Layers of Silence
Gaunt mountains cascades of snow shimmering slopes ripples of whistling wind hidden crannies of rocks the shadows and light enacting their eternal dance all captured in the glory of a fleeting moment. The interplay of textures adding a dimension that beckons to explore the manifest and the hidden. On the face of it the perfection of the artist’s craft is almost camera-like in its capturing the obvious but that is the trick the eye plays with the mind. Look a trifle closer and the purity of perfection of his abstractions mesmerizes with its blissful abandon. The narrative unfolds in the layers of silences as no life forms interfere with the flawless rarified stratospheres.
Vinod Sharma whose undiluted love for the undulating mountains is unchanging in its conviction for nearly four decades. “It is only in India where we have some of the most stunning landscapes and yet we tend to take them for granted – because they are there! Besides for my love affair with nature to have lasted this long there must be something in it!” says the affable artist completely in tune with nature as he perceives it. “To me my work is abstraction. I’m not painting a tree like a photograph or even trying to reproduce it. It is a matter of perspective.”
It is this perception that sets him apart and impels him to explore new vistas and traverse the extra mile. For he doesn’t photograph landscapes but experiences them and then create the textures that his mind sees and his heart remembers. “For textures are very important for me – having been a student of printmaking in my initial years. I find the feeling of painting on location totally different from doing it later in the studio.” After all immediacy has its own context and connect.
It is this memory of the heart and the mind that finds an even more sophisticated fine tuned imagery in this series of glacial mountains. The spare almost ascetic black and white works in this series are replete with a meditative repose. The delicate lines that literally and metaphorically brush the snow are like whispers of the whooshing wind as it whips the peaks. And if you listen carefully you might actually hear the sound.
Given the fact that the genre of landscapes in India has consistently been taking a backseat his work comes as a gust of crisp mountain air through a window left open. It transports you to explore the gossamer delicacy of the lacy ice and magical snowflakes – through the safety of your armchair perched in the mountains. The onus of the onward journey is yours.
The snow capped Himalayas and Alps form the mainstay of his inspirational reference points. His perspective is usually to see from a distance and yet the inveterate traveler that Vinod is he brings a close-up quality to the heights as he has experienced them from a touchable distance. In this series he takes bolder steps to take the sepia and the browns forward from the smaller versions that he played with earlier to greater heights – literally!
This is not to say that his palette of deep cerulean blues and sand golds is missing. Only the colours have acquired greater depth that comes with a deepening of the persona of the artist and his journey. The gauntness of his work in the last decades has given way to softer dreamlike feel which began almost two years ago. It has now come to a point where the gentleness is lyrical. The gregarious and gracious persona of the artist wherein he is constantly surrounded by people is almost a contradiction with the silences that are the hallmark of his work. One wonders if it is the atypical Aquarian inconsistency where he is another and seeks another and yet together both are in synchronization with the totality. One will never know.
Vinod Sharma is at that interesting point where he has explored his creative impulses and understood where he goes from that dramatic pause. Breaking away from the monotony usually associated with natural imagery he made repeated use of similar motifs but in each case the result is a marvelously created work. One could not divorce the newness of the idea from the artistic representation in each case. All the works have a definite mettle and stand out as separate entities as compared to each work of the same series.
Working as a pivotal agent in promoting artists in the various camps he organizes he has also continued to paint on his own canvases with a diligence that suits an impressionist. He captured the heavenliness of the icy and rocky landscapes in various hues and focused consistently on their enormous beauty. And if India could boast of its own impressionistic tradition in fine art today the first artist that would come to mind today is Vinod Sharma. It is in his intrinsic use of the elements of light and colour perhaps that Vinod finds his relationship to the European painters and to those of the 17th to the 19th centuries in particular. He unabashedly credits artists like Cézanne and Monet. “I like my paintings to be peaceful with subdued tones of colour variation of joy and celebration. I trust my own process of painting with thin oils using soft brushes on well-made canvas like a conventional and traditional painter in oils ” he points out.
So is it possible for an artist to accurately capture a fleeting visual reality? This is how historians might have defined Impressionism but I guess these geniuses did just the opposite. They recorded what they saw but the reproductions of these images on the canvas were the images that existed in the artist’s minds. Degas for instance painted the reality of his ballerinas from the confines of his studio while Cezanne’s apples Pissarro’s peasants are all imbued with personalities of the artists who painted them. This capability of breaking away from the stereotype while maintaining the essential chord with reality is what renders a sense of commonality to these works. This makes them subjective not objective snapshots swollen with each artist’s ulterior motives.
