Press Release |
RAJENDRA DHAWAN
PARAMJIT SINGH
Inner/Outer
January 11 – February 12, 2002
Talwar Gallery is pleased to announce Inner/Outer, an exhibition of paintings by Rajendra Dhawan and Paramjit Singh. The exhibition will open to the public on January 11 and will be on view through February 12. On exhibition for the first time in New York will be works by Paris-based abstractionist Rajendra Dhawan in the North Gallery and New Delhi artist Paramjit Singh in the South Gallery. Inner/Outer juxtaposes works by two artists who shared a common education platform at The Delhi School of Art from 1953-58. Both have over the years explored, developed and established their unique style and identity. Dhawan’s abstract “inner landscapes” gently use color to invent form. The spare canvases with planes of color are meditative and calm with the occasional, seemingly errant brushstrokes lending a compelling dynamism. Then the colors confront each other as if adversaries, leading to skirmishes along their borders. In other canvasses colors coexist like old neighbors, comfortable with their own identity but accepting of the contrasting one next to them. Dhawan’s sparse use of color evokes a visual eloquence that is distilled and powerful. In contrast, the lavish uses of colors by Paramjit Singh are what nourish his works. The movement of colors in his rich landscapes is akin to the movement of light, wind and of nature itself. The vigorous multitude of impressionistic brush strokes makes his canvases palpable. Traversing the fictive landscapes our senses are indulged by the luminescence of golden mustard fields, the half-light of the forest, the turbulence of storm and the azure calm over a moonlit river. Though not set in real places they evoke in us the bitter-sweet nostalgia that comes of experience. Rajendra Dhawan was born in Delhi, India and was educated at the Delhi School of Art from 1953-58. He continued his art education in Belgrade and later in 1970 moved to Paris. Since his first solo show in Delhi in 1962, Dhawan has exhibited regularly for almost four decades in France and in India. Dhawan’s work finds place in the collections of The National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Bharat Bhavan Museum and Chandigarh Museum in India; The Glenbarra Museum in Japan; and in France at Teruss Museum in Elne, Rigault Museum in Perpignan and the Fond National d’Art Contemporain convent Saint-Jacques in Paris. Rajendra Dhawan lives and works in Paris Paramjit Singh was born in Amritsar, India and studied art at the Delhi School of Art from 1953-58. In 1960 he was a founding member of “The Unknown”, a group of young artists in Delhi. In 1963 he joined the Faculty of Fine Arts at Jamia Millia University in Delhi where he continued to teach until 1992. Since his participation in the Young Asian artists Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan in 1957, Singh’s works have been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in India, Germany, Norway, Japan, Russia and Hong Kong. Among the occasions were the XV International Biennale in Tokyo in 1984; International Triennial in New Delhi in 1971, 74, 77, 82; Bhopal Biennale in 1984, 86; and in 1997 at exhibitions at The National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai and the National Gallery in New Delhi. Singh’s works are in collections of the Chandigarh Museum in Chandigarh, India; Bharat Bhavan Museum in Bhopal, India; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. Paramjit Singh lives and works in New Delhi, India. For further information, please contact the Gallery at: 212 673 3096 |