Walking with the Masters

Journaling Artists through time…

Documented by Dhwani Chawla Guided by Asha Mandapa

SWS 2021, CEPT University The artists that we plan to study each have a uniqueness behind their work. The way they thought at that time, their personal lives, their perspectives. The tragedies, the love, the dream, their psychological state and many other facets that made their work what it is today. I have a keen interest in looking at art through these lenses. Through the study of their lives events and socio political climate of the world at these times. Physically exploring the work of each artist through the interpretation and study of their work strokes and colours used.

Visiting museums as a child and eventually appreciating art growing up made me choose this as a summer school. I am extremely excited to take a dive into the lives of the artists through their impression styles and the way one could say they put pigment on a base through several mediums... I learnt about the artists thought process, their art style, colour palette & technique.

Dhwani Chawla | PG190289 | MUI FP CEPT

Artists 01 Vincent Van Gogh | 01 Paul Gauguin | 02 Claude Monet | 03 Amrita Sher-Gil | 04 Frida Kahlo | 05

Memory at the Garden of Eden Aux Roches Noires (At the Black Rocks) Water Lilies, The Evening Effect Two Elephants Self Portrait

Jehangir Sabavala | 06

What went on in the mind of the viewer?

Vrindavan Solanki | 07

Talking about his style of work

Edgar Degas | 08

The last story

Experience 09

(1853-1890) Vincent van Gogh was a post-Impressionist painter whose work — notable for its beauty, emotion and colour — highly influenced 20th-century art. He struggled with mental illness and remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life. Van Gogh's art helped him stay emotionally balanced. In 1885, he began work on what is considered to be his first masterpiece, "Potato Eaters."

Theo, who by this time living in Paris, believed the painting would not be well-received in the French capital, where Impressionism had become the trend. In Paris, van Gogh first saw Impressionist art, and he was inspired by the colour and light. He began studying with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Camille Pissarro and others. To save money, he and his friends posed for each other instead of hiring models. Van Gogh was passionate, and he argued with other painters about their works, alienating those who became tired of his bickering. Its all in the things he said and believed in…

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Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well. If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. I dream of painting and then I paint my dream. In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. The best way to know God is to love many things.

Conscience is a man's compass.

” 01

MEMORY OF THE GARDEN AT ETTEN (LADIES OF ARLES), 1888

BY VINCENT VAN GOGH ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING ON CANVAS

Medium used: Soft Pastels

(1848-1903) Paul Gauguin is most famous for his interest Primitivism, developed when he travelled to French Polynesia. He wrote a book about his experiences in Tahiti and spent the last years of his life there.

These paintings, as well as many of his earlier Symbolist works, are marked by bright colours, strong contours, and flat, heavy forms, in a style that came to be known as cloisonnism. However the bulk of Gauguin's work is in a more traditional Post-Impressionist style, with realistic pastoral scenes and traditional portraits. At the Black Rocks (also known as Rocks by the Sea) is a synthesis of these diverse styles. One of the strongest influences on this piece is Japanese art, which features similar depictions of nature, and the overall unity of the scene, the way the different natural elements come together in the picture plane, has a distinctly Japanese cast. Japonisme was extremely popular during the Impressionist movement and its impact carried on into Post-Impressionism, including the work of Gauguin's close friend, Van Gogh. In this painting I am particularly taken with the composition of meandering dark lines, subdued shades of blue, and grey tones that fade to black. Studying the drawing suggests that he began with the swirling black contours—possibly chance-generated lines—then added the shading and colour. Gauguin uses undulating lines to depict a dream of a seascape, abandoning verisimilitude as waves morph into turbulent clouds and mist around the foreboding black rocks. The rock metamorphosing into a female figure may have been an addition to the work once Gauguin identified the potential image of human features in the grey shadows. Between the restless abstraction of the sea and the dark figure’s ominous presence, the painting achieves an uncanny, disquieting aspect.

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AUX ROCHES NOIRES (AT THE BLACK ROCKS), 1889

BY PAUL GAUGUIN ORIGINAL WATER COLOUR

Medium used: Soft Pastels

(1840-1926) When standing in front of a water lily painting by Claude Monet, you have the sense that a moment of magic is about to take place. Here is a painting that is many feet wide and six feet high, an expanse of misty, vibrating colour that fills your field of vision. Somewhere in the meeting place between your eyes and the picture surface, a discovery is taking place. The magic of these pictures — and why they are so beguiling too — is that the encounter unfolds, repeats, returns and spirals like a piece of music.

Amorphous and puzzling paintings that gain meaning in the looking. Along with Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, Water Lilies are the most iconic images of Impressionism. The first series of "Water Lilies," a total of twenty-five canvases, was exhibited at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1900.

