Contemporary Art In India: Embodied

Gallery Art & Soul, Mumbai presents Embodied, an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by 11 artists curated by Jasmine Shah Varma
September 5 to 28, 2007

“[A]ll are fragile things made of just 26 letters arranged and rearranged to form tales and imaginings which will dazzle your senses, haunt your imagination and move you to the very depths of your soul.”

- Neil Gaiman talking about his stories on the back cover of Fragile Things, Short Fictions and Wonders

THE human body is to visual artists what the 26 letters are to writers. It has been central to visual language since the beginnings of art. Phases of non-representational art have come and gone but the human figure is constant in creative expression. ‘Embodied’ explores the power of the human form and the ingenious means used to depict it.

One of the earliest forms of worship, fertility figurines were found both in the Indus Valley civilisation and the earliest aboriginal art of Australia. Tribal art such as Warli is characterised by simple but effective horizontal, diagonal and vertical lines used to create male or female forms performing sundry activities. Human forms have been integral to the depiction of religious themes. However abstract the religious notion be, the human form has been used to express it as seen in ancient Hindu art. God is portrayed as the perfect entity, superior to the human. Yet a deity is imagined in the image of the human being.

In more recent times, 19th century artist Edgar Degas, known for his draftsmanship, chose to observe in his contemporary life the dynamics of movement, posture and line of body by drawing, painting and sculpting young female ballet dancers. In Degas’s dancers one can feel movement, grace and poise. In the early 20th century Pablo Picasso did away with narrative details and depiction of form as in nature when he put together five provocative nudes in ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’. The sharp, crude lines exuded brutality. In the context of ‘Embodied’ it is significant how both artists eliminated the use of allegorical motifs and effectively influenced our senses with polar approaches to the female human form. The body contours, the softness or hardness of line, the subdued pastel colours or solid tones, the placement of the figure are tools that aid in conveying certain ideas through the human figure.

The purpose of art has shifted from religion to recording history to sundry intentions of the day. But what’s remained is that a large number of artists’ world-view is incomplete without the human form. It is employed in figurative and narrative art – and portraiture too. ‘Embodied’ focuses narrowly on some contemporary artists who use the human figure as a singular form in their vocabulary. The works in this collection are stripped of motifs signifying place or time. The visual cues about the context arise from the individualistic rendering of the human form. There’s mystery: at times gestures and postures relate emotions, and in some instances an iconic image evokes reverence. The human figure is used as a metaphor by some, for others it’s a study of pure form, and some narrate stories through it.

The artists gathered here go beyond rendering the form as seen in life.
- Jasmine Shah Varma, Mumbai