The painting exhibition running alongside this week's Indian Food Festival at the Four Seasons Hotel is not for the faint of heart. An advanced appreciation of the cryptic language of abstract art will be certainly come in handy when viewing works by prominent Indian painters.
Organized as part of the ongoing "Festival of India", the event brings the very cr*me de la cr*me of New Delhi art circles to the ever-growing community of art lovers in Jakarta. Works by senior artists such as Paramjit Singh, R.K. Bhatnagar and Shruti Gupta Chandra hang in the ranks of this rare painting exhibition, which also features Indonesian artists who have taken on Indian themes for this very occasion.
On display throughout the hotel lobby, most of the paintings seem to adhere to the theme of abstract landscapes. Paramjit Singh, whose three exhibited paintings are impressionistic renderings of landscapes, admits to a fascination with nature.
"*Over the years* I found that nature is asymmetrical and yet well-balanced. I'm inspired by nature . and use it to invent landscapes from imagination," Singh said.
Heavily influenced by the 19th- and 20th-century French impressionist and expressionist schools, and also revealing a fondness for Rabindranath Tagore and JMW Turner, Singh, 74, has developed his own language to capture the "rugged texture, crisp light of nature" around Delhi in his work. When asked about the difficulty one could potentially encounter in understanding his abstract work, Singh rather easily replies, "There is nothing to understand. You either enjoy and react to the painting, or you don't. Appreciation will come with the pursuit *of a subject*."
Singh's Trees in the Water is a scene from a lake outside Delhi; the layers of relief and the orange flecks of the sunset over the lake may take a moment to bore through your senses, but the effect is rather mesmerizing. The painting is priced at US$32,000.
While Indian artists have brought their interpretations of India to Indonesia, the "Festival of India" has invited Indonesian artists to explore in their paintings their relations with or perceptions of India.
In Mencari Kedamaian (Seeking Peace), Indonesian artist Astika has used acrylic and bold yet peaceful oranges and yellows to emboss a Balinese Ongakara, which is a Hindu symbol of universal harmony similar to the Indian "Om".
Showcasing yet another dimension of the subcontinent, such contemporary paintings evoke thoughts of India's steadily growing potential to influence more than just the global economic scene; the works exhibited show a finer, pensive side of modern India that is far from the allegations of materialism often made against it.
The paintings will be on display at the Four Seasons Hotel until Nov. 30. Other events in the "Festival of India" include Taal Tantra-A Ritual in Rhythm on Nov. 29 at Usmar Ismail Hall and Shikhandini fusion dance drama at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta on Dec. 4.
The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post.
