Description
About the artist:
GR Iranna is an eminent Indian contemporary painter, sculptor and installation artist. In his recent works one can see the use ash and pigments on canvas and tarpaulin.
Roobina Karode, Director and Chief Curator of KNMA, writes on the artist: “Iranna picked up his early values from his childhood schooling in an ashram and a humble upbringing at home, where the spiritual aspects of the journey of life were emphasised. As Shaivites, the everyday ritual of applying ash on the forehead was not just about wearing one’s identity, but had deeper significance of being connected with faith and coming to embrace a comfortable acceptance of the final truth. At the point of having entered the world, ash (vibhuti) is applied on the skin of the child. In a sense, the inseparability of birth and death are simultaneously invoked, for vibhuti is also a reminder of one’s final departure. …While one is moved by the beauty of nature in his paintings, the theme of these works runs deeper than what meets the eye. The rudimentary act of drawing directly with charcoal on paper/canvas takes on a new form of expressiveness in its intricate clustering and continuous energy moving densely across the surface, evoking as if an interior view in the network of connecting veins. His quasi-abstract treatment of the evanescent forms is indeed remarkable here, as is the subtle grading of tones bringing sensual volumes to life in some, and in others the shadow line blurring the space between the real and the unreal. Illuminated as if beneath the layers, we see flashes of light and colour peeking out of the surface. The soft smudging of pigment while creating a form is also at the verge of formlessness.”
Born (1970) in Sindgi, Bijapur district of Karnataka, Iranna completed BFA Painting, College of Visual Art, Gulbarga (1992) and MFA Painting, College of Art, Delhi (1994). Later he studied at at Wimbledon School of Art, London (1999). He has won several awards including 40th National Academy Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (1997), KK Hebbar Foundation Award (2002) and ABPF Foundation, Signature Art Prize, Singapore Art Museum Jury Award (2008). His has also exhibited his work Ash to Ash at the Kochi Biennale 2016.
Artist lives and works in New Delhi.
