art and chocolate: Four Phases of Vinod Dave's Art ------- Phase - 2: Photo-Journalism ------------------------1981 to 1991

CLICK A PHASE LINK BELOW TO VIEW THAT PHASE

IMPORTANT NOTE:

[Starting with this phase, my way of seeing has changed due to loss of one of my eyes in an accident. So all works in all the phases starting this one are affected by my vision without spatial depth. As I have explained in my statement in phase 3, works from now on are depicted with an "invented" way of seeing depth - rather a feeling of depth that is achieved by "fooling" my eye. Please observe that my way of painting is clearly different now on compared to the previous phase. The major difference is that of an illusion of depth and the three dimensional modelling & rendering of shapes in the early phase as opposed to the flat masses & fluidly painted areas juxtaposed with hard-edged geometrical shapes, marks-making & text to "create" fooling feeling of depth. For full statement, please find it at the beginning of the post about phase 3.]

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We each morning read and “digest” bad news with breakfast, mostly of violence of humans against humans, while we sit at our breakfast table. Reacting to that, my work involves manipulated re-photography of socially violent news-images in a way that makes the photograph, ‘frozen’ by a photojournalist’s camera, ‘melt’ again to convey a powerfully expressionistic statement about the hard world of relativity that one faces in contemporary global society. Part painting, part photograph, largely dark toned mixed-media work, at first looks like an interestingly patterned abstract pastiche; its figures taken from the news media provide an allegorical puzzle. The puzzle is soon solved with the discovery of my pre-occupation with violence, a violence that can not be categorized and that charges the whole of living. The photographs of a daily variety of ‘human made violence’ juxtaposed with purposeful slashes and strokes punctuate the composition with broken shards and a fragmented imagery that blend, one into the other, regardless of time and form. The news photograph aligned and juxtaposed with slashes and borders of color refer to the human condition. Taken out of context of black and white boxes of columns, print and headlines, the photograph now takes its reference from and has its energy in suggestive potentiality of color.

-Vinod Dave on his news photo based works from 1981 – 1991

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Vinod Dave’s work is informed with an unusual perception and a unique sensitivity to his medium. His work is imbued with a strong emotional intensity which is rendered means of rich color sense that speaks of both Western and Eastern influences. The intensity of his artistic voice speaks to everyone.

His The Green Empire of Her Psychosis, certainly recalls the Western collage tradition beginning with the work of Kurt Schwitters and continuing to Dada photographer Hans Bellmer. The composition as a whole alludes to the decorative planarity of Rajput and Mewar miniature, while the surface graffiti recalls tribal wall paintings, such as produced by the Warli painters. The reclining nude repoussoir figure recalls both the legion of the Western odalisques as well as the sensuous sacred figures of Eastern religious sculpture. Dave’s choice of the photographic medium finds its source in late Victorian portraits copied from photographs, or actually painted upon them. Commenting about these palimpsest images, Stuart Cary Welch states, “Such was their skill that it is often challenging to be sure whether or not some paintings are fundamentally what they seem.” The same could be said about Vinod Dave’s work.

-Thomas Sokolowski

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The magic fiery nature of modern-day Indian art is lighting up two galleries and a corridor at the Worcester Art Museum. Blazing colors, abstract imagery but also delicately drawn figures mark this show, the second the museum is devoting to contemporary Indian art. The oldest is Msqbool Fida Huasain. In this show, it is not Husain but Vinod Dave who carries the day. Dave’s mixed-media works light up the museum’s Fountain Gallery with their brilliant color schemes. Like an old master painter, he uses lots of bright reds and deep greens and other warm hues to focus attention on his collage-like scenes. Surrounding areas are in subdued hues or semi-darkness. His imagery is composed out of different objects. People, animals, architectural elements and scenes from contemporary life are joined into an electrifying whole. There is an unreal character to it, as if the artist has joined flashes from dreams in an effort to piece together the complete story. His imagery is expressive and powerful and cleverly combines reality with abstract. The impact is heightened by the scale of the works even though Dave shows himself no less effective in his smaller mixed-media works.

-Peter Donker