Artistic expressions from two different generations on display at KNMA Delhi

Two artists from two distinct generations, Amitava and Mohan Samant, have their captivating artworks displayed at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi. Their work explores human conscience through unique narratives.

The artworks of artists from two different generations, Amitava and Mohan Samant, on display at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in Saket, spin a similar narrative that stirs the human conscience.

If We Knew The Point by Amitava, and Magic in The Square by Mohan Samant engage the audience with their respective pictorial constructivism that hints at the mysterious and the unknown.

As one steps inside the gorge of the KNMA gallery, an obsidian room pays tribute to the colour black, as Amitava interprets it.. Against that sombre background, his self-illuminating canvases carry a mesmerising light that exudes tranquillity and serenity. Gazing at them, the mind feels at ease.

Amitava is significantly influenced by films and literature. He takes inspiration from Tagore, Kurosawa and Tarkovsky. On his canvases, a tube of paint takes different dimensions and acquires different shapes and meanings. The curatorial planning of Amitava’s artworks explains to the viewer how the artist addresses the human figure.

His figuration in the artworks starts from dense overlapping lines and gradually gets fragmented as he pierces the figures and ruptures the forms. As a result, a hand extends to become a tree branch or a leg morphs into a mechanized body part. Through his compositions, he delineates the dehumanization of humanity.

He also embeds his canvases with ephemera materials like stamps, bus tickets, dry cleaning labels and everyday objects which he would hoard as memorabilia, using an assemblage technique. One can spot broken buttons, and remnants of threads, gauge, and evoke new meanings and associations.

Tanya Sharma, a Sociology student who came to see the exhibition, says, “The compelling aesthetic of Amitava’s works is very fascinating; it can be interpreted in more ways than one because the viewer is left to speculate.”