jainkamalji@gmail.com

CATLOUGE ENLIGTEMENT BY CHARAN HARMA
Experience 117 x 152 cms acrylic on canvas
Eternal 122 x183 cms acrylic on canvas
Enlightenment
evate 61 x152 cms acrylic on canvas
Artistic Realisation
are several ways to read Charan Sharma's work. On
There cursory viewing, his work seems to belong to the
world of a realist. His works are, no doubt, located within a realist
world, and yet they are unfettered by any of the characteristic
constraints of the realism. Charan invokes a
fantasy world in the starkness of the real world while creating an
appropriate setting for disquieting thoughts. In his
paintings, there is an intimate interface between the real and the
imagined.
The paintings of the Buddha by his brush juxtapose reality and
spirituality in a unique manner. A tranquil monastery set against
an awesome sky, large up-scaled prayer wheels, serene-faced
Buddha carved on stones weathered over ages and looming over
the cliff-side, lotuses strewing rosy pink petals appear part-realist
and part-illusionary. As a gifted and spiritual magician, Charan
weaves images that are not mere depictions of a land or a
locality but are an output of a seasoned mediator and a sincere
interpreter. This painter admirably lifts salient features
of the traditional and popular visual imagery and concocts a
variegated combination, a rarified oeuvre. In an age where
the copier and technological skills at image enhancing computer
packages cover the expanse of a canvas at the speed of a click,
Charan's paintings with their meticulous detailing stand out distinctly.
He has remained faithful to painting. Skilled drawing is
central to his art practice.
Spun on the fabric of an inherent spirituality and
subsequent assured myth Charan's paintings are rooted in the
present and yet can be viewed as records with that
timelessness of the real. Charan Sharma takes his conformity to
its illusionist extremes. His style compares favourably with the
work of artists known for their trompe-d'oeil (literally, trick of the
eyes). Charan's work neither belongs to the category of the surrealists
- who invented an unaffected and naturalistic manner of representing
their strange and unusual dreams - nor to the German
painters of the New Objectivity School - who spiked and shrouded
their realist portraits with acerbic
psychological insights.
The large canvases in billboard fashion, exacted with photographic
detail and with the reality of temple frescoes are filled
with sculpted images of Buddha - who must have been painted
countless times by thousands of painters and artists over the millennia.
Multidimensional in effect, Charan's paintings invite and
secure your attention. Is this a monk's devotion; is it an architect's
fulfilling accomplishment or merely a magician
conjuring up diasporic distended dioramas? Moving across
several categories in a career that spans nearly three decades this
present body of work places him at the apex of
engagement with the unpredictable within realist depictions. The
way he mediates this engagement and the stark imagery and play
of composed light that he brings into view
distinguishes this painter from the rest.
Way back in 1989 the ineffable and well-known pioneer of
Indian contemporary art, Francis Newton Souza wrote
about Charan in his article published in the now defunct
Illustrated Weekly of India: "Charan, in my opinion is one of
the ten best artists of this country".
A decade later, Souza again wrote in the prominent Hindi
Weekly of the times - Dharmayug 1991. "Charan's paintings - some
of which are true masterpieces - possess all the eclectic elements
like sentimentality, suspense, and magical effects, which can only
be borne of a true artist". Those who knew Souza well will confirm
that he was an artist who would not suffer fools easily and who
commented always with a brutally honest tongue. That Souza's
prediction was not an over
statement of Charan's potential is amply proved by the
prolificity and brilliance of Charan's work over the past three
decades.
Charan has perfected not only his skills as a painter but
also the grammar of expression. The brilliance of his
paintings lies in the perfection of this language.
- Niyatee Shinde
October 2005
Empathy 117 x152 cms acrylic on canvas
Ethereal 127 x127 cms acrylic on canvas
Earth 180 x180 cms acrylic on canvas
Eternity 152 x 117 cms acrylic on canvas