A soothing ray of divinity

In sight Prince Chand presents the wisdom and divinity of Lord Buddha.

In the contemporary Indian art scene there is a broad variety in the nature of the works exhibited. It is a good sign, because many artists are producing really good works which are authentic and genuine with a personal idiom and language. But, there is also an imperative need to systematise the art world and bring in order and discipline.

Studio Vasant (Hauz Khas Village) has organised an exhibition of Prince Chand’s paintings titled “Divine Light of Lord Buddha”. The artist’s expressions of the wisdom and divinity of Lord Buddha with his particular emphasis on that divine light which is the light of highest self-realisation spread through deepest words of spiritual thought on life and reality.

The artist has adopted a particular mode of expression with the Buddha’s face shown either frontal or three-quarters in different hues. There is a variety of works presented through different metaphors linked with the image of the Buddha.

The luminous image of the Buddha is expressed in different colours through light and shade and other painterly modes. On the right hand side of the canvas, flowers are shown with the centralised Buddha image, in others chakras on the Buddha’s face express the divine light of the meditative Buddha.

The artist in most of his paintings adopts a method that could be described as a wayward etching of the colour surface with a spatula. This is quite effective as an artistic technique which gives a modernist touch to the traditional Buddha image, along with other methods and artistic tools.

In quite a few of the works he leaves the lower corners of the canvas or the diagonally opposite corners blank, lending an extra dimension to the paintings and moving it away from the purely realistic mode of expression.

In two of the paintings he has linked the Buddha image to Lord Krishna, which gives both aesthetic and spiritual satisfaction to the viewer. In one, Krishna is shown with the flute on the right hand lower end of the canvas. In another, Krishna’s peacock feather is placed on the forehead, the stem moving diagonally downward to the right lower end of the face. Such expression through physical metaphors with deepest spiritual meaning and connotation is an example of effective artistic expression brought about by linking two concepts of Godhead (Buddha and Krishna) — pure Consciousness integrated through a common metaphor.

One painting shows Buddha with his back to the viewer in deepest meditation, perhaps under the Bodhi Tree with the luminous divine light suffusing the atmosphere.

Prince Chand as an artist adopts less the Buddha as a spiritual historical entity (except in one or two paintings) and more as a creative spiritual Godhead exuding his divine light and wisdom to a spiritually bankrupt world through the centuries.

The artist is successful in creating a personal language and idiom through intelligently adopted selective artistic tools.

Finally, one feels if he matures his application of paint and the use of yellow as a luminous colour for expressing the divine light, his paintings would become really good and authentic creative expressions of art.

The exhibition is on view till 26 July.

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