In Madhvi8217;s world

I have been looking at Madhvi Parekh's paintings for many years. Her painting is influenced by folk art. Over the years, it has progressive...

I have been looking at Madhvi Parekh8217;s paintings for many years. Her painting is influenced by folk art. Over the years, it has progressively evolved. One can discern in it, influences of contemporary art. Madhvi has been inspired by modern artists like Paul Klee and Clemente. Out of this inspiration she has created her own world.

When I encounter her work my response keeps changing. In her water colours the use of transparent layers of lighter colours to create darker effects brings out a certain pain in them. In her early oil paintings, the dots remind one of children and adults going round and round, playing in circles. At times, it seems that there is an entire family riding a giant wheel.

Seeing her latest works done in black, I feel as if men, women and children are out on train ride. There is curiosity on their faces 8212; with eyes wide open, they look at mountains, animals, birds and houses. The train moves on but the curiosity remains insatiated. It is present everywhere in her paintings. People enjoying diverse pleasures move about in the jungle. They are not scared of animals because the animals too move about like human beings. The train passes through different stations. Three such canvases have been joined together to form this work.

It is no longer possible for me to write directly about Madhvi8217;s paintings. My mind blanks out. It gets crowded with innumerable other thoughts. However, if I contemplate on those thoughts themselves, they form indirect connections with Madhvi8217;s art. It is not unlikely that they have been influenced by other critical responses I have read:

Why do old wedding-songs, morning-prayers, film-songs, forgotten affairs, pain and longings, reawaken desire? Blood oozes again from old wounds; the unconsciousness transports its imagery into paintings. When the conscious mind watches this, it experiences a sense of wonder.

Small paintings are short stories. Three large canvases together cover a range of episodes with the quality of an epic like the Mahabharata. Though a part of the larger narrative, the many episodes can be enjoyed independently by themselves.

What is the importance of ideas in painting? None, whatsoever. What is the criterion for assessing a painting? That it should delight the viewer. From the point of view of ideas, the incidents Jean Genet wrote in A Thief8217;s Journal are unethical. During World War II he had sexual relations with the soldiers of fascist Germany; he made love to the enemy. As art, however, the Journal is acceptable.

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Only a work born out of immediate personal experience sounds true. Borrowed imagery cannot be internalised.

Shed embellishment in art. Avoid adjectives in expression. Keep the bones; leave out the fat. Only skeletons survive millennia.

I considered Henry Rousseau the greatest painter of all time. Edward Manet is intelligent and clever. The birth of a work of art involves principles that transcend ideas and intelligence. The personality and being of Henry Rousseau are his paintings.