Annual visits to his nanihaal (maternal dwelling) in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) throughout his childhood gave Viveek Sharma an early peek into the lives of ascetics and helped him to fathom the quintessential non secular lives. “I’d accompany my grandfather to the congregation of sadhus throughout Kumbh and he would inform me about these males who abandon worldly attachments and search enlightenment,” says Viveek.
Silence Please exhibition by Viveek Sharma at IHC Delhi
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The view of the mammoth crowds bathing within the Ganges; the religion, vitality, gaze and silence of the orange-robed or semi-naked sadhus with lengthy beards and matted hair mesmerized the younger thoughts. The then teenager’s impressions and creativeness changed into large-sized portraits of sadhus in later years because the artist in Viveek grew up learning Renaissance masters of artwork and was notably impressed by Dali and surrealism and, Van Gogh and his cubism.
Silence Please exhibition at India Habitat Centre, Delhi
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About two dozen such portraits by Viveek utilizing the Pointillist approach (software of small strokes or dots of color that visually mix collectively from a distance and disintegrate in shut view) are mounted at India Habitat Centre. Capturing distinct moments of introspection on the faces of wanderers who lead austere lives in isolation and journey on everlasting pilgrimage, the exhibition, Silence Please, attracts the viewer into an inside quiet.
Viveek’s canvases, from 5ftx5ft to 8ftx8ft, carry greater than the hues of his oil paints. There’s a magnetizing silence in his works that elevates the viewer to attach with the gaze or expression of the meditating sadhus on the canvas. There’s something intense in regards to the work that create patterns of sunshine and shade and the best way he interplays the colors, from saffron, inexperienced, white and blue.
Exhibit ay Silence Please exhibition at IHC Delhi by Viveek Sharma
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Viveek has showcased a few of his portraits of Kumbh sadhus on the India Artwork Honest in Delhi previously. That is the primary time he’s exhibiting 21 of his artworks in a gallery within the Capital together with two sculptures. “I wished to do the ascetics in 3D kind and took assist from a clay artist; one is in Bronze and the opposite in patina,” he says.
Moreover on an intuition, Viveek has additionally achieved a particular artwork set up utilizing material for the conoisseurs within the Capital. He has caught vibrant strands of material collectively that look each as matted hair or the lengthy unkempt beards as a part of ascetic look.
Silence Please exhibition at India Habitat Centre, Delhi
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Of his Sadhu collection, says Viveek, it turned a well-liked journey present a decade in the past when he took his portraits to a Cathedral in Da Vinci’s city in France, to Switzerland and Dar es Salam, Tanzania earlier than bringing them to Jehangir Artwork Gallery, Mumbai, in 2017 and now for Delhi viewers coinciding with the Mahakumbh taking place this yr.
Viveek says his portraits of Sadhus are primarily based on pictures he buys from lensmen visiting the Kumbh. “However I don’t copy, I simply want the define and paint it my method in Pointillism,” says the graduate from Sir J J College of Artwork, Mumbai, who was at all times interested in portraits. “My mother and father advised me face is the index of thoughts, it displays how pure you’re deep inside.”
Silence Please exhibition at India Habitat Centre, Delhi
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As a scholar, he started sketching profiles of friends at The Oberoi, Mumbai, over weekends. Later he labored for the cops making sketches of robbers and different crime offenders primarily based on description of the witnesses. A Van Gogh present in Amsterdam in 2012 made Viveek surprise about his id as an artist. “M F Husain was recognized for his high quality horse portray, S H Raza’s trademark was bindu (dot) as a motif; so the thought of connecting with Sadhus struck me. I realised the Pointillism approach might be chosen solely with males as topics,” says Viveek, who initially did abstracts and switched to realism when 2015 Mumbai floods destroyed a lot of his works. “I regarded up in despair and the sky was clearing up. So I began portray blue sky with clouds and metropolis of Mumbai beneath it. The trouble ended up in a collection on Mumbai’s panorama.”
Silence Please exhibition by Viveek Sharma at IHC Delhi
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Viveek describes himself as an artist who likes to play with metaphors. “Individuals ought to perceive what I’m attempting to say. Realism works for me; my themes are deep-rooted in Indian-ness,” he says.
The sadhus he paints are nameless but recognisable outlined by their look; their matted hair, wrinkles on face coated with sacred powder, the ritualistic marks with ash, vermillion and sandalwood. Viveek’s artwork has depth and speaks for itself. He likes to maintain his canvases giant as a result of he feels the sound of what he depicts echoes effectively within the high quality particulars he paints.
Artist Viveek Sharma
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“The unseen realm of the Sadhus appeals to me. They’re symbols of silent reflection in a world of conflicts. Their solitude and silence is the infinite that encourage you to ponder and discover peace inside yourselves,” says Viveek, keenly ready to go to Mahakumbh after the exhibition will get over.
At Visible Artwork Gallery; India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Colony; Until February 6; 10am to 8pm
Revealed – January 31, 2025 05:47 pm IST
