Hues & Scapes – Solo Exhibition by Nupur Kundu

Presented by Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi

Preview – 3rd March 2024 at 6 pm

Curated by – Mr. Uday Jain, Director of Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi

Venue: Bikaner House, CCA Building – Ground Floor, Pandara Road, New Delhi

Renowned Abstract Artist Nupur Kundu is all set to enthral art lovers yet again, when she puts forward her latest solo Exhibition titled ‘Hues & Scapes – Solo Exhibition by Nupur Kundu‘, at Bikaner House, CCA Building – Ground Floor, Pandara Road, New Delhi. This show is Curated by Mr. Uday Jain, Director of Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi. Coming close on the back of the huge success of her last show at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, where we witnessed a Unique collaboration between Nupur Kundu and Sacheerome. It was the Calendar Launch 2024. India’s leading fragrance and flavour manufacturing company, Sacheerome, has joined forces with Nupur Kundu to launch The Art of Fragrance initiative, which aims to blend visual art and fragrance creation, fostering emotional connections between scents and artwork. Expressing his thoughts on this ground-breaking partnership, Sacheerome’s Chief Perfumer and Managing Director, Manoj Arora, said, “Perfumery has long been acknowledged as an art form. Our collaboration with globally acclaimed artist Nupur represents an avant-garde approach to spotlight the synergy between the olfactory and visual senses. Combining fragrance with visual art elevates the sensory experience, providing a deeper significance.” The initiative was inaugurated by Dinesh Vazirani, founder of India’s biggest art auction house, SaffronArt, at Mumbai, Jehangir Art Gallery. In the context of her latest exhibition Hues & Scapes which is a continuation of the show presented by Dhoomimal Art Gallery in the city of Mumbai at Jehangir Art Gallery. This time Nupur put her innovative creations that cast a stunning interplay of colour and form, once again she is going to mesmerise art lovers. The preview of the show will take place on March 3rd at 6 p.m. Running from March 3rd to March 10th, 2024, it promises to take every visitor through a unique experience, as they take in the heady experience that is Nupur’s realm of Abstract Expressionism.

Graduate of the College of Arts, New Delhi, Nupur Kundu has been mesmerizing the art community with her captivating abstract works for over two decades. Her works can be found in private collections in India and across the world. She has exhibited in some of the most prestigious galleries across the globe and she continues to evolve as an artist, constantly challenging traditional art forms. She currently lives and works in New Delhi.

Mr. Uday Jain, Curator of the Exhibition and Director of Dhoomimal Art Gallery, reflects on Nupur’s artistic evolution, praising her bold utilization of colour and dynamic brushwork. He says, “I have had the privilege of witnessing Nupur’s artistic journey unfold over the past three decades. She stands out as one of the most unwavering and consistent artists in her field. Over the years, Nupur’s creations have progressively evolved into captivating abstract expressions. Notably, her bold utilization of colour and the application of thick strokes are distinctive features that imbue her work with remarkable impact.”

Nupur’s artistry has garnered critical acclaim and numerous accolades throughout her career. She is the recipient of prestigious awards such as the Sarojini Naidu International Award in Visual Arts and the Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award for Best Contemporary Artist of the Year. With such recognition at a mid-career stage, Nupur Kundu’s artistic legacy continues to resonate with audiences worldwide.

According to art consultant, writer, and curator Sushma K. Bahl, “Nupur Kundu has had a productive and successful career graph, despite having had to deal with some struggles at a personal level. She has managed to come out of the difficulties with flying colours, given her zest for life and resolve to work hard. The art and aesthetics of this versatile artist, are steadfastly rooted in its distinct abstract genre”.

Through this exhibition this time she is going to present her Nine series in which She finds her muse in the boundless expanse of Earth itself. In her EarthScape Series, she transforms the rugged terrain and majestic landscapes into a vibrant tapestry of colours and textures. Through her use of non-representational elements, Kundu creates a visceral connection with the Earth, inviting viewers to explore its beauty, fragility, and resilience. Drawing inspiration from the colours of the rainbow, Kundu’s Vibgyor Scape Series is a testament to her mastery of emotional expression. Each hue within the VIBGYOR palette holds its symbolic significance, allowing Kundu to infuse her paintings with a vibrant and emotive visual vocabulary. From the warm tones of red and orange to the cool shades of blue and violet, her canvases come alive with a kaleidoscope of emotions. In her Pastellum Scape Series, Kundu explores the delicate balance between softness and subtlety. Through the use of pastel shades, she creates a serene atmosphere that evokes a sense of tranquillity and introspection. Each canvas in this series is a visual poem, inviting viewers to embark on a soothing journey through a palette of muted tones.

