The essence of Bangalore

The essence of Bangalore
New Indian Express

What is Bangalore? Just another chaotic mega city? Or a living kaleidoscope with a million different impulses, images, sounds, faiths and faces, which miraculously come together and make sense in a big picture?

If yes, than what is that picture? Can it be painted? When artist Dhiraj Choudury ideated this thought, many of his contemporaries, sat down to mull over what Bangalore meant to them.

The paintings that resulted have interesting things to say about the city Bangalore has become over the past few years. It is a city of great contrasts, greater ironies. It is a city where shopping malls thrum with affluence and traffic signal are thick with beggar. Where cafes and culture, pubs and larger than life hoardings coexist with cows and potholes on the streets. Some of the paintings recreate Bangalore with a clear, unsparing insight.

Gregory Lent for instance paints the Forum Mall but not as a detached observer. He paints it like a child would. As if it were a giant gift box, teeming with glitter and baubles, full of promise and hidden delights. He paints the giant hoarding on one corner, the busy, display windows, the glow of commercialism and cash-fed well-being.

And then he paints a row of autos waiting outside. The autos remind you of ants, waiting for a bite from a giant sugar lump. The interconnectedness of need and greed is clear as daylight.

Gurudas Shenoy takes the more romantic view of his city. He paints the Bangalore of old, hoary buildings, Vidhana Soudha’s white columns and domes, flowering trees and green gardens. He also paints the glass buildings but their stark modernity is just incidental to a city that he loves for its flower-laden trees and its nostalgia filled relics of old architecture.

Nikhil Ranjan Pal paints the many faces of Bangalore, the watermelon sellers, the beggar mother and her baby, the little girl selling flowers and the wine drinkers. Bharati Sagar paints Bangalore where religion, tradition and cows co-exist with mobile phones, hep cafes and sky-scrappers. Lalbagh makes an appearance in many works. Sankar Kendale paints the Bangalore mascot, a tender coconut seller with great respect.

‘Bangalore Through The Painters’ Eye’ is on at Welcom Art Gallery at ITC Windsor Sheraton and Towers till February 17 and then will move on to Time & Space gallery.