untitled Print

LANDSCAPE : Seen Through Although, while painting a landscape ,artist’s main concern could be to depict natural elements like trees ,mountains, and water bodies etc. To convey various moods , the artist is also structuring space in a certain way. However, Mr Pandurang Tathe in his paintings retains merely dim associations with the natural objects eliminating detailed semblance and moulds pictorial space with energetic brush strokes , dashes and dabs. There rhythmic turns and twists of the brush marks are records of gestures indicating transitory mental state of the artist. Those also denote animated and static features of the painting. This duality of the brush marks creates the desired ambiguity inviting viewer to comprehend the emerged spatial structure. Some of the paintings in a horizontal format with predominantly colours like brown , black and grey accelerate sense of receding space where as in some vertical composition; colours assume a role of protagonist. For instance in two paintings’ one with large expanse of green and other with greys where tonal range is wide, produce impression of light as if from unknown source inducing mystic effect. One can see several tendencies in Tathe’s drawings in terms of treatments. The craggy robust lines , light dabs, soft stipples enliven the pictorial space. Though some of the works are in acrylic on canvas with tinge of colour, lines being predominant feature, they are essentially drawings. In one of the drawings vigorous lines enclose the space making boundaries impregnable , entrapping restless forms like a black mass in the shape of a cloud and three figures engaged in some activity where as a set of four drawings of plant has blotchy treatment which invokes effect of flickering light .Or in a drawing, the space covered with stipples generates impression of wide grassland transports viewer into a poetic ambience. Dilip Ranade Curator, Price of wells Museum, Mumbai December 2015 * * "Echos of insights" I started to write my statement for this show but stumbled after first few words. So decided to track down the origin of my perspicacity. Painting comes easily to me. Words do not because words often mislead and may not actually define the meaning. The living art often resides beyond the realm of words. I am not a control freak.