The Art by Dr Ved Prakash Bhardwaj - HTML preview

The Art

juxtaposition of colours. Like an intense

or subdued alap, the colours spread

across the canvas—somewhere lighter,

somewhere darker, sometimes forceful

and sometimes almost silent.

As one continues to look at his

paintings, the vision of the invisible

becomes increasingly illuminated. What

initially appears obscure gradually

acquires an emotional and visual

coherence, though it never becomes

completely transparent.

Kolte once told this writer that an artist

must have a reason for applying every

colour. A colour should not be placed on

the canvas without purpose. For him, it is

not enough to know how many colours to

use or where to apply them; it is equally

important to know where to leave colour

out. The spaces without colour are as

significant as the colours themselves.

At first sight, it may not be obvious

why a particular colour has been used

in one of Kolte’s paintings. But when

we look at the painting as a whole and

begin to consider the relationships

among its colours, those relationships

acquire significance. Colours develop

a kind of sociality, much like words in

poetry. A word gains meaning through its

relationship with other words; similarly, a

colour gains its expressive force through

its relationship with other colours. The

painting gradually unfolds like a poem.

Kolte frequently works through

several layers on the canvas. He applies

successive layers of colour, often

beginning with lighter tones. Finally, he

covers a large portion of the surface with

a darker colour, but does so in a way that

allows the earlier colours to peek through

from beneath the final layer. This creates

a complex picture structure in which the

history of the painting remains partially

visible.

Sometimes this structure

evokes the architecture of a city; at

other times, it resembles a dream from

the night that one remembers only in

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