Bridging time

The retrospective show of G S Shenoy between August 21 to 27, at the Venkatappa Art Gallery acknowledged and revived memories that comprised of not only the growth of an artist, but also his vast contributions in enhancing the art scenario in Karnataka for more than three decades.

Looking at the paintings, one realises that the paintings not only disclose the era they were done in, but also describes the inclinations at the time. Likewise, in context to the space during and after the 1950s, works of art had a rebellious streak, as individual works preferably did not succumb to rule or routine; instead the trend-setter was the individual artist and his choice.

Shenoy belongs to this decisive epoch in Indian history, when modernists or western thoughts had intervened Indian minds, in consequence creating fluctuating ideas, confused with traditional and modernists’ choices. The show brought to mind this changing milieu. Also, the glimpses of his paintings unveiled the vast dimensions and experiments undertaken by the artist in producing and revealing a monumental array of works along with the different experiences that went through it. Coming from Udupi, Shenoy travelled to Mumbai and studied at the J J School of Art in the 1960s. From then on, his contribution and commitment to painting did not go unnoticed; the process involved going through various phases in choice of subject and medium creating a persona that linked the under-exposed art of Udupi to the performing space in Bangalore and Mumbai.

The present exhibits gave a glimpse of varied range of subjects and medium adopted by Shenoy down the years. These paintings have a quickness of strokes along with a softness of feeling. The show began with few life study sketches and then proceeded to include portraits done in oil, the form of Ganesha rendered in ‘planes’, metal embossed murals and an array of landscapes done in the wash technique and abstract works done using Fevicol for a slight relief.

Shenoy painted landscapes on the basis of his impressions using water colours, pastels and charcoals. In the use of paint, he did not hesitate to use any medium to get a required effect, thus in result the paintings are a combination of textures and colours. The forms dwelled in flat rectangular planes. Whether in figurative or abstract paintings, Shenoy’s love for planes is seen in most of his work. His ‘rock-cut’ paintings demonstrate the galore of colours contrastingly to the generally single-hued rocks, in process exposing a festivity of colour over the rigidity of form. The nature paintings reveal an inborn accumulation of impressions diagnosed in different textures, gained through water colours, pastel, charcoal and oil. In portraiture, the broad impressionist strokes reconcile to an inevitability of influences of styles inherited or imposed upon the artist.

The show regards the contributions made by the artist for the enhancement of the art scenario in Karnataka, along with reciting the potentiality of art through its visual magnetism.