stilllife

stilllife, originally uploaded by abhitamhane.

V A MALI -- STILL LIFE

Several painters complain about being ' curbed', by the commissionedwork. Many more abandon commissions because they restrict theirstyle. Contrary to these beliefs are the works by Vasant Anat Mali,who was commissioned because of his individual style. Mali was knownfor his brushstrokes and impasto, and hardly did he forgo thisidentity of his brush.Some of Mali's contemporaries, mostly his competitors, would call hispaintings 'carpet-like'. Upto the 1940s, when everybody else from theJJ School of art was was more or less following the Academic stylethat had been taught to them, Mali's painting would rather look likea collage of brushstrokes. It was this unmistakable quality of hiswork, pioneering in Bombay, that won him critical acclaim and fame. Hewas also conferred many a prize, because of his distinctive rendering.He employed stark Highlights and darker shadows to enhance hisvigorous strokes, and only where it was necessary to deal with thesoft, reflected light in his work, he would consider softer strokes.Thus, Mali's attempt cannot be said to be deconstructivist; but heshowed and taught the Bombay painter how the power of the brushstrokecould be enhanced and retained. Mali's pallette always had purples,mauves, pinks and sometime blues. Yellow came, to balance these cyansand magentas.The work, a Still life with carrots, has all these qualities of aMali. The drapes have those signature strokes once enviously dubbed'carpet-like'. A single source of primary light, perhaps the natural(Indian!) sunlight, has its marks with the bold white patches. Sobright is the light that the lines on the glass have their individual play of competing dualities of textures, also in the enamel white plate with a shadow of the knife and the the earthen pot that glows with its 'desi' glaze. The carrots and a coconut, because of their non-reflective textures, are rendered with a different strategy. The darker drapes alongside the wine bottle succeed in adding drama to this still-life, and the stage is set for the carrots, with scene one- the bright pink, and scene two- a pale, dull purple. Mali, better known as a portrait painter, was also famous for his illustrious use of props in his portraits.Take a close look at this still-life, can we call it a 'portrait of an Indian pot ' ?!
– abhijeet tamhane.


posted by abhi at 11:18 AM