Master strokes

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An untitled work by Minal Damani

Extending the Line, a group show curated by Julia Villasenor Bell at Vadehra Art Gallery is essentially a selection of drawings made by established and younger artists from the gallery’s own collection. The works explore the significance of line in creative process.

Line and its manipulation have been fundamental to form since its beginning. The earliest expressions of human consciousness as seen in the pre-historic cave paintings were largely based on sketching.
Ever since the moment of creation of visual imagery to propitiate, illustrate, de-construct the human condition and imagination, line has been seminal in art, ‘the primordial artistic gesture of every culture.’
Most artists share a compulsive urge to sketch, to record the moment they are living in, a memory or a thought. Some of the sketches end up as a painting or a sculpture while others remain exploratory exercises.
Tyeb Mehta’s drawings and head studies explicate both the processes; the head studies are evocative and indeed demonstrate the artist’s ability to capture the essence through line. A Ramchadran’s studies of monkeys frolicking in trees and a seated woman were later incorporated into larger paintings, reminding us of the significance of skilled draughtsmanship in painting a masterpiece.
One of the more interesting work’s on display is a large charcoal drawing of his characteristic landscape by Parmajit Singh. Without the bright colours of his paintings, here one can finally see the bare bones of light and shadow, blanks and solids that give the works such depth.
Amongst the younger artists is Minal Damani who works with shrinking/expanding amoeba like repetitive forms in her watercolours. The works have a bubble-ripple effect, especially useful in creating water imagery.
Dr Seema Bawa is an art historian, curator and critic