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
The world at home
VINITA KARIM (b. 1962)
Emerald Island
Acrylic, embroidery on Dhaka muslin, gold and copper leaf on canvas
59 x 57 inches
The peripatetic artist, who has made Dhaka her home, is most at ease in her studio where she has brought the world to her hearth. Vinita Karim’s gilt-leafed canvases are set around lands lived and imagined, in histories and geographies of her choosing, places rich with meaning and life despite the physical absence of human figures. Her narratives are built around lifelines of water, in cities with significant sea histories. Established layer by layer, with lines that are repositories of those memories, she combines the blazing sun in Egypt with the waterways in The Philippines, the banks of Tripoli with the lakes of Switzerland. In Dhaka, she has picked on the textile trade, with her embroidered swathes done by communities of workers who have engaged in the craft over generations. It adds an element of global trade to her works.
VINITA KARIM (b. 1962)
Emerald Island
Acrylic, embroidery on Dhaka muslin, gold and copper leaf on canvas
59 x 57 inches
The peripatetic artist, who has made Dhaka her home, is most at ease in her studio where she has brought the world to her hearth. Vinita Karim’s gilt-leafed canvases are set around lands lived and imagined, in histories and geographies of her choosing, places rich with meaning and life despite the physical absence of human figures. Her narratives are built around lifelines of water, in cities with significant sea histories. Established layer by layer, with lines that are repositories of those memories, she combines the blazing sun in Egypt with the waterways in The Philippines, the banks of Tripoli with the lakes of Switzerland. In Dhaka, she has picked on the textile trade, with her embroidered swathes done by communities of workers who have engaged in the craft over generations. It adds an element of global trade to her works.
