Search for Integrity :It might be loss of zest and helplessness to achieve dreams

Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die,

Life is like a broken-winged bird that can not fly.

                                               - Langston Huges.

This quote aptly applies to artist latest creation. The artist has created and displayed his work after the years of self confinement from artistic expression.
 

His classic style of expressing the theme by using matchsticks is a treat to eyes and mind piercing as well. Here too, he has shown a male form by using matchsticks in mirror box. The unfulfilled desire to break free or being voluntarily or involuntarily pulled in duties of crass society are the unseen inner conflicts that are symbolically represents by showing a broken winged bird. There is a hope for an undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting.  A single wing is made and reflected in mirrored box, which gives the impression of broken wings. It might be loss of zest and helplessness to achieve dreams. 

But Santosh does not aim only to show the disquiet and depression; instead he comes up with more mature and serene thought of attaining inner peace and moral soundness in the chaotic surrounding of the world that he lives in. The recuperating soul is represented by the use of blue color that suggests peace and calmness.

He has deliberately used pointillist coloring style so that the sorrow and peace seems to be integral in its completeness. His work also seems to be influenced by Warli painting art that has series of dots and monochromatic hues.

Artist is ready with his work before take ride to Art Gate Gallery

Abstract art has come far ahead from use of conventional materials of canvas, paper and colors. It is now expressed in installations, digital medium and so on. One of such out of the way is the work of  Santosh, an artist from Mumbai. An art graduate from Sir J. J. School of Arts has a unique medium of expressing his thoughts and that is through using matchsticks on ply.

The basic elements of his paintings are male and female. He uses matchsticks and the geometric forms made by them represent male and female. The horizontal or vertical placement of matchsticks represent male and triangle represents female. These paintings illustrate male and female relationship. He started working using matchsticks right from the days in Art college and the first creation was 'Khajuraho Night' based on the famous Khajuraho temple. He then worked on 'Krishna' his next painting where he showed one male amongst thousands of female. Here he used approximately five thousand five hundred and fifty matchsticks for female form and at the centre was an abstract image of Krishna in ceramics. This was a mixed medium. Even now his paintings are based on mixed medium and he says that from the very beginning he loved to experiment in using various mediums.

His work stands out because, unlike the basic of Abstract art where expression is formless and expressed through colors, he uses very less colors and highlight more on forms, though most of them are geometric figures. This may be because of Prabhakar Barve, the great painter whom he admires for the forms and their placement in his paintings. He also has high regards for Prabhakar Kolte.

One can also find the traces of Warli paintings in his works. He reasons that there is a repetitive form in his paintings because for him repeating the same thing again and again means a total involvement with it which is like a meditation, concentration and ultimate nirvana of the soul. To put in his own words, “Like a Warli painter who depicts his life by drawing it on one background, even I try to portray my life's experiences, influences and curiosities using repetition on a single colored background.”

Art Gate Gallery can be contacted at:022 4213 8855
or emailed at artgate.sc@gmail.com
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