"These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession," wrote Monet on August 11, 1908. "This is beyond the strength of an old man, and yet I want to express what I feel. I have destroyed some of the canvases. I begin once again. ... I hope something will come of all this effort.

“Monet planted the water lilies before he painted them. Monet organized his property at Giverny as though it were a huge painting. Thanks to a small army of gardeners, he diverted a river, planted water lilies, exotic flowers, weeping willows, bamboo trees, and willows. He seeded the pond and added enclosures with white chickens, ducks, and pheasants. Nature, recomposed by the artist, began to resemble his art. "My finest masterpiece," he later said, "is my garden.“ His avant-garde approach and his extraordinary use of point and colour began the trail for subsequent art movements: his contemporary Paul Cezanne became affiliated with Post-impressionism; Henri Matisse, who had studied Monet, became of the first of the Expressionist artists. “Water Lilies, Evening Effect” features the subject at night, capturing the mood, tone and colour of the evening.

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WATER LILIES, THE EVENING EFFECT, 1897-98

BY CLAUDE MONET ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING ON CANVAS

Medium used: Soft Pastels

(1913-1941) Often mistakenly referred to as India's Frida Kahlo for aesthetically blending traditional and Western art forms, Amrita Sher-Gil was one of the most famous painters of India. She is also considered as a revolutionary woman artist and the originator of modern art in India. Though her artworks mainly depicted Western style and culture during the initial stages of her career, the painter gradually began to rediscover herself by depicting Indian subjects using traditional methods. She even travelled to different parts of India, France and Turkey and managed to incorporate ideas gained from different techniques into her own works.

Amrita Sher-Gil returned to India in the year 1934 and began her never-ending journey of trying to decode the traditions of Indian art. She was influenced by the Mughal as well as the Ajanta paintings. In 1937, she began her journey to the southern parts India and was deeply moved by the plight of many villagers and unprivileged people. This started reflecting in her works and eventually gave rise to paintings such as ‘Brahmacharis’, ‘Bride's Toilet’ and ‘South Indian Villagers Going to Market’. Her technique and style was now nowhere similar to the paintings that she came up with in Paris. Amrita had learnt to incorporate Indian traditions in her works and thus had rediscovered her purpose and style of painting. She even wrote to one of her friends, saying that Europe belonged to the likes of Picasso and Matisse while India belongs to her.

Amrita Sher-Gil is often considered as the pioneer of modern art in the country as her works influenced and inspired a number of modern day greats. India Post released a stamp of her painting 'Hill Women' in the year 1978. There is a road named after the painter in Lutyens Delhi, known as the Amrita Shergil Marg.

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TWO ELEPHANTS, 1940

BY AMRITA SHER-GIL ORIGINAL OIL PAINTING ON CANVAS

Medium used: Soft Pastels & Water Colours

(1907-1954) She was a Mexican artist mostly known for her self-portraits. Around the age of 18, Frida was terribly injured in a bus accident, and it was during her recovery that she started painting, although this was not the first art form she practiced. Her paintings blend her pain and struggles with the vibrant colours and motifs of Mexican popular culture. Life was not kind to Frida. At the age of six she contracted polio, a condition that made one of her legs shorter and thinner than the other. She was bullied by her peers, and the disease isolated her for long periods of time. After the bus accident, she nearly lost her life. The atmosphere in her parents’ house was also very tense, lacking love, and as she later described it “very, very sad”. As if all this was not enough, she had a turbulent marriage with Diego Rivera, and also miscarried, causing her a serious haemorrhage that kept her in the hospital for weeks. Even with the physical need of constant support Frida as she didn’t have the ability to work, she wanted to be independent in all ways possible.

Frida managed to turn excruciating pain into beauty and her passion stands out in every single one of her paintings — making her an appreciated and celebrated artist all over the world. Its in what she said and the way she lived her life. Definitely a lady you can look up to.

“

They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality. I paint flowers so they will not die. Only one mountain can know the core of another mountain. I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.

”

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SELF PORTRAIT INSPIRED BY FRIDA KAHLO ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH AND ACRYLIC ON CANVAS

Medium used: Soft Pastels & Water Colours

(1922-2011) Known by his Dali-esque moustache, well-tailored suit, a silk cravat neatly tucked into the collar and polished shoes, 20th century artist Jehangir Sabavala left an indelible mark on Indian art, in his eternal quest to find lyricism and serenity in the world. His contemporaries such as Akbar Padamsee, Tyeb Mehta, M.F. Husain or S.H. Raza, Sabavala celebrated his significant contribution to Indian modern art.

