Silence Please exhibition at India Habitat Centre, Delhi
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Annual visits to his nanihaal (maternal home) in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) during his childhood gave Viveek Sharma an early peek into the lives of ascetics and helped him to fathom the quintessential spiritual lives. “I would accompany my grandfather to the congregation of sadhus during Kumbh and he would tell me about these men who abandon worldly attachments and seek enlightenment,” says Viveek.
Silence Please exhibition by Viveek Sharma at IHC Delhi
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The view of the mammoth crowds bathing in the Ganges; the faith, energy, gaze and silence of the orange-robed or semi-naked sadhus with long beards and matted hair mesmerized the young mind. The then teenager’s impressions and imagination turned into large-sized portraits of sadhus in later years as the artist in Viveek grew up studying Renaissance masters of art and was particularly inspired by Dali and surrealism and, Van Gogh and his cubism.
Silence Please exhibition at India Habitat Centre, Delhi
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
About two dozen such portraits by Viveek using the Pointillist technique (application of small strokes or dots of colour that visually blend together from a distance and disintegrate in close view) are mounted at India Habitat Centre. Capturing distinct moments of introspection on the faces of wanderers who lead austere lives in isolation and journey on eternal pilgrimage, the exhibition, Silence Please, draws the viewer into an inner quiet.
Viveek’s canvases, from 5ftx5ft to 8ftx8ft, carry more than the hues of his oil paints. There is a magnetizing silence in his works that elevates the viewer to connect with the gaze or expression of the meditating sadhus on the canvas. There is something intense about the paintings that create patterns of light and shade and the way he interplays the colours, from saffron, green, white and blue.
Exhibit ay Silence Please exhibition at IHC Delhi by Viveek Sharma
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Viveek has showcased some of his portraits of Kumbh sadhus at the India Art Fair in Delhi in the past. This is the first time he is showing 21 of his artworks in a gallery in the Capital along with two sculptures. “I wanted to do the ascetics in 3D form and took help from a clay artist; one is in Bronze and the other in patina,” he says.
Additionally on an instinct, Viveek has also done a special art installation using cloth for the conoisseurs in the Capital. He has stuck colourful strands of fabric together that look both as matted hair or the long unkempt beards as part of ascetic appearance.
Silence Please exhibition at India Habitat Centre, Delhi
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Of his Sadhu series, says Viveek, it became a popular travel show a decade ago when he took his portraits to a Cathedral in Da Vinci’s town in France, to Switzerland and Dar es Salam, Tanzania before bringing them to Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2017 and now for Delhi audience coinciding with the Mahakumbh happening this year.
Viveek says his portraits of Sadhus are based on photographs he buys from lensmen visiting the Kumbh. “But I do not copy, I just need the outline and paint it my way in Pointillism,” says the graduate from Sir J J School of Art, Mumbai, who was always attracted to portraits. “My parents told me face is the index of mind, it reflects how pure you are deep within.”
Silence Please exhibition at India Habitat Centre, Delhi
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
As a student, he began sketching profiles of guests at The Oberoi, Mumbai, over weekends. Later he worked for the cops making sketches of robbers and other crime offenders based on description of the witnesses. A Van Gogh show in Amsterdam in 2012 made Viveek wonder about his identity as an artist. “M F Husain was known for his fine horse painting, S H Raza’s trademark was bindu (dot) as a motif; so the idea of connecting with Sadhus struck me. I realised the Pointillism technique could be chosen only with men as subjects,” says Viveek, who initially did abstracts and switched to realism when 2015 Mumbai floods destroyed many of his works. “I looked up in despair and the sky was clearing up. So I started painting blue sky with clouds and city of Mumbai beneath it. The effort ended up in a series on Mumbai’s landscape.”
Silence Please exhibition by Viveek Sharma at IHC Delhi
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Viveek describes himself as an artist who loves to play with metaphors. “People should understand what I am trying to say. Realism works for me; my themes are deep-rooted in Indian-ness,” he says.
The sadhus he paints are anonymous yet recognisable defined by their appearance; their matted hair, wrinkles on face coated with sacred powder, the ritualistic marks with ash, vermillion and sandalwood. Viveek’s art has depth and speaks for itself. He likes to keep his canvases large because he feels the sound of what he depicts echoes well in the fine details he paints.
Artist Viveek Sharma
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“The unseen realm of the Sadhus appeals to me. They are symbols of silent reflection in a world of conflicts. Their solitude and silence is the infinite that encourage you to contemplate and find peace within yourselves,” says Viveek, keenly waiting to go to Mahakumbh after the exhibition gets over.
At Visual Art Gallery; India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Colony; Till February 6; 10am to 8pm
Published – January 31, 2025 05:47 pm IST
