Madhabi Mukherjee : The Sublime & The Celestial

In Satyajit Ray's Charulatha

In Satyajit Ray's Charulatha

In Satyajit Ray's Charulatha

In Satyajit Ray's Charulatha

In Satyajit Ray's Charulatha

In Ritwik Ghatak's Subarnarekha

In Ritwik Ghatak's Subarnarekha

In Ritwik Ghatak's Subarnarekha

In Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar

In Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar

In Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar

With Satyajit Ray

Madhabi Mukherjee (b. 1942)

Devajyoti Ray's Art : Redeeming Innocence From Post-Modernity

Rendezvous

The Journey

Good Bye

Twilight By The Window

The Gaze

Introspection

Reclining Fantasy

 The Smoker

The Gossip

The Baul

Grooming The Self

A Quiet Evening

There are various solutions, and I find Andy Warhol’s position particularly interesting. Warhol interests me because he develops a media-oriented, mechanical strategy. It is consistent with the strategy of the system, but faster than the system itself. It doesn’t dispute the system, but it pushes it to the point of absurdity, by overdoing its transparency..

 ~ Jean Baudrillard on Andy Warhol

The first half of the twentieth century had witnessed a series of turbulent transformations in the sphere of art and culture. The two World Wars had exposed the fault-lines which were hitherto hidden in the project of Modernity. The self-procalimed authority of Enlightenment Rationality crumbled. And the arrogance of the singular Truth, with a capital-T, became stale and obsolete. In its place, a mosaic of multiple truths germinated like amoeba. The certainties and fixities of modern living gradually came to be replaced with the uncertainties and insecurities of a fractured existence. In short, during the second half of the twentieth century, post-modernity emerged from the carcass of modernity. Rejecting the grand naratives of  modernism, the post-modern art evolved by blurring the boundaries between high and low forms of art. Modernism was seeking the closure in form and was concerned with conclusions. But, post-modernism began to long for openness and unboundedness. Post-modern art became more interested in the processes and journeys rather than with the end results and destinations. This has come to be a reflexive moment in the history of art as it rolled over to demask pretensions and accelerate the process of self-consciousness.

It is interesting to note that while the fin de siècle of the 19th century saw the birth of modernism, the same twilight zone of the 20th century mutely witnessed its withering away. And heralded the emergence of what Jean-Francois Lyotard had called as The Postmodern Condition. The grand (or meta) narratives of human history like the Enlightenment or the conception of Marxism have become untenable because of the mind-boggling technological advances in the domains of communication and mass media, from television to the internet. This has resulted in a totally new form of production of signs and symbols in the post-industrial economy, hitherto unkown to the experiential unvierse of mankind. Among a wide array of thinkers starting from Jacques Lacan to Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault to Jacques Derrida, the most illuminating insights on the modes of mediation and technological communication are found in the astoundingly wonderful writings of Jean Baudrillard. In the contemporary times, complete understanding of the minutiae of human life is impossible and it would remain an elusive ideal. This is inevitable because human beings as consumers of mass media are seduced into a simulated version of reality, or, to use one of Baudrillard's neologisms, a state of hyperreality. Thus Marshall McLuhan's global village has got transformed into a simulacra due to the communication revolution where nothing is real anymore. Unwittingly though!

In such a predicament, the creative expressions of artists have become radically different from the modernistic period. A few artists in South Asia have begun to conceptualize their unique position in the international contemporary art. While operating in a post-colonial society, these artists have a genuine need to discover their indigenous idioms and metaphors in order to evolve their own unique styles. In this post-modern cultural landscape, which is distinctly fluid, it becomes imperative to interpret the multiverses that co-exist both within and outside the vortex of human mind. And as Lyotard says, while there is no certainty of ideas, there are definitely better or worse ways to interpret things. Therefore, it is vital to understand, comprehend and above all, relish the works of such contemporary artists who see and interpret these panoramic worlds which we inhabit. One such fine artist with a creative flourish and vitality who is emerging in the contemporary South Asian art scene is Devajyoti Ray. In his recent works during the last few years, he has been pioneering a new style of art which he has termed as Pseudo-Realism. By experimenting with this new genre, Devajyoti Ray approaches reality through abstraction by means of abstract colours and shades. In the process, he creates a simulacra of the real, depicting the hyperreal, which approximates the real but multilayered worlds which we simultaneously live with.

The works of Devajyoti Ray are refreshingly original and fascinatingly new in the contemporary art practices prevalent in South Asia. Devajyoti's works are meditative attempts to unravel the semiotics of the hidden symbols and meanings that are embedded upon the fractured consciousness of the post-modern Self. Unlike many of his contemporaries, his works are not pretentious. They communicate to the viewer with an innate genuineness and calls for a longer conversation with the objects of art. It is this beauty and innocence, the defining hallmarks of his paintings, that makes them stand apart in the post-modern cacophony of the art world. In the existing marketised artscape, where art has become yet another commodity and where the scribbled signatures, not the object of art, sells, Devajyoti's works are uncompromising. Post-modern art holds that all stances are unstable and insincere, and therefore irony, parody and humour are the only positions that cannot be overturned. The works of Devajyoti not only redeems innocence and beauty from post-modernity, but also contain with them an ironical stance and a self-critical gaze. That is an interesting way to look at oneself and the world around in these difficult times that we are condemned to live with and get along.

