Of minimalism and materiality

While their approach to their art may, at first, be considered completely different, as you look closer, there’s a common thread of minimalism and materiality that slowly unrolls

As appreciators of art, we celebrate the works of artists we admire, delving deep into their layers to find meaning in form, colour and stroke. But it is their equally vibrant personal lives behind the canvas that unveil a stronger connection and understanding of their art. Nasreen Mohamedi and Jeram Patel were born a few years apart in the 1930s and came from different cities and backgrounds, their paths almost crossing when they went to study the arts in Europe. It was, however, during the '60s in Bombay that they became firm friends, and later lifelong colleagues at the The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, until her untimely death in 1990.

Stirring Still juxtaposes Mohamedi's tempered architectural-like linear drawings against Patel's bold use of material, colour and fire

The two contemporaries, who dominated the art industry in the '80s, had polarising styles, but followed the same trajectory of exploring figurative paintings early in their career, and moving on to more non-representational forms as they matured. This ebb and flow between their work and unique approaches to abstraction is celebrated in an ongoing exhibition at Akara Art, Colaba, titled Stirring Still. Of its name, the gallery's director and founder Puneet Shah explains, "I liked the zing it brought out - it was like stirring up the stillness and calmness of Nasreen's drawings with Jeram's blowtorch works on wood. The intervention of his colour and materiality stirs between the simplicity and stillness of her drawings."

"Where Nasreen explores the intricacies of thought and self through minimalistic use of ink, gouache and graphite line work, Patel seeks to excavate negative imagery by turning the materiality of an object inside out, quite literally, with his use of a blow-torch on wood. Patel worked with a controlled transaction between the volume and vacuum, and Nasreen, in contrast, engaged in clearing the debris of over-thought fantasies."

"This paradox - the idea of materiality and dematerialisation - and their close friendship and affection for each other motivated us to pair the two artists for this exhibition," he explains. While most of the works have been loaned from collectors over the years, the pièce de résistance is Mohamedi's large-format artworks, which are being showcased in Mumbai for the first time. Previously, they were exhibited at her high-profile retrospective at the MET Breuer, New York in 2016 and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid.

While the exhibit doesn't include photographs and grid works by Mohamedi and early paintings by Patel, the juxtaposition of her tempered architectural-like linear drawings against his bold use of material, colour and fire echoes an organic movement from austere aesthetics to an opulence of tones. "An inclusion of their other mediums may have made the exhibition even more complex," feels Shah.

In a sense, the two friends complement each other, a fact that becomes more evident when you see their art hung adjacent to one another's. There seems to be a quiet conversation and understanding between the two. While their approach to their art may, at first, be considered completely different, as you look closer, there's a common thread of minimalism and materiality that slowly unrolls.

WHAT: Stirring Still
WHERE: Akara Art, Colaba
WHEN: Till September 30