WHAT WENT ON IN THE MIND OF THE VIEWER? A Master’s Lasting Impression on Indian Modern Art. Transitioning from Frida Kahlo to Sabavala was like ziplining between two cliffs. Both of their works are magnificent, however, in the state of mind that the tale of Frida Kahlo leaves you, one surely needs to let her life, her work sink in. Nevertheless, his work felt like a breath of fresh air, a sign of relief, easy on the eyes and mind. It had more technique than a deeper hidden meaning. The colours he used, created and documented portray his passion for the art form. He imbibed the Cubist precepts of constructing objects not as they appeared to the eye, but in relation to other entities. Sabavala resisted being tied down to one philosophy or one style of art. His style was a blend of Cubism and Impressionism, that adapted to the challenges of India and adjusted to its vibrant colours and landscapes.

“

He has added cubism to modern art phenomenally and definitely is a pioneer of using geometry as undertones as well as starkly in his work. It would be a treat to just walk through his exhibition, soaking in the style, like a stroll through nature, captivating lines and hues I cannot even name. I believe after Frida Kahlo, it is extremely crucial to unwind with an artist who is trained at some of the best art colleges in the world in his work and as fresh as him, and let the life questioning thoughts sink in.

”

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BY JEHANGIR SABAVALA THE TREE | THE FLIGHT III | OF CLIFF AND FALL III | THE CITY - IV | THE GUIDING LIGHT | UNTITLED (CUBISM) | THE BANGLE SELLERS | CASUARINA LINE – III | UNDER SAIL | RICE FIELDS, PLANI HILLS - II

(Born in 1942) A Solanki canvas preserves that pristine quality of monochromes, such as grayscale and sepia. Only the more recent of his artworks have hints of hues. His distinguished oeuvre has a gentle sensuousness, a serene magic. Drawn to the “innocence and purity” of Rabari tribals, making him a “silent chronicler of his own land.” What’s striking about Solanki’s work is that male and female subjects stand on an equal footing – confident and poised. “Rabari women are very powerful,” Solanki emphasises.

WHAT SPEAKS ABOUT HIS WORK? His art is about representing time – about leaving a “message for tomorrow”. He seeks to do this by preserving the culture of the Rabaris – their flowing attire and embroidered textiles – which may change after a hundred years. “There is no end to creativity. You have to keep working. When that process stops, you are finished.” It is this belief that makes him an admirer of Picasso – who was ceaselessly energetic and prolific in his lifetime.

While his subjects often have their backs turned towards the viewer, lending the sense that one is privy to a deeply private moment; the distinguishing character of Solanki’s work is the facelessness of his subjects and the ethereal glow that treads the space between their interacting bodies, representing the inner light within each of us. He says, “We live with two faces – inner and outer.

What we see often doesn’t express what is felt.” This explains why he is preoccupied with body language and movement, instead – graceful poses and intimate gestures of touch. “There is silence and there is shanti,” he says. “But shanti also often contains sound in it. And silence also often contains a message.” It is this silent spiritual resonance that his subjects portray. “What you choose not to do is as important as what you choose to do. It itself becomes the story.” Another distinctive quality of Solanki’s works is their monochromatic tones. He believes that colour is not always needed – for drawing is important in itself.

07

BY VRINDAVAN SOLANKI UNTITLED | UNTITLED | TRIBAL WOMAN | VILLAGE FOLK | UNTITLED | UNTITLED | UNTITLED

(1834–1917) Edgar Degas seems never to have reconciled himself to the label of “Impressionist,” preferring to call himself a “Realist” or “Independent.” Like the Impressionists, he sought to capture fleeting moments in the flow of modern life, yet he showed little interest in painting plein-air landscapes, favoring scenes in theaters and cafés illuminated by artificial light, which he used to clarify the contours of his figures, adhering to his academic training. Degas’s choice of subject matter reflects his modern approach. He favored scenes of ballet dancers, laundresses, milliners and denizens of Parisian low life. Degas absorbed artistic tradition and outside influences and reinterpreted them in innovative ways.

Following the opening of trade with Japan in 1854, many French artists, including Degas, were increasingly influenced by Japanese prints. His contemporaries often infused their paintings with Eastern imagery, Degas abstracted from these prints their inventive compositions and points of view, particularly in his use of cropping and asymmetry. Degas had also observed how sixteenthcentury Italian Mannerists similarly framed their subjects, sometimes cutting off part of a figure.

