Russian Artist Expresses Love for Indian Culture Through Art
Pics: Savitha B R
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (PS)
Mangalore, May 20: Russian artist Elena Fedosenko’s art exhibition titled ‘Bharathanatyam’ was inaugurated at Orchid Gallery, Balmatta here on Friday May 20.
After lighting the lamp to mark an auspicious start, Corporation Bank general manager B R Shetty said that it was commendable that a Russian artist should be impressed by Indian culture. She has even expressed her love for Indian culture through the medium of art, and brought alive the emotions and expressions of Bharathanatyam in myriad colours.
Artist Deviprasad Rao from Goa who guided her said that Elena has done an exhaustive study of Bharathanatyam, even by interviewing Bharathanatya artistes. That is how she could manifest the varied facets of the dance form onto canvas, he said.
From Mangalore the exhibition will move to Goa, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and will culminate in Moscow after about a year. In each place the exhibition will be open for 10 to 15 days.
On her art, Elena says, "I love and live with colours. I express my emotions and feelings through them. They set my path and move me in different directions. Right from my childhood I was attracted to Indian dances and the colourful atmosphere of Indian movies which are were easily available in communist Russia, India being our close friend. As a young girl I always wished to visit India."
She adds that her travel around the country has enhanced her love affair with colours. She also says Indian cultures and traditions have fascinated her.
In this body of work, comprised of paintings using acrylic and oil on canvas and acrylic, pastel and ink on paper, Elena is predominantly preoccupied with movement, and with colour or its absence, preoccupations that manifest themselves in a variety of styles and techniques. The canvas work presents an interactive dialogue between the abstract and the figurative. Colour mixing is not an exact science and Elena has her own experimental formulas and methods for mixing and applying colour in her painting.
The abstract portions of the compositions are a riot of overlapping colours in swirls, executed using both brush and palette knife, to produce layers of varying colour depths, as well as the visual impression of movement against which the figurative dance form is projected. In the black and white works on paper, the suggestion of posture and gesture in transition, and their essence, are evinced without the aid of colourful background swirls through effective blurring of the female form. It is clear from the presentation of form in both media that Elena has an academic appreciation of Bharatnatyam.
The exhibition is open till May 31.