Calligraphy Exhibition By Ram Kasture

The Vedas have inspired lives and livelihoods from time immemorial. Here is an example of both.

The Kalahita Art Foundation is presenting 'Resonance', an exhibition of calligraphic paintings by Ram Kasture, from 8th to 25th May. The exhibition, showcasing 70 paintings, was inaugurated on 8th May by Padmasri Jagdish Mittal.

The painted words in fact express a reverberation constructed by an accrual of the Devnagari script and a selection of other Indian and Oriental scripts. The preference for certain abstract symbolism that is made part of the composition, takes up a graphic form on the canvas. For the artist, the symbolic and scriptorial selection is a matter of choice in creating imagery with specific reading reference from ancient scriptures and its obscurity as an artistic deliberation.

The artist here is content with the elements he has accrued i. e. technical skill in handling his medium, a practice of calligraphy, and the texture and balance achieved in his composition. But for the viewer who has a regular dialogue with the visual language, certain issues would crop up in the emergence of the script as the image.

Thus the exhibition experiences distinct polarities as the artist concentrates on practice, visual expression and composition, and the viewer comes across notions of an Indian multilingual co-existence, its specificity, and a possibility of stumbling upon a garbled construction.

Ram Kasture was born in Nanded, Marathwada, in 1965. He received his training in the Govt. School Of Fine Arts, Aurangabad, during 1981-85, and lives and works in Dombivli near Mumbai. He imbibed the knowledge of the Vedas from his grandfather Mahamahopadhyaya Yagneshwar Shastri Kasture, renowned for being well-versed in all the Vedas.

In his childhood days, it had been inculcated into Kasture that the knowledge of the four Vedas, paved the path for a propitious life. In his career as an artist, Kasture has sourced his subject from a simple thought and understanding that Indian society has deprived itself from the reading and application of its ancient scriptures. This resonance is resultant in his presentation of the script as the icon; as an element of design and a reminder of dissociation.

For further details, please contact the art gallery at 2335-0543.