Unusual vantage points and asymmetrical framing are a consistent theme throughout Degas’ works, especially in his many paintings and pastels of ballet dancers. Even in a more traditional work of portraiture he achieves a more modern effect by disrupting the compositional balance. Degas had a lively, scientific interest in a wide range of media, including engraving, monotype, and photography.

The figures in pastels were criticized for their ungainly poses, as in this work, in which the figure squats awkwardly in a tub, yet the steep perspective gives the work a solid, sculptural balance.

Degas experimented with an array of techniques, breaking up surface textures with hatching, contrasting dry pastel with wet, and using gouache and water colors to soften the contours of his figures. Degas’s use of pastel to achieve the effect of the glare of footlights illuminating his subject from below and his use of coarse hatching to suggest the curtained backdrop.

In later life, Degas became reclusive, morose, and given to bouts of depression, probably as a consequence of his increasing blindness.

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BY EDGAR DEGAS SEATED BATHER DRYING HERSELF | DANCERS IN BLUE | IN A CAFE (THE ABSINTHE DRINKER) | WOMEN ON A CAFE TERRACE | BALLET AT THE PARIS OPERA | THE ORCHESTRA OF THE OPERA | LITTLE DANCER OF FOURTEEN YEARS | THE MILLINERY SHOP | SONG OF THE DOG | LA TOILETTE-I | TWO DANCERS RESTING | THE LAUNDRESSES | WOMAN IN THE BATH

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Tuesday – I started the workshop with the artist closest to my heart, Vincent Van Gogh. I had visited a museum in Paris in high-school and was completely mesmerized by his work. It had imprinted a part of me very deeply. The first day was all about understanding him, which made the day a perfect start to the journey of understand the artists and their art.

Wednesday – Paul Gauguin is clearly misunderstood. Agreeably I had made a first impression of the artist based on his relationship and impact on Vincent van Gogh, but he has a past of his own, that needs to be understood. His work stands out in terms of symbolism and the way it has inspiration from his travel is interesting to the mind of the viewer.

Thursday – Father of impressionism, Claude Monet is another artist whose work I was stunned looking at as a young mind. The way he captured light, dark and blended the white over most of his work. The way he created misty and foggy effects. The fast paced capturing of time in paintings, his love for the garden Giverny. The magnificently delicate lilies and his paintings through the struggle of losing sight temporarily.

Friday – Today’s day was used in finishing the pieces started in the past days, By now I feel I have touched upon different techniques of using the soft pastels and the fixative spray. How the colours blend and how to make the white visible being the toughest nut to crack. The effect of small and big lines using the colours and the kind of impression is creates was definitely a newly acquired skill set. The mist in Monet's work, the water colour effect in Gauguin's or the sheer spectacular flowers in Van Gogh's work. I already feel enriched.

Dhwani Chawla | PG190289 | MUI FP CEPT

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Saturday – Going through the life of Amrita Sher-Gil gave a background to the ideas behind her paintings. She was a woman with privileges, a bold woman nonetheless who wanted to live life on her own terms. She was a well trained artist, and stands up to being called "one of the greatest avant-garde women artists of the early 20th century" and a "pioneer" in modern Indian art. Her sudden death at such a young age raised intrigue in my mind to research on her life further.

Sunday – Looking at her as a person influenced what I produced as a final outcome. I wanted to

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colour she had within her, the feminine grave, the bravery of a soldier, the fragility of flowers, the mere eccentricity in her fashion. She simply was a breathtakingly beautiful person, artist.

Her words and work deeply touched me as a person. It gave me the courage to take a step forward and try out a new medium, possibly learn a new form through this. “My painting carries with it the message of pain. I hope the exit is joyful. And I hope never to return. I leave you my portrait so that you will have my presence all the days and nights that I am away from you.”

Monday – To put is simply, Jehangir Sabavala knew his colours. His passion for experimenting with different hues was new to me, being introduced to art recently. Vrindavan Solanki's style of work was surprisingly had strings attached to me based on my likes and the form he worked with. The attire of Rabari women that he captured is something that I really adore and the belief of not wanting to capture the face so the body can show the actual emotion is something that I closely follow when being photographed.

Tuesday – There is a wild chain of thoughts racing through my mind as the workshops comes to an end, concluded with the work of Degas. Earlier I was in awe of the way he painted fabric, but he is way beyond. The workshop has given me so many perspectives from my peers and the extremely knowledgeable and motivating guide. There is so much to venture into in this field. All in all this was probably one of the most enriching experiences through my journey at CEPT.

Dhwani Chawla | PG190289 | MUI FP CEPT

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Online Workshop

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Online Workshop

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Dhwani Chawla | PG190289 Master’s in Planning (Specialization in Infrastructure) Faculty of Planning | CEPT University