IN SHORT

Art tells stories. Stories evoke art

EVERY artist develops a painterly language over time and that becomes a means of visual communication with the viewer. Participants in this exhibition have used their visual vocabulary to respond to published works, whether they are novels, short stories, fairytales or socio-political essays. Each one has chosen a piece of writing that they felt inspired by, and brought out its essence in a visual form. This has been done in a series of small-format paintings, from which arises the title ‘In Short’.

Storytelling takes on a different meaning and role in the hands of the twenty-five participating figurative and abstract artists. The premise of this exhibition was that artists apply the same idiom for storytelling as used in their works otherwise. Some have used one source of writing and others have integrated works by multiple writers and genres.

Ernest Hemingway, Italo Calvino, Somerset Maugham, Rohington Mistry, Haruki Murakami, Kahlil Gibran, Arundhati Roy, Anees Jung, B K S Iyenger, Jataka tales, Ramayana, and daily comic strips are some of inspirations for the artists.

The tradition of narrative art goes back to the earliest surviving paintings in India like at the Ajanta caves. They relate scenes from the life of Buddha. The reliefs on ancient Hindu temples have serialised narrations of episodes from epics besides iconic representation of deities. In the Mughal paintings made under Akbar there are examples of illustrations of Persian poetry, literature and fables. Besides, there is the Akbarnama, which is a pictorial account of his reign. In that context it’s stimulating to note the role that contemporary artists are playing in narrating contemporary stories or written accounts of happenings in our times.

What's interesting to see is not only how the story is retold, but also how the artist picks on elements from a book to represent it or take the writer’s thought further. As a viewer, does one make the connection between the painting and the story that the artist has chosen? Will the artist's imagery, inspired by a particular book, match with the fleeting images that would have perhaps flashed in the mind of the viewer while reading that book? In the case of artists who have chosen timeless stories, have the interpretations brought out a dimension unexplored thus far?

Hope you enjoy this session of storytelling.

Jasmine Shah Varma
August 2005