According to Art curator Jyoti A. Kathpalia, “Nupur Kundu’s superb colourism, impasto, and knife techniques create a unique visual experience of texture and tone, rendering a dreamy, visual experience. The knife techniques and the jagged contours infuse the composition with energy and dynamism making the Pastellum series a mesmerising amalgamation of serenity, romance and energetic vigour.”

For Kundu, the colour red symbolizes vibrant passion and unwavering determination. In her Red Scape Series, she harnesses the emotive power of this hue to create a visual symphony that ignites the senses. From deep crimson to fiery scarlet, her canvases pulsate with dynamic intensity, capturing the essence of passion and fervour. In a departure from her traditional medium, Kundu explores the intricate textures of ceramic mosaic tiles in her Mosaic Scape Series. By seamlessly merging soft oil pigment with tactile mosaic craftsmanship, she creates harmonious compositions that are both visually striking and emotionally resonant. In her Bloom Scape Series, Kundu celebrates the ethereal beauty of nature’s blooms. With whimsical shapes and bold strokes, she captures the dynamic essence of petals unfolding in a vibrant symphony of colour and texture. Each canvas is a poetic celebration of life’s ever-changing beauty.

Kundu’s Palette Scape Series is a testament to the expressive quality of oil pigments. With rich, luscious hues and dynamic brushstrokes, she creates abstract landscapes that convey her emotional resonance of a place. Each canvas is a unique exploration of nature’s profound beauty, rendered in Kundu’s unique colour palette. In her Palette Scape Series using acrylic paints, Kundu explores the dynamic layering of pigments to create depth and texture reminiscent of changing terrain. With a spontaneous palette knife technique, she infuses her canvases with energy and sculptural quality, offering viewers a visceral experience of nature’s raw beauty. In her Moyocoyotzin Series, Kundu delves into the empowering notion of self-creation. Through self-masks in resin medium, she expresses her introspective journey of self-discovery, celebrating the dynamic nature of feminine energy in self-determination.

In the continuation of Her Journey from “Hues and Scapes” Keeping all of this in mind, I interviewed Nupur Kundu before the Preview week:

Gaurav Kumar (GK): What brought you to abstract work in the first place, and how has your relationship with the genre changed over time?

Nupur Kundu (NK): My first love has always been dance. I have trained formally in Kathak under Guru Sri Ravi Kumar Gangani of Jaipur Gharana. It was only when I joined the Delhi College of Arts for Fine Arts specialization, that I found my true path and passion for colours. I instantly took to abstract art. Discovering the abstract gave me a different kind of freedom. In dancing, I already had rigorous training and was used to following the routine of what was taught as a tradition. Here I was in a new realm where no one had asked me to follow the rules yet encouraged me to find my path. Thus, my creative painting classes became my favourite at the college schedule, where I found a new set of wings to fly and satisfy my creative urge. Hence the seeds of my unique style in abstract were sown at my undergraduate level during the 1990’s.

As an artist, it has been of utmost importance to me to express my inner experience. I do title a whole series of work which is for the mere reason of giving a small direction to the observer. But of more importance is the experience of the viewer at his or her level. For me as an artist, the whole process and purpose of my creativity is to express myself. It is indeed very personal. It might be self-centred at a level. But for me, I consider it as a life-evolving experience. It gives me inner enlightenment and helps me in self-growth. At a level I could also term my work as spiritual, as my exercise of painting is very therapeutic for me.

An abstract piece of art speaks to each one of us very individually. For me, it is a very emotional connection. I connect with an abstract on different levels – be it the element of colour, texture, shapes and form, design, or even spatial composition. It is difficult to pinpoint. But the most important thing is that I connect emotionally and intellectually. It also heals at various levels. For me, experiencing abstract things is therapeutic. And finally, it invokes feelings within me at times that I might not be aware of.

GK: Since viewers are coming to see this exhibition What’s new this time at the exhibition for them?

NK: I have for the first time in many years of my artistic career experimented with mixed media. Each of the Mosaic Scapes combines my abstract scape in oil with the intricate textures of ceramic mosaic tiles. I have thoroughly enjoyed the seamless merging of soft oil pigment into the tactile beauty of mosaic craftsmanship.

Through the rich interplay of colours and patterns of my escape, I have also tried to make the two mediums come together as a harmonious composition. I have enjoyed cutting the ceramic tiles meticulously remembering my enjoyable days at the Delhi Art College, where I also specialised in mural painting.

