Post-Painterly Art of Abstraction - Gautam Banerji

Editorial Note: Here is a selection of paintings and visual arts creations of Gautam, which have been exhibited recently in Dilijan, Armenia between 2-6 April'23. The paintings were a part of a larger display, which also exhibited his photography, alternative photography and print-making. 

Curatorial Rationale

Gerhard Richter has been proclaimed the Master of Abstraction. Exploration of abstraction has been the defining artistic achievement of the Modern and Contemporary periods and to be crowned the Master of Abstraction requires tangible result of years of work with miles of journey through the arts. Although in a recent interview that I provided, the editors have been over-generous and over-gracious to call me a ‘master’ of the art, I must confess that I am no more than a beginner and a novice, or at best a person with an amateur interest in the arts – a dilettante!

My techniques are evolving by the day. I never started with a set technique. In the words of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), “methods and techniques are not taught. One learns them oneself by searching.” Through trial and error, I soon found an affinity to the New York school of painting and with Jackson Pollock in particular, who in turn was influenced by Claude Monet, the founder-father of abstract impressionism. The mission of the painting was to reassure the beholder and banish the tensions of reality. The static scheme, the reflection of a society which wished to be eternal, it was this that the Impressionist painters were going to explode, sweeping away conceptions of both space and matter. Painters, despite themselves, were led by circumstances to form themselves as the ‘antisocial’ group. Society has never taken kindly to the changemaker and for them it has always been a struggle to set the trend!

Unable to seize the complexity of nature, the Impressionist thought it was possible for them to move back from the outer world to the inner one and propose solutions based on colour harmonies further and further removed from all figurative representation. Much of my recent painting being exhibited here is moving in that direction, almost compulsively, with a realisation that colour is not an abstraction but an energy, a quantifiable radiation which has a certain effect on our senses. In some of my paintings here, you will notice, the visual world becomes a haze of colours saturated with sunshine.

In my paintings I offer what at best can be described as a small, anarchic, discontinued section, evoking a feeling that it will continue beyond the limits of the setting into limitless space. The work is not an ensemble of forms balanced within a frame but a section of nature, which extends beyond the setting, questioning the concept of unitary space. It is a search for meaning beyond space and time.

My paintings solicit a fresh, physiological commitment from the spectator, where the interest goes beyond the work to the mechanisms of perception; where to see becomes a complex act, which solicits the spectator’s active intervention. I invite you to abandon passivity while viewing the painting and notice how it changes when you move from one viewpoint to another.

Among my exhibits here, there is one that stands out different from the others, where I have explored several techniques on a single canvas with a collage of cut-pieces of my own sketches inspired by Henri Matisse’s Blue Nude series. Although my original (as displayed) was not in blue, I have transformed it by layering images digitally and in turn photoshopped it to a coloured negative, enhancing the blue shades. This digitally enlarged negative print (also displayed along with the original) comes close to Matisse’s Blue Nude series, although it deviates radically in the techniques applied.

A few of my attempts at abstract impressionism I am told bear resemblance to Claude Monet’s Water Lilies series. With Monet, each particle of pigment is individualised. They were painted by Monet at a stage in his life when he was developing cataract. The result was a strange agglomeration of colours, which some abstract painters – Jackson Pollock for example – regarded as source of inspiration. With regards to my own painting displayed here, if I have been able to evoke such feelings and such resemblance, I remain humbled and inspired.

I have added captions to my paintings, which are only suggestive. Take them as no more than an attempt at expression of an artist’s liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through non-traditional and non-representational means.

Moonrise (size:60 cm x 45 cm)

Moonrise through the woods gathering blossoms in spring. This is among my earliest attempts at Impressionism, with flames of green rising from the woods to greet the sky.

Homecoming (size: 45cm x 20cm) original

Homecoming (size:90 cm x 60 cm) reworked digital enlargement

The original of this piece (displayed on top) is in acrylic using drip-painting technique. It has been digitally enlarged and reworked, using watercolour (displayed above). I call it my dream-home in Artsakh. I guess the landscape there is mountainous, much like what I have tried to capture here. I have tried to penetrate the secret vitality of nature here, through the steep slopes that sweep down to the valley. The approaching sojourner dwarfs into insignificance when measured against the landscape he confronts. The trees in the painting also instil a sense of modesty if not humility in the beholder.

