The show ‘Tale of Two Cities’ is an amalgamation of the “pink” city and the “pearl” city but not along the lines of its similarities but instead, celebrating their differences. Senior city artist Anjani Reddy, who put the show together in a little over a month, says, “The idea was to bring abstracts to a city like Hyderabad that has predominantly seen only figuratives.”
And true to this statement stand the works of Anjani Reddy, Srinivas and Rohini Reddy, Priti Samyukta and two visiting artists from Jaipur — Dr Vidyasagar Upadhyay and Vinay Sharma. “Abstraction is often considered the highest form of expression and is seen in all forms of art. But, unfortunately, we don’t see much abstracts coming out of the city and people also remain unexposed to it,” adds Anjani.
And even though it was a group show involving seniors, the works on display were fresh from the studios and marked a small departure from the artists’ earlier styles. While the senior artist couple Srinivas and Rohini Reddy brought their characteristic human heads, Srinivas Reddy also presented stylised heads on what looked like wheels.
Meanwhile, Anjani Reddy displayed her latest canvases and Priti Samyukta her newest series with thick acrylic.
The contrast to these figuratives were the expressive works of Dr Vidyasagar, who recently shifted from black and white to colours. His creations are often characterised by a white backdrop with decisive strokes that stand testimony to his experience. “For over four decades, I have painted predominantly with black and white. And now I have moved on to colour. But I still stick to the idea of expressing nature — not necessarily just the physical and external nature, but the nature of the human mind and soul as well,” he explains.
The other visiting artist, Vinay Sharma, brought with him a whole new world of abstracts. He mingles ancient with the contemporary and mostly in the medium of handmade paper. While he sources handmade paper with calligraphy and spiritual texts from his ancestral house to the local markets, he painstakingly makes the “contemporary” paper himself from pulp.
“The idea is to bring the ‘ancient’ and the ‘now’ together in one frame. And I wouldn’t call this abstract, as much as I want to call it realistic. It is a realistic depiction of then and now. It’s like a narrative that has travelled for centuries,” says the artist.
