Art, says the painter, has to be aesthetic, prompt people to think, reflect, transform and for him, constant experimentation and looking at life around with new perspectives is paramount. Photography, too, began with an urge to connect and communicate.
The first-ever India Today Art Awards were held in New Delhi to encourage and showcase the best of Indian contemporary art.
The book titled "Visions of interiority: interrogating the male body, Rameshwar Broota: A Retrospective" was recently published by Kiran Nadar Museum of Arts. The book accompanied the retrospective exhibition of Broota's works from 1963 to 2014. Presented here is the foreword to the book by Kito De Boer: “In knowing anyone, but especially those in pursuit of the muses, one never knows what fully obtains. You are likely to scratch your head despite all your familiarity with them. The ground beneath Rameshwar’s person, remains Terra Incognito.” - Keshav Malik Rameshwar Broota is described by Keshav Malik as ‘Terra Incognito.’ Malik is a fine poet and chooses his words with deliberation and precision. When he chooses the Latin for ‘unknown land’ to [...]
Rameshwar Broota in his studio at Triveni Kala Sangam
New Arrivals, 80in x 120in, Oil on canvas, year 2014
One wonders how Rameshwar Broota views his "Man" series of paintings now, 30-odd years after he completed it. These are among the numerous Broota paintings currently on display at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (DLF South Court Mall, Saket), an exhibition called "Visions of Interiority". Broota has been sketching male nudes for a long time now; this is, in part, a response to his own ageing body.
At 73, Rameshwar Broota is having his retrospective ‘Visions of interiority: Interrogating the Male Body’ at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), Saket. Curator Roobina Karode has gathered more than 50 works of Broota from all over the country to showcase different phases in his artistic career between 1963 and 2013.
I had come to meet Rameshwar Broota. The contentment was not just because I had finally been allowed by my editors to interview somebody really out there at the top of the art pyramid of the country. It was also because talking at length to an artist who has built his career with great struggle without compromising with any external force whatsoever – and has still managed to make his way up – was an experience worth emulating for any creative individual.
With an artistic career of over five decades, the retrospective showcases the artist's works right from 1963. The exhibition includes works from various series created by Broota, including the Man Series, which delineates a prototype of a universal man, one who has withstood various trepidations and challenges put forth by time. Often dressed only in a vest, his nakedness is exposed to the viewer, but what is most overbearing is his loneliness and vulnerability.
Walking along the array of artworks that comprise Rameshwar Broota’s retrospective, presently on view at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Saket, is a deeply thought-provoking experience. There are images from several of his standout series arranged in no particular order, almost as though intended to be absorbed together as one dizzyingly evocative whole. It is when the artist begins to talk about them that a sequence emerges and goes on to unveil the trajectory not only of his own thought process as an artist but also of his conceptualisation of man’s journey through the ages.
