I Think (What?) ‘Packing Series’ paintings by Amit Kumar.

Art is a part of individual, community, society and whole world. It is necessary to know why it has so much importance since civilization began. Not many artists have tried to answer it through their art. Generally, an artist creates a piece of art according to the prevailing conditions, like his individual psychology, society’s culture and tradition, political conditions etc and that is all. 

Amit Kumar explores the avenue of highlighting the importance of art and its preservation and how it is preserved (visual art) by hand-painting it under his theme titled ‘Packing Series’ 

Artist Amit Kumar

Art plays a significant role in knowing the past of a country. Especially visual Art portrays the social, economic and political conditions of every era. It is a trusted clue of past. Artist Amit Kumar likes to hold on to these visual treasures and thus portrays them in his paintings.  According to him the works of past in every form of art like painting or literature has its unique symbolism and color. He likes to conserve these things and has come up with his ‘Packing series’ which is his most favorite series. All the paintings in this series are hand painted and as the name suggest- ‘packing’ he shows preservation of these paintings by meticulously painting bubble paper, corrugated paper wrappings around them. It is, as if he wants to keep the traces of history safely packed and saved for future generation. Since his basic objective is to show the preservation of paintings, he has painted varied themes not pertaining from different eras these do not belong to any particular age and there is no uniformity either. Like, he paints modern city, along with Statue of liberty, touches upon Indian Independence era by painting Mahatma Gandhi, presents unforgettable photograph of an Afghan girl, by painting it and showing it wrapped in buble paper et al. Therefore we find the mixture of different forms of visual art ranging from realistic, surreal to abstract. All the artworks help us to rewind the time and feel the difference between the then life’s experience which was different from our times. .According the artist, his art may have minimal value in this technical world his paintings. But it does not bother him and feels that as an artists he has every right to express his feelings without restrictions, no obligation of commitment and totally independent in Nature. Anything that attracted his attention has become his creation in this series. 

Recent work by Amit Kumar

The second series shows Amit Kumar’s keen interest in human psychology, especially of the layman or common man that forms the larger part of the society. The common man actually colors and shapes the characteristic of society. There is a standardized thread of thought among all the common people all over the world. It is ‘Ambition’, the desire to get more better than what one already has. He paints desires of mankind under his series called ‘Ambitious Mankind’. In this series he shows desires of common man. Desire of luxury, comfort, happiness, fame, money keeps life going on. These never ending desires are like the creepers as shown in one of his paintings. New leaves (hopes) represent tender desires unfolding, maturing, sustaining life until they are fulfilled or failed and then they shed away. Till then a new desire seems to bud from the same mind/heart (creeper). Even incase of choice of relations, human beings are often selective and yet, grass seems to be greener on other side and a person always feels dissatisfied with whatever he/she has and wants more and that is nothing but-  A desire. 

An avid lover of poetry and a poet by heart, Amit Kumar expresses his thoughts on desires in verse (Hindi) which states:

क़दमों में अपने जहाँ चाहता हुँ,

मै ज्यादा कही कुछ कहाँ चाहता हूँ l l 

सिकंदर भी हारा था हिंडोसितां में,

मै हारुँ नही, ये दुआ चाहता हूँl  

मै ज्यादा कहीं कुछ कहाँ चाहता हूँ?

मुझको बदनाम करने की साजिश है ये,

जो है मुमकिन नहीं, वो मकाँ  चाहता हुँl 

मै ज्यादा कहीं कुछ कहाँ चाहता हूँ?

(Translation): 

I wish to have world at my feet,

I do not expect more than this.

Alexendar too lost to India,

Pray I would never do.

Is it a great deal that I wish to?

It’s a cabal to slander me,

Explore the unexplored destiny.

Is it a great deal that I wish to?

Amit Kumar treats every painting as a poem and feels that every painter’s painting is but a poem expressed in visual form, full of emotions. He accepts the criticism that follows his analysis of calling painting as a poem. But he accepts the criticism and respects critics’ views. He feels criticism is necessary to probe into one’s own art and re-evaluate the creations. He is much concerned with the surprises that he gives to viewers through his paintings. 

Recent work by Amit Kumar

Viewers reaction is most important as the feelings in the paintings are spontaneous and succeed in tapping and resonating people’s emotions and make a place in their heart. People feel that his work is a collage of emotion and try to relate themselves with it. But according to Amit Kumar this is pure misunderstanding of his creations and viewers are surprised to know that it’s not collage at all. This ‘surprise’ itself stimulates Amit Kumar to create more suprisal works. Viewer’s surprise is a compliment for him and he considers that surprise of viewer is his success. 

I think, it will be apt to call artist Amit Kumar ‘A treasure hunter’ with lot of surprises in his creative mind. 

- by Pankaja JK