Ol' Man River (size 40 cm x 30 cm) original

Ol' Man River (size 90cm x 60cm) reworked digital enlargement

This is a work in abstract impressionism using drip painting technique on the original (top). It has been digitally enlarged and reworked (above), using watercolour. It evokes a sense of the river meandering its way through a maze of forest on fire. This is what I call a battlefield where order and chaos confront and merge: “Ol’man river, That ol’man river he must know something, But he don’t say nothing, Cause he just keeps rolling, He keeps rolling along….” – Paul Robeson

The Light of the World (size: 45 cm x 30 cm)

Acrylic on board paper using drip-painting technique, where the motifs evolved through the process and have been further developed. This is what I have called swinging between phases of chance and control until the desired composition is reached. Like in a few of my other paintings, I could split the painting into two halves with their own series of details and each a world by itself.

The Woods (size: 45cm x 30cm)

Acrylic on board paper using drip-painting technique. Reflecting on this piece of painting of mine, the unknown increased the more I tried to explore till I concluded that it was a lie to pretend that I was proceeding in complete obedience to a logic whose key lay in the painter’s hand. “The woods are lovely dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.” – Robert Frost

Blue Nude Collage (size: 55am x 40cm) the original

Blue Nude Collage (size: 90 cm x 60 cm) digitally created

The two pieces displayed together, one the original and the other photoshopped digital, are inspired by Henri Matisse, although the techniques I have used deviate radically from Matisse. The blue shade of the Blue Nude was achieved by photoshopping the original to a digital transformation into a negative print, enhancing in turn the blue colour. It originated as a single piece simplism of a pencil sketch, which in turn I printed in two different sizes and then cut them into pieces to be collaged onto a pastel shade background I had done over a drip-paint print in acrylic. The collage, after being pasted, was worked through with watercolour pencils and felt pens. I took a snapshot of the original with my Samsung A22 mobile phone and worked further on it applying PS Express for Samsung on the same device.

Inspired by Monet's Water Lilies (size: 55cm x 30cm)

The image displayed here, has been worked through with drip-painting in acrylic and then touched up with watercolour pencils. It is a composition where I was swinging like a pendulum between phases of chance and control. The results far exceeded my expectations no doubt and I was humbled to be told that it takes to Monet’s Water Lilies series although the vacillation between chance and control was more in the footsteps of Richter.

A Flight of Fantasy (size: 90 cm x 60 cm)

Here, the landscape becomes a surface and the painting a mosaic. It is a closeup of details, where the motif evolved purely by chance and has in turn been accentuated with further brushstrokes and splash of colours. This is what I have called one among my series of details where each detail is a world by itself. The taste for closeup here and for tactile values should stimulate in the beholder a response.

Special Exhibit : A selection of cyanotypes 1

Special Exhibit: A selection of cyanotypes 2

Two of my cyanotypes (digital copies displayed above) have made to the 4th International Print Biennale, to be exhibited in Yerevan this coming September ’23. They will also be included in the photo-journal of exhibits, which will be published concurrently with the Biennale. They are inspired by Lake Sevan here in Armenia.

My Mermaid (size 3D 45cm x 25cm x 30cm)

This is my first attempt at clay-modelling inspired in turn by Lake Sevan and iconography as practised in the Hindu tradition. Digital creation of the image is displayed here. It is an attempt at an act of worship, where the creator and the created merge to experience a state of the sublime. Normally in my tradition the clay icon is returned to clay through immersion in a flowing river once the worship is done. Symbolically it is an act of self-annihilation through a lesson in humility. The inspiration that had been invoked to create the piece of art is returned to where it belongs – the human heart – to be invoked again through another act of worship.

The table lamp displayed next to My Mermaid is also among my recent 3D creations, where I have used drip paint technique on the shade and crafted the stand out of a locally dried gourd, worked through with a coat of papier-mache. “Your Word is a Lamp to my feet and a Light to my Path.” – Psalm 119:105