The use of ceramic mosaic medium is not just purely an ornamental frame; it is an essential, continuous, integral part of my scape in oil paints. To carefully cut and arrange fragments that come together to form a harmonious whole has indeed been a meditative exercise for me.

GK: Your artwork frequently examines the connection between nature and human emotions. Can you explain how these topics influence your creative process?

NK: The subjects or expressions that the abstract artists paint help or drive the viewer/observer towards discovering his most consciousness. Hence what an abstract artist paints is something that inspires one to discover one’s consciousness.

As an artist, my interest has been in the passionate play of colour, form, texture, and the impasto application of pigment. I have worked over the years with a palette knife and have developed my very own unique style in the abstract. The seeds of a new painting of mine start with the conscious choice of colours. The content and subject each time is inspired by my own personal life experience. It is a unique self-expression.

I am inspired by nature, the environment in which I dwell. Hence elements of nature do creep into my work. Mostly the terrain, colours and scapes are inspired by my passionate travels over time.

For example, my series of Heads in Resin titled ‘Moyocoyotzin’ has been the expression of my strong feminine side. Moyocoyotzin is a word of Spanish origin meaning ‘She who creates herself’. The whole series expresses the same sentiment with different interpretations of the same in my masks and heads in Resin medium. My series ‘Palette Scapes’ took birth from my passion for travel. Discovering new lands the world over has always been very inspirational and of great learning experience for me! This series has colours from different scapes of the world, and each painting is like my personal travelogue. My series of paintings done during the pandemic is titled ‘#QuarantineScapes’. These expressed the need to be outdoors within nature.

GK: Can you elaborate on how Earth serves as a canvas for your artistic inspiration, and how you translate diverse landscapes into your artwork?

NK: I have done very many tondos for my series Hues & scapes. Especially the series EarthScapes – there is oil on canvas done in varying shapes of round. The shape is almost reminiscent of a globe-like feel for me. For me, Earth serves as an expansive canvas, a boundless source of inspiration that transcends conventional boundaries. The diverse landscapes and geological formations become a rich palette of colours, textures, and shapes, offering endless possibilities. In this series I have used earthy tones and many of my canvases are in round format, almost representative of a globe feel.

Through the use of non-representational elements, such as colour, texture, and form I am inspired to express a visceral response and connect with the Earth on a more intuitive and emotional level.

For me the representation of Earth becomes a metaphorical language, conveying my perception of Earth’s beauty, fragility, and resilience.

GK: You mentioned that each hue within VIBGYOR holds symbolic significance for you. Could you explain how you use colour to convey emotions and meanings in your paintings?

NK: VIBGYOR colours, representing the spectrum of visible light, serve as a dynamic and versatile tool for me to convey a wide range of emotions. I have always been drawn to the rainbow as a child and spotting one has always been no short of a living daylight dream for me.

For me, each hue within VIBGYOR holds its own symbolic significance. From the warm, energetic tones of red and orange to the cool, calming shades of blue and violet, the VIBGYOR palette becomes a language of expression, allowing me to infuse in my paintings a vibrant and emotive visual vocabulary. The use of small-size canvas and building it up to almost like a matrix grid, is, for me, an exciting journey to bathe in each colour like a meditative exercise.

Each of my 70 pieces together expresses a vivid exploration of the rainbow palette, making it a captivating journey through the chromatic landscapes of my imagination.

GK: What led you to experiment with pastel hues in your artwork, and how do they contribute to the emotional depth of your abstract expressions?

NK: I have over many years experimented with primary colours and have enjoyed the vibrancy of these in my abstract compositions. Pastellum Scapes is a special series where I have for the first time left my comfort zone. Pastel shades convey a sense of softness and subtlety, evoking a gentle and serene atmosphere. These muted tones, characterised by their lightness and desaturation, often symbolize delicacy, tranquillity, and timeless elegance.

When experimenting in a new zone of pastel hues, I found within them the ability to evoke a range of emotions, from tranquillity to introspection, adding a unique dimension to my vibrant world of abstract expression.

Soft hues blend seamlessly to evoke a dreamlike, tranquil atmosphere in my Pastellum Scape Series. For me, this series is a visual poem, a soothing journey through a palette of muted tones that evoke a sense of calm and introspection

GK: Your use of vibrant red hues in your paintings is notable. Could you discuss the significance of red in your work, particularly concerning themes like passion and femininity?

NK: For me, the colour red pulsates with vibrant passion. This vibrant red hue also expresses the pulsating essence of life, the divine feminine energy, the force of passion, courage, and my unwavering determination in my role as a mother.

