The messengers of love may be the cloud, swan, dove, Malyani (Flower woman) or a portrait , Art Exhibition Review

VERMILION VERSES a Solo show by Baladev Maharatha , held in Indian Capital Delhi,  showing Indian classical Art like wash paintings, tempera and acrylics on canvases at India Habitat Centre Venue: Open Palm Court Gallery Dates: 22nd - 26th Dec. 2010  , inaugurated by Ms Sangeeta Bahadur, Deputy Director General, ICCR on 22nd December 2010 at 5.00 P.M. Exhibition has been organized by Ashok Art Gallery in association with Art India International attracted a healthy crowd and became most discussed show of the year.

The Chemistry of creativity is the outcome of the ripples created at  the cerebral sphere.  The creator imbibes the nuances from various avenues and his creativity is catapulted to such a height, which is called colossal. When the creation reaches colossal heights, the creator becomes a colossus. His masterly uniqueness receives rave views. At times he tries to transform one avenue to the other and the visual media is acutely susceptible to that. Such is the truthfulness with Baladev Maharatha who has been quite meticulously transforming the great poetic lines on to his canvasses, Bucking Ford Paper and the poetry is heard to mind and soul of the viewer, with jugglery of colors and balanced space. His iconology is as per the lines of the poetry and at places, the same surpasses the lines even.

            Baladev is not a novice to this type of transformations. He had already so  many magnums opus poetic work form Kalidas to Kavi Samarat Upendra Bhanja the pioneer of medieval Oriya  Poetry.

Baladev stepped into the particular avenue by vividly osmotising the finer elements  of imagery, iconography and form and the essence would provide him to paint the woman, the Nayika in so called poetics.

            The mediaval poetry has been mostly embracing the “Bhakti Bhaba” and “Shringari Bhaba” (State of Amorous passion ) and are so touchy and lively by depicting the lucidity in love, the ballad of parting for love, exile for love, punishment for love and even death for love that the master painter has been deeply moved by all these descriptions. So the outcome is creation of visual poetry from poetics through palate to paintings.

            The painter compares the gracefulness and the aesthetics and femininity as depicted in the medieval poetics with the psyche prevalent with the feministic attitude of the contemporary women.“Sringar” happens to be the first  “Rasa” for which it is known as the “Aadi Rasa” Beauty and Sringar are having tremendous impact on human mind from times immemorial. The medieval poetics has profusely embraced such “Rasas” . In the poetry of Kavi Samart Upendra Bhanj rhetroric frame makes of medieval Oriya poetry, there are enormous depiction of “Maithuna” and  Sringar but still the women has been kept with highest esteems.

            With the medieval poetics, nature plays a pivotal role. The women are described with the imagery from the nature. The narratives are so lively that the painter finds it quite feasible to transform it to visual medium. Be it the God or Human beings all decline before love for its state of eagerness and belongingness. Hence love is the main bone of contention in medieval poetics. Both animate and inanimate objects are taken as the love messengers here with many texts of medieval poetry.

            The messengers of love may be the cloud, swan, dove, Malyani (Flower woman) or a portrait  of the lover or beloved all solve the same process of communication in love in a figurative shape.

The painter conglomerates all these nuance to classic  contemporary visual art. The aesthetics is a perennial phenomenon with the humanity which connotes the “Bhava”  the psychic emotion and the soul which intermingles the classicism attaining  the contemporanity. In the contemporary Creativity the depiction at times becomes individualistic but with the conventional themes it caters to vast socio-cultural canvases.   

            Baladev’s personals believe is that, art should communicate the over all aesthetics and need to be positive with a reflection of soul searching. Aesthetic, inclination and humanity is some how other necessarily required to tell the tale of the truth embedded within the verses

He also experiences, to create the invisible visible and to paint poetics in his own way is a thought provoking job absolutely. To make the time backward and to coincide with contemporary time,  is only possible by a creative painter.The pictorial theme which one  can conceive form Indian medieval literature, that must be acknowledged globally. So Baladev is glorifying the great poetic elements through his paintings. The poetic depict the creative pursuit gracefulness, ability, surrender, sensitivity, generosity, love for nature changing  life style, spiritualism, envy, revolutionary mind, wisdom and the eternal love of womanhood.

            Artist has very perfectly imbibed the images from the lucid the poetic lines with various visual descriptions like, the lucid body curvature of the female form as well as the gracefullness and the grief stricken facial gesture

Here the Shnigar Rasa depicts the foreplay lorry signs of the union and the nail marks are visible on the body of the Nayika is never obscence rather  realistically depicted.

            With some descriptions the pearl necklace of the Nayika is dismantled because of Viraha (parting  suo-motu and the doves take it as  food gnains and such unique description s have been accutly  conceived and painted by the painter.

            The depiction of natural beauty scape i.e. the mushroom beads spronting  on the ground in series has been portrayed  as the pearl Necklace of the nature as described by the medieval poets and so painted by the painter.

            The blood  red colour of the bathing pond, where red lotus blossom, there the petals spread over the water is a lucid colour jugglery for the painter

            Baladev has used the earthy smelled colour scheme suitable to Indian psyche and befitting to the concept. i.e. the geographical scape, architectural ambience and situations with his paintings. He believes that his paintings are the illustrative poetry which narrates or recites poetry in visual form and shape. The dominating vermilion  red back ground of the paintings narrate the detoriation  and degradation of the value based clarity that we did have in our past.

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists, we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008, 09 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.