It is easy to draw a straight line but very difficult to maintain its character in a group specially when they become part of a structure. Line and structure have different characters and many times they are contradictory to each-other; but when a balanced hand and mind with full of thoughts direct the lines, they become an elegant expression. S.K.Sahni is an artist of our time who has proved it again and again since the last 45 years. How is it possible for him? I think it has a relation with his soul which is very simple, straight and soft, like his lines. He plays with lines like a magician and each time a simple line appears with new shining in a different context.
Sahni started his artistic quest in figures with an abstraction in 60s. He focused on human conditions without narrative attitude. Some of his paintings of that time have clear figures but most of them has abstract connotation. He did a lot of lino-cut prints. Later he did digital abstract graphic. When he did water colour landscapes, again he moved from realistic to abstract approach. We can easily find that he thinks and transforms each thing in abstraction. He loves drawings and geometrical forms since the beginning; and till 70s he did experiments in different mediums and forms. Since 1980s he has concentrated his total focus on lines and on geometrical forms. Sometime his forms look like an architectural form but you cant generalize it, because he always focuses on space and not on a structure.
He starts by drawing a line in unbounded space and slowly the space transform into a stage where lines are dancing and making different shapes, reflecting the development of human society. Human being have always wish to bound the time and space which is impossible till today, but an artist can do it symbolically in his creation, and it is an unending process. An art work has a starting point but doesnt have an ending point; ending means there is nothing left for us to do. Sahnis paintings are a perfect combination of painting and drawing which have unending lines, reflecting endless hope and life. He moves lines in different directions, sometime collator and sometime they cross each-other and leave some spaces blank to create an concrete image. It is difficult to identify any starting or ending point in his lines. That is why line based art become an endless journey for him.
Lines in art are not a new thing in India. In our folk and tribal art, it has a long practice to create images with lines. It is inherent in life, so they do not need any technical definition for that, but west always need that and due to our educational system we follow west. People relate Sahnis art to Kinetic or OP art which comes from west. Kinetic or OP art is a technic which can help to build an image with lines and create fusion. But Sahnis art is not a technical quest, it is more than that.
In the west, most of OP artists use total surface as a positive space and very few try to balance between positive and negative space. Optical Illusion is the main target for western artists and that practice still continues. But Sahni follows the Indian ideology that emphasizes the balancing of negative and positive aspects in life. He creates space within space, a negative space between positive spaces and which becomes his speciality. Sahni creates illusion of negative and positive space many times in his works. In his earlier paintings the total space is full of movements, but in recent years, I want to underline a major change in his works and that is the balance of movement and steadiness of space. As a young person, we are all enthusiastic to give a movement to life, we try to fill life with full of emotions, relations, creation and whatever we can do, but with maturity and experience we understand the importance of a blank space in life. The blank space, whether it will be narrow or broad, without any movement gives us a relaxation; we find a space which is only for us. We try to save some little time from social life for us or we can say that we always try to shield a narrow corner in the crowd, like an inner space within outer space. I think that is the reason Sahni uses a different composition from his earlier paintings.
He uses different tones of colours and texture on some part of his paintings which gives a different feeling to viewers, that evokes the moods and emotions and lines give them direction. He says A straight line is pure, unsentimental and unconditional of any subjective feelings. However, when placed in conjunction with other lines, it may evoke different emotions and moods.
Previously, he used direct lines on canvas, but today he has developed a different technique. He uses masking tape of different thickness to create different lines, and also some tools to create lines. For that first he paints and then draws lines with his tools and get lines which looks like dancing. He plays with lines and shapes in space and capture the spontaneous movements of them, but some time he directes the lines intellectually and arrange them with shapes. Even, sometime he cuts a finish work into equal pieces and then arranged and reassembled it in a different order to discover new images. He created a series reflection through that process.
He knows and accepts that his images are not pre-conceived, so he always looked each pattern and lines as a different identity, identity of moods and emotions which are changing from time to time with situation. Each line or group of lines and shapes are reflection of human conditions in a particular situation. Lines come close to each other and go away from each other, horizontal and vertical lines, all reflection of physiological and psychological human conditions.
I am seeing his paintings for the last ten years. Simplicity of his personality, which reflects in his art captivate me. He is very clear in his thoughts and art, and very noble to hear others on his art, as well as accepting others creations. This nobility makes him a great person and artist.
Ved prakash bhardwaj
