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Back to Basics - In search of primitive art

Back to Basics - In search of primitive art

In 1997 I spent several days at the National Museum in Delhi to explore the India section of the presentation made immovable historical image of the British Museum. I found irresistible attraction Egyptian art and there was a force at the beginning of the African exhibits. The raw energy of the waterfall sculptures in wood and iron delivered by African artists immersed sensitivities Tribal. (A similar experience awaited me when I visited the Met New York earlier this year.) A wooden totem sculptures of a man hung his phallus to land a large number of spectators throwing furtive glances and drag on. India was 1997-1998. For me and for many an artist friend is the confrontation between what is taught in schools of art as "a great art and primitive art. In 1997 we were traveling, but rarely in the museums of Europe and the U.S. A. It was a rare scholarship Western artists can see that the art world. The world has changed since the good or evil. You can travel without water or surf and can reach around the world and see all the art is / was created from the limits of their computer room. May want to simply rehash using appropriate software. But the important thing is that with India arrive at the scene of the world, some of us can compare with greater faith and trust in our own treasures of art that appeal to a new inspiration. Primitive art / Tribal offers a bullet in the minds and the mind of prehistoric man.

Primitivising
The primitive art of African and Asian cultures attracted Western artists. Although all countries Europeans, thanks to the superior firepower and tall ships can provide a rich culture in the rest of the world. They called them savages, heathens. Western modernist artists have been attracted by the primitive art of Africa in particular. Matisse traveled to Africa and was impressed by the colors of pure tones. It is brown with a credit of color elements of these cultures. Paul Gauguin lived in Tahiti for the painting and become part of the local primitive culture. Picasso did not travel well, but had carvings and masks African study. Its Historic Les Demoiselles d'Avignon has used the image of the woman in the Cubist style derived from African sculpture. Paul Klee, Joan Miró and Salvador Dali used primitivism of the unconscious ", according to Professor Robert Goldwater in his seminal primitivism in modern art.
Manoj Mantra youth acolyte of art from the art of Lucknow University drew his line of travel through art is permeated by the high cost of replica diamonds nailed platinum skulls (I understand that an artist from India following the same path of using gold to make his major art masterpiece!) or pickling a shark to teach us about ephemeral or indiscriminate use of digital cameras in the paintings. This is the dark side of globalization and laptops for art! I am sure that Indian collectors mature to understand the difference. We need to see a ram Kinker Baij, Somnath Hore one or Anis Kapoor or steel sculptures by Richard Serra to understand the spirituality society and feel of his art.

Manoj Mantra has been freed from the demons that haunt the contemporary art. He tried not you consider the high cost of materials or or find another trick to its rudder. Works on paper and not drawings. Mediocre? But whatever. It was faced with the primitive in him and established a series of impressive works very powerful.
When I look at the pictures Mantra, I'm in the land of the dualities of modern primitive materials and factotum. His human figure is an image from totem poles as uneven teeth to impose an apprehension, fear and imminence. It reminds one of the figures of Francis Bacon opened his mouth, the wrath of the tribal gods ... The points that we connect back to civilization is reflected in his works. There phallus as elongated shapes resembling a harp or a harpsichord, which has launched rib chains man, the top of the numbers, the waist strap around the neck or around the pumpkin, light bulbs lit the openings in the body anatomy. His art quirkish is beyond the limits of logic or rationality of familiar forms. Their shapes are human beings unless we recognize and more like premonitions of the unknown in the vein of Dante's Inferno

Hell
IA Canto dark wood

In the midst of a journey of our life
2 I found myself in a dark forest
3 For the direct way was lost.

4 Ah me! how hard is one thing to say
5 What was this forest savage, rough and grave
6, the very thought renews the fear.

7 Therefore, it is bitter, death is nothing;
8 However, for the treatment of the property, say, I have found,
9 I will talk about the things I saw.

Mantra is the world of loss, dark wood, where the logical rationality, love are seduced by the forms and the primitive savagery of being. Theirs is a world of significant memory loss of civilization. Vestiges of humanity remain. It reminds me Rameshwar's paintings to Brooten eighties and early nineties, when an ape-man there in the ruins of buildings, chaos and destruction. expression similar to hell Mantra has a narrative style. But the narrative is not linear or logical. It is neither magical realism or surrealism of Salvador Dali. His story is the winter of the soul, history is libido First, the nightmares of oil is.
Mantra is the only Indian artists to explore the "dark wood" of the unconscious strangers. It has the esteemed company of people like K. Ramajunam whose drawings dense emerged from the depths of the primitive id. Laxmi Mantra of the elements Gaud physical sexuality in their art. While Laxmi is rooted in time and space Mantra transforms its characters often forms dramatic fantasies of fusion images from animals to humans. It is a quality of prehistoric cultures with appropriate Mantra Picasso expression. Mantra always stylized form of human feet, regardless whether they are animals, birds or some kind of engineering. These forms, while a duo or group for a group of other stunts almost impossible. The rooster romantic or funny or a bird or tubular buds protruding a notch in the body are evident in many of his drawings. This sense Purush and Prakriti, the male and female principles of life symbolically represented. While talking about the fascination with the primitive Mantra I can not ignore the work of J. Sultan Ali strident who worked with the tribal spirit expression and developed a custom art. His first solo exhibition in 1963 in New Delhi in the gallery Kumar stands as an emblem of pure tribal / mind primitive symbolism. Although the Sultan Ali using a line more linear mantra used a thin line. Create visual game interesting in the construction of a single fertilization and incubation space dense linear. Concern for the mantra resonates with primitive id K. Ramanujam who built a magical world of bricks and mortar of his personal fantasies, elements of reality and cultural myths.

My analysis of art Mantra will not be complete without mentioning his innate sense of humor. If a woman cries Picasso had a boat instead of the eye Mantra has an incandescent bulb in place. Funny poses even numbers and apples in your head that reminds the arrow of William Tell shooting skills so hilarious. So he took his art prmitivising fantasy without a stranglehold on the minds and clear thinking.

Victor Vijay
Painter, assemblage artist

About the Author

Viktor Vijay Kumar
Painter
Director and Curator (India Asia) European Artists Association Velbert Essen Germany

Fine arts—painting, assemblage art, autodidact.
Worked in ateliers with Late Prof. Klaus Neuper, Neurmberg; Georg Brandner Leoben Austria and Wolfgang Brenner Westphalia Germany

115 solo/group exhibitions of which 56 abroad including Germany, Austria, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Turkey, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Singapore Italy and U.S.A.

AC/DC - Hells Bells Guitar Cover (Using a backing track)