Prabha Shah

Shah’s brush is her true speech. And if suffering depravation, that of hearing, she all the more notices her surroundings with exceptional acuteness. As her works show, she notices people as well as objects with equal perception. And also that, what is noticed with the eye of the imagination is disciplined by the laws of dynamic form. Invariably her work achieves a harmonious balance between naturalistic description and the abstractions of subjects, worked out by the creative mind. She is not limited to either of the obligations, but judiciously combines them in such a manner that even though distorting appearances she is faithful to the being of actuality. Any extreme contentless abstraction is not for her. Rather, it is used to serve a function, that of making the observed truth fuller, more memorable. In other words Shah, who once took off from the idiom of Rajasthani miniature painting, has reintroduced that manner or memory via compositions of simple planes and long lines to work out vistas, as of receding mirrors. The loss of decorative ornamentation is counterbalanced by the promise of a fresh world, of a self-discovering, self-making mind. What thus emerges from that confluence of training, of influences and personal inspiration, is that the artist’s experiments are not without anchor, unlike much contemporary art that has tended to become too irrationally sensational. Shah does not move away totally from the objectivity of the real, but rather locates it in the particularity of the locale. She is not a sentimentalist either who lacks the courage to face the outward world of social or natural anarchy. Her imageries are rooted in the past, a relived past, and is never merely a chasing of the will o’ the wisp.

There’s a central theme underlining my work : India, or more specifically Rajasthan, in colours. Cities, streets, people, desert depictions fading rapidly, everything I love and miss. Emotional tension finds an outlet in the process of creation. People and historical events live inside me as shapes and colours. Colour is central to my painting. Life is the epitome of the universe. Through painting I try to stay close to those things I like but can’t own. Things which often hurt us but we insist on desiring and loving in a unique way. The mysterious repetition of nothingness that torments us all.

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