Opening of my art exhibition at Adzak Museum, Paris

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Elements: My five years art journey

My art journey began in Moscow in 2005 when I met the famous artist Zurab Tsereteli at his art museum in the centre of the city. He invited me to paint at his studio located within the museum and I painted a restless man standing between hope and despair. Then I continued painting, more intensly in St. Petersburg where I had the opportunity to participate in the art life of the great city for almost three years, participated in several group and solo exhibitions in St. Petersburg and Paris. Art became a way of life for me in St. Petersburg. Artists, poets, writers were my regular guests. Regular interaction with them resulted into a very inspiring book about the transformative power of art which I plan to publish as 'Colours of Soul' in the coming time. Here I present the digital catalogue of my art works so far for the benefit of the viewers. I hope you'll find it stimulating.

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Enlightenment

ENLIGHTENMENT

Exhibition by Abhay Kumar at Selskaya Zhizhn Gallery

17th Jan-8thFeb 2010 

Paintings and drawings of Abhay Kumar return us to the avant-garde art of the early twentieth century. The artist plays with the themes and motifs of works by Kazimir Malevich and Mikhail Matiushin with home-made ingenuity. And, despite the fact that over the past decade, the legacy of the avant-garde has not inspired new experiments of even one generation of artists, works of Abhay Kumar make no repetitions. Without the tension and pathos he makes the simple open art, playing the odds, which is given to the followers of Henri Rousseau. Images of the classical avant-garde are included here in the hieroglyphic language that is not talking about artistic utopias of 1910-20 years, but the new project for the future. Abhay Kumar creates an allegory of planetary consciousness - emblems of the unity of the peoples. This is not propaganda agitation, but the characters suggested by the political reality of India – the Republic uniting dozens of different cultures. Petersburg tradition knows other artist, writer and diplomat, who dreamed of universal harmony - the Banner of Peace. In his landscapes, Nicholas Roerich synthesized elements of Buddhist and Hindu icons. Abhay Kumar draws images of spiritual unity, a futuristic reworking of figurative and suprematic motives. In St. Petersburg and Moscow, he blend in with the culture of high dilettantism that traces its origins in the work of Velimir Khlebnikov, OBERIU, Arefievsky circle and Lianozovo school.

A native of eastern India, a diplomat, writer and artist, he brings themes and subjects from different national and political traditions to independent art. His poetry and autobiography was published in English and in Russian translation. On the art scene Abhay Kumar debuts in role of the educator developing the characters of utopia. Without a doubt in the gallery "Rural Life" the ideas of planetary consciousness must be dreamed freely. The hospitable and cozy house, holding a fort in the center of promptly built Kolomyagy district - one of the most Russian places of the modern art of St. Petersburg. Around the bulky new buildings and uninhabited penthouses, post-Soviet skepticism and pragmatism of the new bourgeoisie reigns. With regard to the ideals of the Enlightenment, far from being realized, except universal literacy. And yet, outside of Russia they are still in force: a bright future, which is inspired by the artist, is India's true democratic socialism.

-Stanislav Savitsky

Elements: Exhibitition of artist Abhay Kumar at the Door Gallery, St. Petersburg

Elements: Exhibitition of artist Abhay Kumar at the Door Gallery, St. Petersburg
           - Andrey Khlobystyn-noted art historian, St. Petersburg Dec5, 2009-Jan17 ,2010

Elements’ is another exhibition by a St. Petersburg artist Abhay Kumar, who is playing an active part in the cultural life of our city. Mind you, it is not a misprint; the Indian Consul did say in one of his interviews that it was St. Petersburg that has turned him into an artist. But, first and foremost, his paintings have this strictly Petersburg feel.

Abhay Kumar fits well into St. Petersburg ‘titanism’ with denial of one-track specializations: if you feel yourself to be in an elevated and balanced state of mind, then you can easily express yourself through different types of art. Abhay Kumar is a diplomat by profession; he has already published several books of poetry and prose, participated in a number of exhibitions and festivals as an artist and started collecting art-pieces as well. Striving to understand Art on a larger scale, trying to combine the social service, philosophic poetry, symbolical painting and cosmic-scale of thought remind us of the Silver Age, Roerich, Ciurlionis, etc. If we put this into a more Indian perspective, we will get Rabindranatha Tagore, naturally.


In the small format of Abhay Kumar’s work, the St. Petersburg traditions can be easily spotted, through the images of the Russian ‘Avant-garde’ art of the early XX th century. The geometry of Malevich and the musical coloured vision of Matyushin gain typically Indian colour vibrancy and even somewhat folklore inflections in the abstract and half-abstract works of Abhay Kumar. These creations are truly minimalist and are aimed at the elementary components of our perception. Elements, or ‘natures’ as they are called in European tradition, are placed into five lower chakras of the human body, according to Indian tradition, and through them the projection of the world around us is created. Chakras hold the five basic elements – Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Ether.


But the main Petersburg trait, the one that we can all understand and sympathize is the spontaneous and direct approach to the material and the traditions in the works of this artist, who has bravely picked up a brush about three years ago and started painting on chocolate boxes at first. Such approach, it can be said, has been suggested to Abhay Kumar by the local artists of the 80’s generation among others, since from these people you can always pick up a positive charge of existential expression.


Nowadays, when the Consulates of the Western countries have grown weary of St. Petersburg art and started treating it formally, even though during the Cold War and Perestroika they have been actively participating in the artistic life of the city, Abhay Kumar, an Indian diplomat, has become a prominent figure in the cultural life of the Northern capital and is doing some real work, trying to lead the contacts of the two great cultures to the new frontiers.