Avataran Painting

After the British Raj, India went through a massive change, however the art system in schools remained the same. Even though it has been centuries since artists have begun to define their individuality in their work, the Indian school system with its elementary and intermediate art examinations, drills into students a very specific style of art that was revered by the West, known as the Western academic style. Anita Goel talks about the school art system and the undistinguishable artworks it produces. Hoping to revolutionise this style and its homogenous art, Anita takes a drastically different approach in her artwork. Her art is beyond the boundaries of the canvas. She talks about the underestimated power of the canvas and painting tools.The breaking of conventions becomes an important aspect in her work. The medium becomes more significant in her work, drawing from the abstract expressionists. The stereotype that a painting must mean something, depending on a message or an anecdote is something of the past. Anita defines her oeuvre with strong strokes of paint, polychrome colour palettes, and distinct shapes.The form of the bird is visible in every painting, an ode to her previous series ‘Udaan’.The art breaks free from the cage of stories and reliance on other forms of art and shows you pure formal qualities. In selecting canvases of irregular shapes and non-uniform thickness, it gives you the illusion of three dimensionality in a flat space. Anita encourages her viewers to find their own interpretation in her works. Every individual has a visuality that is determined by the social constructs around them. The audience may project their experiences, relationships, understandings, or biases onto the paintings. Ambiguity in art incites a conscious and unconscious process of recognition in the viewer. The paintings become conversations and open-ended questions, always dynamically interacting with the viewers’ perception.