ETERNAL QUEST

Ravi Mandlik/ Rajendra

Ravi Mandlik has emerged as one of the foremost abstractionists in the country today. He has served at his alma mater Sir J J School of Arts, as a lecturer between mid-eighties to mid-nineties after which he chose to pursue painting as a full-time vocation. He is one of the rare young abstractionists to get recognition, having bagged prestigious awards like Award of Seychelles Visual Art Biennale from the Seychelles government in 1992. Later in 1995 he was invited to represent India in another international exhibition organised by Yokohama Citizens’ Gallery, Japan. He has also served as the Honorary Secretary of the Bombay Art Society for the period 1996-99. Ravi’s prime inspiration is nature, to be precise forests. He often retreats to the forests of Bhamragad and Perimeli in the idarbha region in Maharashtra, Mekedatu in Karnataka, Talasari and border areas of Gujarat and Ladakh at Indo- China-Pak Border. Rajendra : Let us start with your recent works displayed in your exhibition “Blue & Red” at Jehangir Art Gallery last month; What does the title ‘Blue & Red” signify? Ravi Mandlik : For me nothing in particular. These are abstract works and one does not work around concepts in such works. Its the other way round; I completed the works and found that either blue or red happened to be the dominant colour in them. Then the title easily came to my mind! R : Since your last exhibition at Jehangir Art Gallery (January 2008) ‘The Quest’, you have shifted to a brighter palette; what made you change the palette? R M : Normally I work in earthy, muted, dusky colours, always tertiary colours. In 2005, I visited Ladakh and visited it again in 2008, just before ‘The Quest’ was mounted at Jehangir. Nature in Ladakh and the annual Hemis festival of the natives, their bright costumes, the vivid blues, the reds and the yellows of the caves and monasteries compelled me to drift from my tertiary palette; but I still do majority of my work in my old palette, with the addition of the reds and blues! R : You prefer to work more in acrylic colour. Does it suit the kind of work you do or you have special affinity for acrylics? R M : I slowly shifted to acrylic colours from oils many years back, my eyes would swell if I work in oils for a long time, later diagnosed as an allergy to linseed oil and turpentine. So I started working with acrylics, initially it was difficult; but not for those who have worked in oils and water colours.