Indian art: Meet the masters of popular aesthetics
These artists form the bulwark of the market and include well-known names with a consistent body and quality of work. To the public, they represent the face of Indian art without having to carry the burden of social engagement, thereby, believing in art for its own sake.
Curated By: Kishore Singh
In a vanishing land
SENAKA SENANAYAKE (b. 1951)
Rainforest
Oil on canvas
48 x 60 inches
This well-loved Sri Lankan artist has a huge fan following for his rainforest landscapes with their cheerful colours and dense vegetation amid which bloom anthuriums, birds-of-paradise and exotic tropical plants. What appears at first escapist is a documentation of a rapidly dwindling environment leading to that most catastrophic of disasters: Climate change. Still, in Senaka Senanayake’s’s underbrush, the vegetation is always lush with none of the decay and degradation. Amid the variegated and striped leaves flit butterflies and birds such as hornbills and hummingbirds, and the occasional fauna.
Having once entered his rainforest, one parts the canvas leaf by leaf to discover a wonderful world that could arguably exist in a corner of one’s own garden. Senanayake’s forestscapes may consist of parakeets and heliconias but, thankfully, there are no serpents in his paradise.
SENAKA SENANAYAKE (b. 1951)
Rainforest
Oil on canvas
48 x 60 inches
This well-loved Sri Lankan artist has a huge fan following for his rainforest landscapes with their cheerful colours and dense vegetation amid which bloom anthuriums, birds-of-paradise and exotic tropical plants. What appears at first escapist is a documentation of a rapidly dwindling environment leading to that most catastrophic of disasters: Climate change. Still, in Senaka Senanayake’s’s underbrush, the vegetation is always lush with none of the decay and degradation. Amid the variegated and striped leaves flit butterflies and birds such as hornbills and hummingbirds, and the occasional fauna.
Having once entered his rainforest, one parts the canvas leaf by leaf to discover a wonderful world that could arguably exist in a corner of one’s own garden. Senanayake’s forestscapes may consist of parakeets and heliconias but, thankfully, there are no serpents in his paradise.
