in the words. i have always felt that spontaneity certainly has more potential for creating great art. there is always the danger of producing bad art too. this is a risk worth taking when it comes to art.

Mr.Andani Painted two canvases with the same ease.

fortunately Vijaya is carrying a laptop so we can see films. in the mid of the film show the electric supply was interrupted and we did not know that we will get the chance of sleeping the wilderness without power. 

no power means no water that we realized in the morning. so this was an easy holiday for the bath. do you want to go back to mumbai at this point of time?- asked Mr. Bendre.

and the answer was negative.

we all said good bye to the place. car sped-up on the high way to Mumbai, the city of dreams and dreamers. we moving towards, what is called normal for urban life. 

Away from nature. 

From where nature  is defined as luxury.

where internet, mobile and televisions are  much closer to us.

i took out my mobile phone after five days from my bag, switched it on and I sms uma-

 'reaching by the evening..!'