Thomas Constantine : The Second Acquirer Of George Grosz's "Eclipse Of The Sun"

George Grosz ~ Eclipse Of The Sun

My father, Thomas Constantine, now 82, acquired this painting in the late 40's at the age of 19, as payment of a $104 dept from a young man he worked with, who's Father received the painting as a gift from the artist himself. My father accepted the painting as payment, he found it an interesting political depiction of the world. At 19, my father, a Cypriot immigrant saw the meaning of the painting. I remember this painting, rolled up in our Garage, as a little girl. My father sold the painting to Heckscher in 1968 for 15,000. My father has a great explanation of this painting. This is what the artist thought of what was going on in the world at the time he painted it, very, very politically symbolic. The Donkey, the public, who walk with binders and are fed news/newspaper propaganda, Nazi Germany, killed in the name of the church, (the big guy with the wreath of Jesus and a candy coated cross) and other Governments sit around and do nothing (the guys with no heads, writing laws/deals and sit around twidleing thumbs) as the banks get bigger, the dollar sign in the sun, and is all the money made on war, as the people suffer and are imprisoned in their own lives. (the person behind bars on the floor with the scull) Notice the shoes, Rich People in Gov. The Guy who is whispering (with all the guns,tanks and arms under his arm) was thought to be the Man who really started the rise of Nazism that Led Hitler to who he was and what he did. (not sure of the guys name), also notice the rope at the end of what the donkey is standing on, that is something that is used to pull the rug out from under you ... yes, a very interesting painting, and very political.

I entered the above post, about my Father selling this painting to Heckscher .. here is a great explanation of the painting..

It is a scathing indictment of the corrupt military establishment of the Weimar Republic. A fat, weapon-carrying industrialist whispers in the ear of a decorated general wearing a laurel wreath, identified as Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934), who was Field Marshal during World War I and second president of the Weimar RRepublic (1925-1934). Headless ministers ready to carry out their orders surround the two. In front of von Hindenburg is a funerary cross painted red, white, and black, the colors of the former German imperial flag. A bloody sword recalls the general’s deeds during the war. A, tilts precipitously, threatening to throw von Hindenburg, the industrialist, and the ministers down the stairs donkey, the symbol of the German burgher, stands at the edge of the table, wearing blinkers emblazoned with the imperial eagle and gobbling up the lies printed in the press. Under the table, a child is seen behind the bars of a prison representing Germany’s future. The table, painted green and red, the colors of money and blood and into the pit of death below. At the upper left, a dollar coin eclipses the sun,suggesting that capitalism and power, represented by the military-industrial complex, will lead to apocalypse. Above the figures, destruction is seen in the fires in the dark background. A World War I airplane is seen at the upper right. Eclipse of the Sun was exhibited at the Galerie Flechtheim in Berlin in 1927, but it did not sell and Grosz brought it with him when he came to the U.S. in 1933.

Research by The Heckscher’s Chief Curator Kenneth Wayne has pieced together its subsequent history. In the late 1940s, the painting came into the possession of Thomas Constantine, a house painter who acquired it as reimbursement for $104 he had loaned a co-worker friend in lower Manhattan. The friend’s father had acquired the painting directly from Grosz. Too large to hang, the painting was rolled up at Constantine’s Long Island home for many years. He eventually tried to sell the painting to several major New York museums, but didn’t find a buyer. In 1968, Heckscher Museum Director Eva Gatling saw the painting at the Harbor Gallery in Cold Spring Harbor. She pursued its acquisition with singular vision and commitment,soliciting contributions from the Museum membership. Today, this masterpiece of twentieth-century art is The Heckscher Museum’s most acclaimed painting and quite plausibly the most important artwork on all of Long Island.

~ Post from the Daughter of Thomas Constantine

Longing To Get Back Home..

Longing ~ Shaun Peck

Almost heaven,
West Virginia,
Blue Ridge Mountains,
Shenandoah River -
Life is old there
Older than the trees
Younger than the mountains
Growin' like a breeze

Country Roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

All my memories gathered 'round her
Miner's lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine
Teardrops in my eye

Country Roads, take me home
To the place where I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice
In the mornin' hour she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
And drivin' down the road I get a feelin'
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday

Country Roads, take me home
To the place where I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

Country Roads, take me home
To the place where I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, now country roads
Take me home, now country roads


~ John Denver

Painting : Vincent van Gogh's 'The Potato Eaters'

Vincent van Gogh : The Potato Eaters (1885)

There are things which we feel to be good and true, though in the cold light of reason and calculation many things remain incomprehensible and dark. And though the society in which we live considers such actions thoughtless, or reckless, or I don't know what else, what can we say if once the hidden forces of sympathy and love have been roused in us? And though it may be that we cannot argue against the reasoning sentiment and to act from impulse, one would almost conclude that some people have cauterized certain sensitive nerves within them, especially those which, combined, are called conscience. Well, I pity those people; in my opinion, they travel through life without compass..

