C. Douglas, Man with Goat, 1994, mixed media on paper, 11.75 x 7.75 in.
Rose Red Rose Invisible, Visible in My Blood,
Akar Prakar New Delhi
August 23-October 7, 2022
The exhibition Rose Red Rose Invisible, Visible in My Blood, curated by Siddhi Shailendra, takes the viewer on a poetic journey into the creations of artist C. Douglas, while simultaneously asking them to look beyond the narrative of the subject. In Douglas’s works, the real does not always inform his visuals, but his visuals perhaps can be imagined as a reality with the unknown and the fragmented.
The influence of books and literature in Douglas's practice take shape in the form of words and texts as part of his compositions. But paradoxically, the words may never lead to the understanding of the subject matter. As Douglas says “The words are not there to describe the narrative, but to function as image itself. The written words dissolve into calligraphic representations, just as visible lines or geometry”. The Rose Red series and the Blind Poet and Butterflies series are hence inspired by the poetry of William Blake, T. S. Eliot, and Fernando Pessoa. One sees motifs like the Blind Poet and Butterflies and the Man with the Mirror repeatedly present as subjects in more than two decades of his practice.
Taking its name from the inscription in a series of artwork, the exhibition Rose Red Rose Invisible, Visible in My Blood highlights Douglas's practice from 1990 to 2022. The exhibition is a survey of more than three decades of the artist’s practice and his use of poetics as a visual language.
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100 Years of Somnath Hore, Akar Prakar Kolkata
August 27-October 15, 2022
Reception, August 26, 2022, 6-8pm
A printmaker, painter and sculptor, Somnath Hore’s works are a reflection of his sensitivity and empathy towards his subjects. Beginning his practice during some of the hardest social and political time in the country, such as the Bengal famine and the pre-Independence struggle, Hore’s sketches were the visual representation of his first hand experience. In his life, his association with the Communist Party and his personal political beliefs deeply influenced his imagery.
Experimenting with forms and techniques, specially in his printmaking, he was able to invent his own technique known as the white on white pulp prints and popularly referred to as the Wounds series. In his practice, the swift strokes of his ink & brush work, the minimalist representations of his woodcuts, the hollow core of his bronze sculptures or the striking textures of the wounds series became the signature styles of his artistic language.
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