細節
JITISH KALLAT
無題 (日蝕)- 5
壓克力 畫布 (三聯作)
2008年作
簽名︰JITISH KALLAT

來源
英國 倫敦 Albion Gallery
現藏者購自上述畫廊

展覽
2010年1月29日-5月8日 「帝國大反擊─印度當代藝術」薩奇畫廊 倫敦 英國

出版
2010年《帝國大反擊─印度當代藝術》薩奇畫廊 倫敦 英國 (圖版,第170-171頁)

「矛盾是廣大的。這城市充滿動感同時亦功能失調,充斥著令人昏頭的語言、種姓、宗教與社會階層的混合體。生活仍要繼續,搖搖欲墜地平衡著...富裕與赤貧、高漲的房地產價格與不斷蔓延的露宿者。然而這...大都會變成培養國家文化和進步思想的溫床,創作出電影、時尚宣言、流行音樂和豐富多采的街頭俗語。」(「Jitish Kallat 與 Nina Miall的談話」,《Jitish Kallat: Universal Recipient》展覽圖錄,Haunch of Venison, 2008年, 第49頁。)

《無題 (日蝕) — 5》(Lot 1043) 以大手筆描繪出典型的大都會生活。運用他出生的城市以及他作品的獨有視覺語言,Jitish Kallat以充滿活力的縮影來讚頌孟買。從最早的《破曉歌聲》(圖一) 系列可見到藝術家所描繪的街童,畫中看不到他們任何貧困的狀況,反而感受到 Jitish Kallat 在讚揚他們堅韌的精神。透過描繪那些小孩守候在交通號誌旁邊賣書給路過的人的情景,藝術家好像在點出這城市淒美而進取的精神。與《日蝕》系列相同,重疊在小孩的頭髮上的是密密麻麻的城市景觀,象徵這喧囂繁華的大都市壓在他們之上的物質和心理負。這些城市居民頭上戴著許多搖搖欲墜的故事,體現出多重意義:同一時間描寫這城市及其居民的面貌,但亦嘗試去陳述生存與死亡這共同和經典的主題。

《共同接收者》(圖二及三) 系列延續了Jitish Kallat 對故鄉某些人物的鑽研和表
揚,這次他被另一組人所吸引 - 保安人員。這些人物是成年版的街童,被描繪成非常認真地肩負起他們新發現的責任,以銳利的目光與堅忍的態度去監視著這個雜亂無章的大都會。他們沉鬱的特徵就如揭示出藝術家將他們描寫成敘述孟買不為人知的一面。由始至終,藝術家以一貫的繪畫手法去作畫,並同時借用了能夠跳出畫面空間的波普藝術圖像力量。生動的頭髮以瘋狂和迷宮般的人物和交通工具所構成,就如創作一幅城市非凡的動力和廣大人口的浮世繪。人物的頭肩佔據了大部分構圖,被推前到畫布的最前面。《無題(日蝕) — 5》特
別令人聯想到電影廣告牌壯觀的規模、形式和鮮明的色彩。

「概括來說我喜歡我的藝術作品能輕輕地誘發出遍滿我身為藝術公民的系統的各種元素。...那些抽象的色塊是潑灑、濺出和手繪滴彩的荒誕結合。單是這滴彩已盛載了很多繪畫上的矛盾...整體來說是他們帶出對體液的各種聯想...同時亦帶有如房屋的形狀、刀片上的鋸齒等輪廓分明的元素。」

(「Jitish Kallat 與 Nina Miall的談話」,同上,第49頁。)
來源
Albion Gallery, London, UK
Acquired from the above by the present owner
出版
Saatchi Gallery, The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, exh. cat., London, UK, 2010 (illustrated, pp. 170-171).
展覽
London, UK, Saatchi Gallery, The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, 29 January-8 May 2010.

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拍品專文

"The contradictions are immense. At once dynamic and dysfunctional, the city is a heady mix of languages, castes, religions, and class difference. Life goes on, precariously balancing [K] affluence and abject poverty, swelling real estate prices and rampant homelessness. Yet, this [K] metropolis becomes the incubator of national culture and progressive thought, producing films, fashion statements, popular music and an array of colourful street vernaculars [K]."
('Jitish Kallat in conversation with Nina Miall', Jitish Kallat: Universal Recipient, exhibition catalogue, Haunch of Venison, 2008, p.49)

A veritable tour de force, Untitled (Eclipse) - 5 depicts a quintessentially metropolitan experience on a grand scale. Using a visual language derived from the city of his birth and characteristic of his oeuvre, Jitish Kallat celebrates Mumbai as a vibrant microcosm. The earlier Dawn Chorus series saw the artist depict images of street urchins but rather than evince any sense of their reduced circumstances, Kallat championed their resilience. Representing the young children who often wait at traffic lights to sell books to commuters the artist seemed to highlight the poignant, enterprising spirit of the city. In common with the Eclipse series, superimposed on the boys' hair are tightly-packed cityscapes symbolizing the physical and psychological burdens forced on them by the tumultuous, bustling metropolis. These city dwellers carry a crumbling cascade of stories on their heads and as such, embody multiple meanings: simultaneously portraits of the city and its inhabitants but also, an attempt to address the universal and classic themes of survival and mortality.

The Universal Recipient series continued Kallat's investigation and celebration of certain characters from his hometown, this time engaging with a different group - security guards. These figures, older now, are the street urchins as adults, portrayed taking their new-found responsibility very seriously via probing gaze and stoic mien in observation of the sprawling Indian megalopolis. Their pensive features seem to encapsulate Kallat's description of them as raconteurs of Mumbai's inner secrets.

Throughout, the artist is consistent in his painterly means of execution and draws upon a Pop-like graphic energy which pulsates out of the pictorial space. Hair is alive with a frenzied, labyrinthine map of people and moving vehicles as if to create a portrait of the extraordinary energy of the city and its vast population. Heads and shoulders dominate the composition and thrust to the forefront of the canvas. Untitled (Eclipse) - 5 here specifically references the epic scale, format and vibrant coloration of a film hoarding:

"Broadly speaking I like my art to softly detonate back all the elements that percolate my system as an artist-citizen. [K] The abstract patches are an absurd combination of a splash, a spillage and a 'hand-painted' drip. The drip alone is carrier of many painterly contradictions [K]. Collectively they carry mixed evocations of bodily fluids [K] and also carry hard-edge elements such as the shape of a house, or teeth on a saw blade.
('Jitish Kallat in conversation with Nina Miall', op. cit., p. 55).

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