What I think about my own work is that the painting of the peasants eating potatoes that I did in Nuenen is after all the best thing I did..

You see, I really have wanted to make it so that people get the idea that these folk, who are eating their potatoes by the light of their little lamp, have tilled the earth themselves with these hands they are putting in the dish, and so it speaks of manual labour and — that they have thus honestly earned their food. I wanted it to give the idea of a wholly different way of life from ours — the so-called civilized people. So I certainly don’t want everyone just to admire it or approve of it without knowing why..

~ Vincent to Theo

Painting : George Grosz's 'Eclipse Of The Sun'

Born in Berlin, George Grosz (1893-1959) was a leading member of the Dada Movement, who later painted many caustic works criticizing the rise of Nazism. Like many artists who fled Europe, Grosz immigrated to the United States and was teaching at the Art Students League in New York. Grosz returned to Germany in May 1959 to live out his days, but died from a fall down a flight of stairs within weeks of his return.

George Grosz’s large masterpiece Eclipse of the Sun of 1926 became available only in 1968, after it was acquired by the Heckscher Museum of Art. The painting is a scathing indictment of the military-industrial complex and of materialism, featuring an industrialist, a general, and four headless members of the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, all under a sun that is obscured by a dollar sign. The donkey atop the table and the dead skeleton strewn on the floor are the tell-tale signs of modern nation-states across the world. Eclipse of the Sun is one of the most important oil paintings of the 20th Century.

The Art Of Graffiti

The cities are the devilish dreams of our Gods. To inhabit a pigeonhole, wake up as Kafka's Gregor Samsa, shave the weekend stubbles off, get into a new set of inner-wear to feel a deceptive sense of freshness which also vanishes with the first pee, wear that plastic smile and go cuckooing in the work-place is what we call as living. Modern life has metamorphosed us into monstrous vermins. Only skeletons move, wear suits and blabber those same fifty words day in and day out. Haven't we become the ghosts of ourselves long ago?

Graffitis are an artistic whimper of a moribund civilisation, a muted moan of the chaotic cityscape. The alienated urban man with stained hands scribble, write, draw or paint on the sidewalks, pavements, subways and public toilets. Those walls have become the canvass of his lacerated soul. Some of these graffitis express the subconscious outpourings of sexual repression. And many others are creative markings of a subaltern urban culture with subversive overtones. Some are profound artistic expressions which mock at us and raise fundamental questions about our hypocrisy and snobbery. They tear the facade apart and leave a tight slap on our conscience. That is, if we still claim to have one.

The city of Mumbai is the only place in India where i've seen graffitis on the walls, stretching across miles and miles. It is not found in Lutyens-Sheila Dikshit's Delhi as it may not suit the finer tastes of dignitaries to the Commonwealth Games and the power brokers of the nation state. It is not there in Bangalore or Hyderabad, which are fast becoming treeless real estates. Chennai can only boast of those gory cut-outs and gruesome posters staring at every nook and corner. The only ubiquitous cultural feature which can claim of a pan-Indian unity is the graffitis loaded with sexual symbolism adorning the walls of all the public toilets cutting across the country. Is there a cosmopolitan pop culture unique to Mumbai which has led to the flowering of many a beautiful graffitis on its long stretches of walls?

The art of graffiti may belong to an age old tradition of mankind. But the turning point came to this pop art form only during the most poetic year of 20th century - 1969. The year of 1969 was when the students' movement gathered momentum from Sorbonne to Berkely, the antiwar protests broke out across the globe, the Hippie subculture and the Woodstock Festival happened. The 1970s saw the city of New York emerging as the cultural capital of the world of graffitis. From there it had spread out to Paris and London and many other cities across the globe. Many cities have banned it as an act of vandalism and some have encouraged it like the city of Mumbai.

It is Jenny Holzer who transcreated this art of graffiti into an interesting art of installation. She started using the words and ideas floating in public space for her LED exhibits on gigantic billboards across various cities. She is a pioneer in using texts as an art form. Her works speak of the subtle power of words in creating resonances lasting long in the mindscape. She continues to inspire through her projections about feminism, power, violence, death and love. As the pop singer-duo Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel say in their hit number The Sounds of Silence, the words of the Prophets are always written on the subway walls. Only we should be able to discern it.

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Protect me from what I want.



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Sloppy thinking gets worse over time.



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Instead of hearing it from an ass, i would rather fart.



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Men are not monogamous by nature.




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You must have one grand passion.




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Did you live, before you die?



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