Altruism of Lines
Solo by Yashwant Deshmukh
Curated by Prabhakar Kamble
Yashwant Deshmukh is a
contemporary conceptual artist, born in 1963, growing up in Akola,
Vidarbha, in the scorching interiors of Maharashtra. He graduated with a BFA
from Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai in 1988 . In this exhibition he presents
works from 2007 to 2019. It’s his short journey with his works. In the span of
his career of thirty years Yashwant made various crossings between figuration
and symbolic abstraction. He accentuates the lyrical and meditative elements of
the object, and preserves the resonance in a monochromatic painterly treatment.
He brings it with his personified ways that demonstrate his bounteous
visualitics that proves it’s crest of minimalism. In fact it is a maximization
of minimalism. Minimization is not to be the least nor is it for the emptiness,
moreover it is an actuality and vitality. How would he forget the ascendancy of
his village life, the experiences that left a deep imprint on his mind whilst
building his life . Vidarbha is an extremely hot region with low rainfall. Until
the age of twenty a boy who had never left his village and seen the outer world
and thus never obliterated his deep interest in his in village life in later
life and art. His expression is as clear and as simple as he lives and it
exists with its individual and an exclusive identity.
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| Artist Yashwant Deshmukh |
The extensive moorland
under the scorching hot sun that is dilated straight to the horizon, in between
is the sporadic appearance of the Acacia and Neem trees that breaks the
horizon; the houses arise from the land itself and stand as the globe becomes
the textured walls of the vista. There is a special kind of extinction
throughout the scorching afternoon in the field, it is a different kind of
quiescence. Sometime it is secluded from people. Habitations of small houses,
sparse trees, deep arid bottoms of the well, when you peek into such deep wells
you can experience a particular kind of eerie darkness, and silence in it
sometimes it is haunted too. In this scenario underneath the roof of the
immense blue sky and the desert gives you the realisation of your
insignificance. This realisation calms you and it can push you to explore and
discover yourself. What could be the end of life? The death? What would be the
situation after death? Is it the same calmness and peace that will be there
after death? It is the same voluminous vacuity? These experiences and
consciousness of dialogue within ones self makes a balance between sphere of
consciousness and context of visual expressions. His direct and indirect living
within this realm endears in his art.
The works that you are
seeing in this exhibition are not a straight trajectory of practice as you may
perceive them to be, Yashwant made many crossings to reach here, after
graduating from Sir J.J. School of Art he was experimenting with many art forms
also he had a great influence of typical style of JJ's schooling, that he later
refused to pursue . Initially he had done experimentation with all the forms
including figurative, abstraction, still life, portraits. The change and the
search within is the identity of a rational and logical mind. This logic is the
beginning of wisdom. While walking to this path of wisdom and in search of self
he turns to recall his roots where he spent memorable life moments at his
village where he gets his source of fascination. It carries ingrained
associations, for him, such as the hayrick, anthill and the grain store. He has
done a solo show on the subject of the grain store. One can imagine how
quotidian objects can play the impactful and important role in his practice and
in discourse after seeing Yashwant’s work. The experience from the terrace in
the dark night, the moonlight lightens the trees and the small houses; only the
brighter edges are visible in the dark; it is the combination of line space and
form in the atmosphere. Such frames live in depth of his mind. In daily life
somebody feels the subject, somebody finds the content but Yashwant gets forms
and those forms are enough to become a painting. Usual common objects
come in his art and it become uncommon and spectacular. Kites, human figures,
pot, cycle, instruments, houses and many objects are the elements of his work.
His work is born through his way of his seeing and experiencing the objects and
surroundings. It matters, because I can see such things everyday, though I can
not experience them like him. His observation and understanding is specific
towards it so he sees it particularly.
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| Curated by Prabhakar Kamble |
Yashwant never needs
anything else to represent his objects other than the line, and limited
simple colours, it is fulfilled by it only. He doesn’t rely on any other
support for it. his visual patterns are very simple but exclusive and
significance sensitization of his feelings. Only a form/ object can be the
effective subject of painting for him. A rhythm of line, a construction and
deconstruction of form, a single colour are enough as elements to construct a
strong visual image. The object, form or a line this is the only content and
context of his work. How it seems to him is more important, the feeling,
emotions within it are important, and this feeling keeps exclusiveness in his
art. He denies all the natural sources and effects on the elements like light,
shadow, its volume, velocity; he wipes it out, nurtures it in his own way and
simultaneously he brings the new image within it. At the same time he breaks
the regular image while upgrading the same with a new form which is a key
factor of his expression. The original form lifts slightly from the surface and
separates it from the background with simple line-plays becoming the mysterious
magic of wealthier visuals as a painting. These outer lines and forms,
invisible movements of the plains slowly led me to discover varied forms within
hidden spaces. The interrelation between form and space kept on adding new
dimensions to his paintings.
Prabhakar Kamble
Mumbai
14 November 2019