Land Mark

Paramjit Singh calls it a moment of bidayee,as one by one his canvases leave his studio in Nizamuddin East. On the eve of his solo,Singh is anxious,like the father of the bride,as each canvas,bedecked in colour,steps out into the world. Except that,in this instance,their destination is the nearby Vadehra Art Gallery in Defence Colony.

Singh,often known as the Monet of India,has dedicated a lifetime to painting the landscapes of Delhi and the Punjab. Now,his lyrical landscapes are laced with irony as the theme of a dying environment emerges in his works. “There is a great sense of loss as species disappear and the landscapes that one loves get eroded by the corrosive agents of urban existence,” says the 75-year-old whose show is aptly tilted Beauty and Loss: A Landscape Diary.

In several works,this sense of loss is underlined by a floating water-world of blue. It could well be Google Earth images of the planet seen from space,where the landmasses have been washed away by the melting Polar ice caps.

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However,Singh is more of a timeless painter rather than a topical commentator. “I may be responding to the current circumstances,but it’s not a conscious decision or ‘statement’. Nature has been by inspiration from the day I began riding a bicycle and holding a brush,” declares the artist. “In the 1960s at the Delhi School of Art,we did plein air painting in the fields,” says the Amritsar-born Singh. “It is sad to see those spaces threatened.”

The exhibition will be held from March 31 to April 31.
Contact: 24615368