Dr. Alka Raghuvanshi
Born 15.02 1953
Art Education
1976 Bachelors of Fine Arts, College of Arts, New Delhi
1978 Master of Fine Arts, M.S.University, Baroda
Solo Shows
1995 Beaux Art Gallery, New Delhi
1995 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1996 Duo Exhibition at Y.B. Chawan Art Gallery, Mumbai
1997 Two man show at Y.B. Chawan Art Gallery, Mumbai
1997 Art Heritage, New Delhi
1998 Art Indus, New Delhi
1998 Aakarshan Art Gallery, New Delhi
1999 Duo Exhibition Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi
1999 Sanskriti Art Gallery, Kolkata
1999 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
2000 Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Kolkata
2000 Art Indus, New Delhi
2001 Leela Penta, Mumbai
2002 Gallery 55, Mumbai
2002 Visual Art Gallery, New Delhi
2003 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
2003 ABS Limited Gallery, Vadodara
2004 Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
2005 Srishti Art Gallery, Hyderabad
2005 Srishti Art Gallery, Cochin
2006 Arushi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2007 Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi
2010 Vinnyasa Art Gallery, Chennai
2011 Mumbai Art Festival
2012 Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
2013 Gufa, Ahmedabad
2014 Mumbai Art Festival
2015 Jehangir Art Gallery
2016 Global Art Festival, Mumbai
2017 Gallery Artchill, Amber Fort, Jaipur
2017 Juneja Art Gallery , Jaipur
2017 Art Corridor , Le Meridien Jaipur by Artchill
Group Shows
2000 Expression Six, Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi
2001 Gallery Alternative, New Delhi
2001 Puri Art Camp at Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi
2001 Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi
2001 Arushi Art at Visual Art Gallery, New Delhi
2002 3rd Anniversary Show of Art Indus at Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi
2003 Visual Art Gallery, New Delhi
2006 Visual Art Gallery, New Delhi
2008 Group Show at Mumbai, Hyderabad & Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
2009 Hotel Marriot in Mumbai, Le Meridien Jaipur by Artchill
2013 ‘Confluence des Arts' Group Show at Gallery Artchill, Amer Fort , Jaipur,
2015 ‘Mega Art Show’ Group Show by Artchill at Juneja Art Gallery
Auctions
2006 Group Show and Auction at Hotel Hyatt Regency, New Delhi
2006 Group Show and Auction for Concern India at Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi
2007 Group Show and Auction at Taj Art Gallery, Mumbai
2007 Group Show and Auction at Hotel Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi
2008 Auction of Khushi in Bangalore
International Shows
1994 Solo Show in London & New York
1997 Exhibition of Contemporary Artists from Korea & India
1998 5th Pyong Taek International Art Festival in Korea
1998 Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Singapore
1999 Gallery Artselect , Dubai
2000 Group Show by Art Indus Gallery, Hotel Rembrandt, Bangkok
2000 Group Show for 'Till Tomorrow Art International', Korea and India
2001 Solo Show at City Center Gallery, Hofhim in Frankfurt, Germany
2002 Group Show of Bangkok Art Camp at Shridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi
2002 Solo Show at City Center Gallery, Hofhim in Frankfurt, Germany
2005 Indo-French Exhibition, Fench Embassy, New Delhi
2005 Group Show in Karachi, Pakistan
2006 Indo-French Exhibition, French Embassy in Paris
2010 Solo Show at Gad?y Art Gallery, Perth, Australia
2015 Solo Show in Global Art Fair, Hotel ,Dubai
Fellowship
1978 Fellowship in Printmaking by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1999 Senior Art Fellowship in Painting by Government of India
Art Camps National
1996 Art camp in Kasauli
1997 Art Camp on the occasion of Ghalib Anniversary, New Delhi, Maurya
Sheraton-Agra
1998 Organized Art Camp in Puri, Maurya Sheraton-Agra, Manali
1999 Art Camp at Help Age India, New Delhi, Manesar
2001 Art Camp of Harsh Goenka - Mumbai,Oberoi Hotel-Mumbai, Tata's camp at Jamshedpur
2002 Art Camp of Harsh Goenka - Mumbai, Hotel Oberoi- Mumbai, Hyderabad, Udaipur
2003 Art Camp at Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai
2004 Art Camp in Bikaner
2006 Art Camp in Humpi
2007 Art Camp in Goa , Jaipur, Bangalore , Mysore
2009 Art Camp in Jaipur by Artchill, Coorg
2011 Art Camp at Goa
2012 Art Camp ,Bhubaneswar
2013 Art Camp ,Coorg , Puri, Patnitop, Jaipur Art Festival
2014 Jaipur Art Festival , Goa, Srinagar, Hyderabad
2015 Art Beyond Boundaries, Varanasi, Tata Steel Jamshedpur
2016 Art Camp ,Tadooba,Nagpur
2017 Art camp , kochi , Kerela
2017 Art Camp , Nainital
Art Camps International
2001 Art Camp in Bangkok
2003 Art Camp in Australia & Egypt
2004 Art Camp in New Zealand,
2004 Art camp in Spain ,
2004 Art Camp in Sri Lanka,
2005 Art Camp in Singapore
2005Art Camp in Malaysia ,
2005 Art Camp in Kenya,
2005 Art Camp in Istanbul & Kapadosia
2005 Art Camp in Mauritius
2006 Art Camp in Venice , Rome ,Florence
2006 Art Camp in Switzerland & Germany
2007 Art Camp in Phuket, Thailand, China & Kenya
2008 Art Camp in Russia , Mexico, Switzerland , Hong Kong & Macao
2010 Art Camp in Cambodia
2011 Art Camp in Japan
2012 Art Camp in London, Scotland & China
2013 Art Camp in Prague, Vienna & Budapest
2014 Art Camp in Hong Kong & China
2015 Art Camp in Finland, Norway & Sweden
Achievements
1978 Organized Camp and Seminar for Asstt. Directors of NCERT in Solan
1978 Dissertation on 20th Century Print Makers, Technique & Vision
1982 Served as Director, Aakar Art Gallery, Chandigarh
1995 Designed Murals & Interiors at Trade Fair Society, New Delhi
1997 Appointed Judge for Art Competition at Jesus & Mary College, New Delhi
1998 Appointed Judge for Art Competition at Lions Club, Noida
1999 Appointed Judge for Art Competition at DAV Society, New Delhi
1999 Appointed Art Subect Expert for PGT candidate for Kendriya Vidyalaya, New Delhi
2001 judge for Lalit kala akedmy jammu n Kashmir
2002 Judge for Delhi Public
School ,New Delhi
2006 External Examiner for Govt Fine Art College,Chandigarh
2007 Papersetter n Examiner for Fine Art College ,Chandigarh
2008 Judge for final exam Sofia college Mumbai
2009 Sofia college Mumbai
Collections
Modern art museum, New Delhi
Museum of Art ,Chandigarh
Private Collections in India and Abroad .