Manu Parekh | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Manu Parekh’s memories of Kolkata, a city where he spent a decade of his life, is vivid and imbued with a sense of apathy. It is here that the famous artist worked in the field of textiles under the protection of cultural activist Pupul Jayakar.

The city, where the anarchy ruled within, was a constant reminder that it is possible to be present together with duality. To get a talisman on a well -favorable person’s arm or a window seat in a bus, to catch a standing fellow’s bag and tiffin box, where he noticed that these contradictions come together in harmony. “Life is among these contradictions,” they say.

Artifacts from flower formulas in Nature Morte. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Perhaps this is why the modernist painter has often transmitted stresses into compositions that pulses rhythm and vice versa. And he continues to do this with his latest body work – the flower sutra in the Gallery of Nature Morte at Dhan Mill in New Delhi – an exhibition of his paintings that have been creating for the last few years. Using acrylic on the canvas, pardakh paints form each other, thick imposto meets delicate washes, the right lines cut through liquid color, form a surface, which is hums with spontaneity and intentions.

The movement of brushstroke has a restless depth, almost as they are a reflection of his brain. “I call it a life experience,” Padma is called Shri-Awardi, who lives and works in many places including Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Delhi. “My work took me to many villages and small cities of India, where I worked at the ground level. There is a separate India in those villages, ”says 86 -year -old artist.

Artifacts from flower formulas in Nature Morte. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Perhaps his Banaras range was the most noted – which emerged from the influence of the holy city when he first visited it in 1980 and since then, has visited “more than 100” – these pictures also carry forward the motif ahead of his earlier actions.

“Banaras has two things – faith and flowers,” is fond of saying artist. In Banaras, walking from one ghat to another, he saw marriage (symbol of new life) and death within a few kilometers. “I saw a priest Mundan Of some people. He had knowledge on his face – as he knew he was born, and he would die here and it is where he needs to live in the interim. This is the belief that continues us. What else does a common man have, but believe to maintain him, ”he questions.

For flowers, which he paints with bold, major tricks, the artist finds a human element in them. “Someday, they are placed on the head of God, and after the next day PrayerThey are removed. Some fall to the ground and trample it. I find the journey of flowers very interesting … “He thinks, before adding him, it is a human element that draws him in.” Man is neither God nor a demon. He is somewhere in the middle. Kolkata, where I spent ten years of my life, is a sea of ​​humans – where life is happening despite contradictions and contradictions, the undercut of the order in anarchy … “he does introspection, who is returning to the full cycle with duality with his lifetime.

Artifacts from flower formulas in Nature Morte. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Along with mediums -also known to use with materials, Parekh simply keeps it near boredom. “I can’t repeat myself – this is a problem,” he cheeses and adds, “even when we make lentils at home, we make a different day each day.”

Flower Sutra, Dhan Mill, Chhatpur, New Delhi in Nature Morte, from March 30, from 11 am to 7 pm (closed on Monday)