A PAINTER’S DECADE OF ABSTRACTION
Artist Prabhakar kolte’s solo presents the established and canonical work along some of his latest experiments with installation
Prabhakar kolte Mind’s Eye features many of his seminal works that are in keeping with his established style and approach but it was in fact the ‘playful’ and ‘different’ works that stood out and had visitors smiling internally as the-Mumbai-based Kolte played a warm host to his exhibition, curated by Uma Nair and presented by a brand-new art gallery in Defence Colony called Treasure Art Gallery (TAG) as the Gen NFT likes to call it. Now 15 years after his last solo Kolte is showing about 60 odd works with three installations that are showcased at the new gallery.
One never thought one would live to see the day when a senior artist and teacher like kolte-sir agreed to hang his artwork so differently that you had to look up to the ceiling to see it. Known for his formalist abstract paintings, the Installation II was hung from the ceiling of the gallery! Securely no doubt but the intention was to clearly make the viewer feel that sense of discomfort, of the possibility that all the objects presented in the installation, could quite suddenly fall on the head as you stood below admiring the work of this abstract expressionist whose oeuvre stretches back to over three decades. It is this naughty sense of humor that Kolte sir has perhaps kept hidden away all these years and he decided to show it at his solo show in the Capital city 15 years after his last exhibition in 2006.
At the other end of the gallery is another work in acrylic on canvas painted only in black and white. The work comprises a series of minimal dots at the center radiating splashes of black colour diagonally and vertically. The effect is one where Kolte brings the minimal and contained quality of the dots in contrast to the expressive splashes of colour moving outwards. While this is an ongoing process for the abstractionist, that one may glimpse in other works as well, it is perhaps the size of the work which becomes the defining factor and one is surprised that the artist was able to create such a large work despite the hemming in of the Pandemic. “I used this time of the lockdown to my advantage. I strongly believe that only engaging with what keeps the mind busy can see one through the time of crisis and isolation,” says Kolte about this period of being sequestered in one’s studio.
Director Tina Chandroji of Treasure Art Gallery is extremely honoured and happy about setting up in Delhi and hopes to add to the city’s clientele of art in the art market with contemporary Indian art.
“This solo show has stellar works of art and range over a period of time including some of his recent works from the past decade. The artist has been expressing the unique abstract language for over five decades with timely innovations, experiments and changes within the same, in order to make the paintings fresh and alive,” says Chandroji.
The solo at TAG which comprises masterpieces in paper, on canvas in acrylics and oils traces back to Kolte’s 50 years old lineage. Kolte is a vintage name in the world of abstraction and one of the most valued professors of Sir J.J School of Art Mumbai where he taught for over 22 years. He carries forth the legacy of Shankar Palsikar who was also an important professor at J.J School and they are the pioneers of abstraction at the Mumbai institute.
His works are created employing bold bands of colours and abstract forms that are usually painted against the austere background of greys with flashes of pinks, yellows, mauves, whites, greens and blues. The poet-painter has a mystical approach to his artwork where he claims that the artworks make him see rather than him seeing it. To quote the artist, “I don’t see and paint, I paint and see.” Kolte puts the act creating first and sight later because he strongly believes that it is the very act of painting that allows us to see things differently. What comes upon the canvas comes from within rather than it is a response to an outward stimulation
“Kolte’s paintings are, in the best sense of the word, endowed with artistic life: they possess the throbbing of life, its somber notes and radiance, and they exert an influence on a human’s inner life via the eye. As an artist Kolte regarded point and line to plane as the ‘organic continuation,’ ” writes Uma Nair in her curatorial essay.
TAG aims to encourage collaboration with institutions and artists by bringing in an active discourse around art and to create business partnerships. TAG also intends to support seminars, workshops, lectures, discussions, and talks that contextualize art within critical dialogue. We look forward to their upcoming workshops and events. Meanwhile Kolte’s solo show continues on till the 10th of December 2021.
Text by Georgina Maddox
Image Courtesy: Treasure Art Gallery (TAG )
Find more about TAG and Prabhakar Kolte:
https://treasureartgallery.com/
