Obeshwar by A. Ramachandran, 2022
Oil on canvas, 78 x 192 inches
A. Ramachandran (1935-2024), one of independent India’s pre-eminent artists, passed away last year at the age of 89, following a long and distinguished career filled with several large-scale canvases, as well dozens of acclaimed, vibrant watercolours and oil paintings. Between 1984-1986, he finished one of his best-known works, the installation ‘Yayati’, which included a total of 12 painted panels, each 60 ft by 8 ft, accompanied by a central lineup of 13 sculptures. Together, the paintings and the sculptures retold the story of Yayati from Hindu mythology, the king whose monomaniacal quest for immortality eventually extracts a heavy price from those around him. In the 1990s, Ramchandran visited Obeshwar near Udaipur, the site of a small Shiva temple and an accompanying lotus pond. The visit left a great impact on the artist; in a 1997 interview he described the trip, which reads like someone experiencing the effect of psychedelics for the first time.
“I sat near the lotus pond and watched the changing hues of colour on large leaves, the tall stalks holding flowers and buds, swaying in the breeze along with golden reeds, like a graceful tribal dance. After three days of observation, the changing moods of this magnificent lotus pond became a lotus pond of my mind, Manasarovar, providing a Gita Govinda setting, for God of little things to enact a playful activity—Leela of insects, butterflies and dragonflies, swinging between the conscious and the subconscious.”
Obeshwar is a great example of Ramachandran’s mastery over both line and c...
A. Ramachandran (1935-2024), one of independent India’s pre-eminent artists, passed away last year at the age of 89, following a long and distinguished career filled with several large-scale canvases, as well dozens of acclaimed, vibrant watercolours and oil paintings. Between 1984-1986, he finished one of his best-known works, the installation ‘Yayati’, which included a total of 12 painted panels, each 60 ft by 8 ft, accompanied by a central lineup of 13 sculptures. Together, the paintings and the sculptures retold the story of Yayati from Hindu mythology, the king whose monomaniacal quest for immortality eventually extracts a heavy price from those around him. In the 1990s, Ramchandran visited Obeshwar near Udaipur, the site of a small Shiva temple and an accompanying lotus pond. The visit left a great impact on the artist; in a 1997 interview he described the trip, which reads like someone experiencing the effect of psychedelics for the first time.
“I sat near the lotus pond and watched the changing hues of colour on large leaves, the tall stalks holding flowers and buds, swaying in the breeze along with golden reeds, like a graceful tribal dance. After three days of observation, the changing moods of this magnificent lotus pond became a lotus pond of my mind, Manasarovar, providing a Gita Govinda setting, for God of little things to enact a playful activity—Leela of insects, butterflies and dragonflies, swinging between the conscious and the subconscious.”
Obeshwar is a great example of Ramachandran’s mastery over both line and colour. The women in the frame are all, in one way or another, enhancing the beauty and the vitality of the plants and the flowers around them—and vice versa, like a feedback loop.
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