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it is not a cat

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paint for myself

paint for myself

Speaking on his pet subject ‘Cats’, Bhaskaran said, “The cat for me is a form. I delineate forms, assimilate them and then generate a new form, and that’s the cat. It is not a true cat as you might find in a photograph, but a visual rendition. The cat is in my mind. There is simplicity to the drawn line that is attractive. The cat is recognizable, but it is not a cat. I arrived at this through my own sketches”. By extracting an abstraction of the cat as a mental image, Bhaskaran was not only appropriating its attractive form but was also attempting a generic delineation of the animal.

The cat indirectly served for Bhaskaran once again as a point of reference to explore the notion of form in relation to space and crucially an integral dimension of life itself.

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Among the numerous modern Indian artists who have covered a wide gamut of themes and subjects, there have been very few who had indulged in exploring the theme of the cat as a springboard for solving artistic problems. This association of animals to artists brings to mind the Kolkata based Sunil Das who with his delineation of restless and energetic horses and bulls had established his exclusive artistic domain. In the same token Bhaskaran who had been working on this theme from late seventies, is today popularly associated with this creature portrayed with a felicity of strokes, in which the line was not only descriptive but emotive as well in relating the moods of the animal. The obsession displayed in the representation of the animal made the name of Bhaskaran inseparable from his ‘cats’.

In his “cat” series, the animal was cast as tense, nervous, in conversation, or in its typical posture of hunting, relaxing, slumbering, snooping in alleys, and majestically reposing in fields, meditating on the mountains, coiled in slumber or seen as an ally to the nudes .

The semiotics of the cat in Indian iconography, particularly as represented in the Arjuna’s Penance at the historic site of Mamallapuram was understood as a sly and cunning creature draped in innocence.

The semantics of a simple lowly creature assumed valence against the traditional backdrop. As interpreted by the artist who investigated the subject for its form, texture, shape and other formal characteristics it also underpinned his aggressive, rebellious and suspicious mindset and an obstinate attitude towards the realization of personal goals. If the cat in Bhaskaran’s artistic oeuvre was to be interpreted, it would throw up interesting symbolic meaning, that of power, energy, independence and self-assurance besides that of being a great teacher, qualities which also bore remarkable affinities with the personality of the artist. The visual representation of the cat had the power to simultaneously evoke, deeply felt emotions and fleetingly spirited impulses. The resourcefulness in representing the ‘cat’ was effectively conveyed through the media of painting, drawing and prints. It reflected dexterity, moving with ease from one artistic medium to another.

His acknowledgment of the conceptualization process of the cat form was also precipitated by his intense study of the Neo-Realists in Britain especially the works of David Hockney.

His cats often had been reduced to structured geometric forms as the ovals, triangle, and circles in the cubist tradition, further enhanced by the majestic linear play. Bhaskaran affirmed the play of lines, dramatized the form while simultaneously focusing on the spaces contoured within. The dense spaces were further manipulated through colours and textures. His cats particularly rendered in black and white or in paint and in prints were mysterious, magical and evocative, persuading the viewer to ‘look’ at the cats with a different perspective. From a lyrical and poetic rendering to the prosaic monumental dense form, Bhaskaran had explored every miniscule dimension of the creature called ‘cat’.

Ashrafi Bhagat

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