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Impressionism
grew alongside and out of the established schools of painters who
exhibited their work in the official salon. The early work of the
Impressionist painters like Monet, Renoir, Degas and Cezanne did
not depart far from the norms of the salon painting, but in the
next decade or so, it became transformed into something else. Impressionists
were drawn to a freer, open brushwork where the quality of the paint
was evident, the bravura and the touch of the brushwork important.
They were drawn to colour and colourist, and rather than mixing
their colour on their palettes they preferred placing pure colour
stroke beside stroke on their canvas, so that at a distance the
juxtaposition merged in the eye.
Van
Gogh moved beyond the attempted visual objectivity of Impressionism.
He permeated the canvas not with the subject but with himself and
his own persuasive feelings. This undetached attitude is no longer
Impressionism but Expressionism, for the painter has a compelling
point of view, a decided emotion, distorting the subject until it
becomes for the spectator but a manifestation of that emotion.
In
Kathmandu, we have Param Meyangbo, a very young and talented artist,
who was attracted by the Impressionist technique, but has developed
it into a free and personal style. She has the Impressionist penchant
for bright colours, but feels that brush and palette are an unnecessary
restraint on the act of painting. The Shaligram Apartment-Hotel
at Jawalakhel commissioned the paintings that were exhibited at
Spiny Babbler. She had to work within 5 given themes – Flowers,
Restaurant, Ranas, Terai and Newar. The medium she has used are
oil, acrylic and collage on paper and the way she has blended these
into her paintings are a visual treat.
In
the flower series she has used very bold colours which attracted
the spectators, specially the one titled: Summer –Blue Gold. There was a trace of abstract expressionism in
The Daybreak and Third Daybreak. The more you looked at the former, the more you got
drawn into its infinite symbolism. There was a different feeling
while viewing the Restaurant series. They were very tastefully done.
Collage was used effectively to make the food look more authentic.
One could see a subtle Van Gogh influence in The
Drink, Draft Beer,
Champagne on ice and The Announcement
– British Gurkha; and
yet there was a freshness and clarity of presentation which made
it so special. The Rana series had a stunning portrait of Jung Bahadur Rana. It was a very good mix of oil, acrylic, and collage
and could easily qualify as the centrepiece of the exhibition. Another
very good work was Patan Durbar
Square - collage on paper. In this, she has given a new dimension
to this art form and made it look unnervingly simple; it has great
depth and looks as well executed as a photograph. The black and
white collage of King Bhupatindra Malla was stunning and left me
spellbound. There was a lot of variety in her work and the way she
has used colour shows that she is not afraid to experiment. If one
wanted to see minute detailing, it, too, was there in: Summer House, Keshar Mahal. There were a few pieces that showed Param’s
experimental stages, but she quickly learned from her mistakes and
got back to her personal style.
This
exhibition, Meyangbo Creations, brought to mind what Rousseau felt.
‘It is good composition when the objects represented are not there
solely as they are, but when they contain under a natural appearance
the sentiments which they have stirred in our souls.’ This was truly
a soul stirring experience. In her unique manner of applying paint
to the paper in loose finger movements, she has preserved the freshness
of her reaction to a subject. |
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