User:Ijvascvisualarts

IJVASC- International Journal of Visual Arts Studies and Communication.

'The Paintings of Dr. Joshi Almora-based painter Dr. Shekhar Joshi has abandoned brushes in favor of using one of the most ancient art tools of all time: his nails. His softly-colored paintings of watercolor washes capture figures, landscapes and dreamscapes. With nothing between the artist and his paper, Dr. Joshi enters into a relationship with the surface of the paper that is the most physically direct of artistic processes. The physicality of using his nails brings a unique sense of rhythm and movement to each piece, and when combined with the poetic applications of color onto the raised surfaces, it’s no surprise to discover how engaging the paintings become. Most drawing tools artists use today originate from the human hand. In this regard, we can say that tools are an extension of the human hand, in the same way that a telescope is an extension of the human eye, or a sound recording device is an extension of the human ear. More than that, the hand is a representation of the self, as well as a direct link to the heart. Dr. Joshi follows the currents of this heart-to-hand conduit that leads back in time to the cave paintings of prehistoric origin, dating to some 40,000 years ago (around 38,000 BCE) in both Asia and Europe, where we find common subjects in the images of human hands. These subjects, mostly hand stencils made by blowing pigment on a hand held to the wall, are evidence that a life, creative and yearning, was once present in this place, and surely these ancestors would feel at home in scenes of daily life created by Dr. Joshi. These hand prints speak to us across centuries, reminding us of the desire on the part of artists of all times and locations to touch the source, to tap into the most direct experience of existence—and to do this through their art. That this experience is something to be desired, even cultivated, as a practice that connects human beings--both as makers and viewers-- to the deepest sources, is a fundamental truth Dr. Joshi understands. He resides in this lineage through the practice of his art. Dr. Joshi writes of “nakshta”, an ancient Indian tradition of nail painting, which is referenced in an ancient work by the dramatist Kalidasa. His research into the ancient sources of his technique can be comprehended as a quest for an unbroken song by seekers who use visual materials. But art made by use of the human hand is not only an artifact of ancient times, it is alive and well in modern and contemporary art. Traces of the human body as a vehicle for creating art may be found today in the contemporary art scene, in which Dr. Joshi’s work can be soundly placed. These direct encounters between hand and surface, or in Dr. Joshi’s work, between nail and surface, are what some contemporary artists leave behind to create their paintings, drawings and prints—a trace or a ridge in the surface of a sheet of paper somewhat magically suggests impermanence and renewal. In turn, there is a certain effect of depth in his work that gives the pictures body, turning them into semi-objects, although they are flat and thin. Dr. Joshi seeks to invent a new pictorial language entirely his own. His technique brings to mind the art of embossing, the method of producing raised patterns on the surface of paper and other materials, and yet is something altogether different. However much his paintings include images, the rivers of embossed lines make the pictures appear abstract (not a contradiction of terms in his case) to express elegance and wit. Seen as a series of linear variations, the embossed lines –meandering, scrolling, angular, and interrupted – are endlessly individualized, as if the image could break into three dimensions. There are unusual perspectives and an interplay of light on the surface that defy the logic of what we know about the rules of perception, but most intriguing are the metaphorical associations, specifically to landscape and a sense of topography that evoke a specific landscape: the Himalayas of Almora. Moving freely between subject and abstract gesture, Dr. Joshi allows himself to be guided by patterns that appear beneath the surface of his works to create portraits that are lively and poetic. His ability to combine gestural energy with his remarkably fluid drawing abilities speaks of the imaginative talents which shine through his paintings. Line is his natural instrument, regardless of what subject he may be employing in any given work. In his treatment of color, Dr. Joshi’s is the color of imagination. His full-sensory color resonates with the color language of the Swiss-German artist, Paul Klee (18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940), whose highly individual style was both mystical and abstract and can be seen in this new collection of paintings. Yet Dr. Joshi makes color his own. In experiencing Dr. Joshi’s paintings, I am reminded of two primal sources at work in the creation of the images. The first is music. The impression of the paintings is one that evokes a sensation of music, especially in terms of the layered movement of sound: rhythms, intervals, cadences and crescendos provide a structure and compositional framework on which the images and colors are hinged, where they add their own movements, as a counterpoint to the underlying structure. Through these juxtapositions, Dr. Joshi composes visual ragas of different moods. The second primary source at work in Dr. Joshi’s paintings is landscape, not necessarily in the form of traditional representational landscape, but landscape in the sense of geography--the ridges bursting through the limits of the paper to form a skin like the earth’s crust. It is not surprising that Dr. Joshi makes his home in Almora, where the Himalayas inform the imagination as much as they describe daily life. In Dr. Joshi’s art, they seem inseparable, this idea of art made from nails, which is growing tissue of the human body and the slow evolution of the majestic mountain range that rises alive and enduring into consciousness. The same divine spirit that has created these impressive peaks moves through a consciousness that can be glimpsed in of the art of Dr. Joshi. - Valentina DuBasky Fulbright Senior Specialist, New York, USA and India, 2016 Ijvascvisualarts (talk) 16:50, 14 April 2017 (UTC)