Each of my Red Scapes harnesses the emotive power of the hues of colour red, creating a visual symphony that ignites the senses. Red has always attracted me. Bold and energetic, my strokes and palette knife work convey a dynamic intensity, capturing the essence of passion and fervour.

The red hues, ranging from deep crimson to fiery scarlet, dance across my canvas, evoking a sense of vitality and warmth. The blend of fluid forms and bold strokes symbolizes the raw and unrestrained nature of passion. The Red Scape Series is a celebration of the powerful and visceral emotions that the colour red embodies.

GK: Your series of self-masks in resin medium sounds intriguing. Can you delve into the concept behind these masks and how they reflect your journey of self-discovery?

NK: Further to my journey into abstract expression, I have had an intrinsic need to express myself with a form. I was inspired to discover a form with whom I can relate. I rediscovered myself by doing a series of self-masks in resin. In my journey to search for a form, the closest I felt was to express my own self—my own face. I cast my face in resin and had a series of heads and masks titled ‘Moyocoyotzin’. Moyocoyotzin is a Spanish word which means – ‘She, who creates herself’. This is my unique expression where I have cast my own face in the resin medium. Each of the heads was one of a kind limited edition, created to tell a unique and compelling story. My Palettes Scape series extended onto the contour of each and every sculptured face and mask. My Palette Scapes extend a distinct emotional contour on each of my sculpted faces. The colours used on these three-dimensional faces in resin are an extension of my emotions. Though I am an abstract artist, it has been my innate desire to search for a form that I could relate to closely. This has been my first step towards a new direction in my work. My Moyocoyotzin series announces both a recognition and understanding of oneself, as in together looking and knowing oneself in the mirror! Apart from my Oil on Canvas works, the Relief Sculptures in Resin & Steel medium are further an extension of my abstract landscapes in a three-dimensional form.

GK: Your use of small-size canvases and building them up in a matrix grid manner is unique. What inspired this technique, and how does it contribute to your creative process?

NK: As I have mentioned earlier, I have always worked in series. I have always felt that one individual work is incomplete till it evolves into a series of works. It is like a conversation from one work to another. A whole thought process unfolds through a series of works. I find the various permutations and combinations of similar colours evolving from one work to another. I have this innate heart of a child, still a learner at heart, who is trying to evolve with the simplest building blocks. I have found small format works always more challenging than large works. Building a grid out of the smaller to a larger, more complete work through the grid format is new to my expression but certainly the methodical way forward to growth.

After a conversation with Nupur Kundu, I do not doubt that the upcoming solo exhibition at Bikaner House promises to celebrate her artistic progress while also demonstrating the strength of abstract expressionism. Nupur’s vibrant use of colour and dynamic compositions engage viewers on a voyage of introspection and personal interpretation, reinforcing art’s transforming power in our lives.

About Nupur Kundu

Nupur Kundu specialized in Fine Arts from the College of Arts, New Delhi and did her Master’s at Lucknow University, India. She has been exhibiting her abstract works for more than 25 years now. She is also professionally trained in Indian Classical Dance (Kathak).

She has been featured in India Today Magazine’s 30th Anniversary Issue amongst 30 young successful achievers. Nupur has recently been awarded the 7th Edition of Sarojini Naidu International Award in the field of Visual Arts by ICMEI, The Asian Academy of Arts and The International Women’s Film Forum, 2023.

Nupur has been awarded the Raja Ravi Varma Samman Samaroh ‘Chitranjali’ award in the Field of Visual Arts in 2022. She has been conferred by the World University of Design as the Critic’s Choice Award 2021. She was chosen for the ‘Distinguished Alumni Award 2019’ from her Alma Mater, Springdale School, Delhi. Nupur is a recipient of the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award for Fine Arts, 2008. She received the Junior Fellowship, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, 2011 – 2013. Recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award for the Best Contemporary Artist of the Year, 2014. Honoured with the Indian Council for the UN Relations Award in the field of Fine Arts, 2015.

Nupur has also worked closely with special children by conducting workshops. She has held multimedia workshops for the British Council of India; IFFCO; Tihar Jail, and Ph.D. Chamber of Commerce, New Delhi. She has also judged various Art Competitions: For the Times of India (NIE); For Hindustan Times (PACE); At the Rashtrapati Bhawan for school children; YMCA; AAI (Airport Authority of India), Jindal Steel; and All India Camlin Art Competition. She is a Board Member of DPS School, Sirsa, and a Board Member of the Women and Child Development Committee of the PHD Chamber of Commerce.

She has exhibited in several Solo and Group Exhibitions since 1996.

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