VIVACITY | Thursday, December 10, 2009 | Email | Print |  | Back
Marketing the muse
Artist Gilbert Young and graphic designer Namrita Bachchan opt for a president and grandfather’s poem as their respective inspiration to create hues of life on canvas
This is for you, Mr Obama
ASRP Mukesh
When renowned artist Gilbert Young painted a portrait of the US President Barak Obama depicting him as a symbol of hope that people expect will bring in a change, he didn’t know that he would create history for himself. As he presented the painting to Obama at the Annual NAACP Convention in Ohio, Obama had an instant liking to it and remarked “You have made me look good.”
“This is what makes it (the painting) invaluable. Such an endorsement is indeed an unprecedented honour,” said Young in an email interview. Recalling his maiden interaction with the US President, he said, “When I handed my card to him he said he knew my work and told the crowd that I was a legend. It was the greatest honour of my life.”
Born in Cincinnati Ohio in 1941, Young’s childhood inclination towards arts made him study at the Cincinnati Art Academy and later at the University of Cincinnati where he received conservation training under the tutelage of Byron Adams. All through his career, he claims to have shown African-Americans as people with rich heritage and a positive & colourful future. “My objective is to illustrate Black life as a positive form locked in holy matrimony with mankind,” said he. It is in continuation of this philosophy he made this portrait, he added.
About his style, this painter said, “I attempt to treat each work as a personal and intimate involvement with the subject. This allows it to develop its own distinctive character as I form my own interpretation. I restrict my use of colour & often leave the backgrounds white and uncluttered to show that emotions and feelings of mankind are timeless and universal.” About the portrait, he said, “It conveys the hope that Obama has given the world for the much needed change to take humanism to new heights. The work is a mixed media with oil, pen and pencil.”
It is a memory-based art work and not based on any photograph. “I had envisioned him in my art from a very long time. But, for the actual creation of the portrait there was discomfort with the short time line. The opportunity to meet President Obama overshadowed all my reluctance and I created what my wife calls an incredible portrait of Obama.” The portrait is now up for auction and the Indian owned Singapore investment banking advisors, DeConseil Pte Ltd are facilitating it.
To grandfather, with love
E Sharma
The magic of late Harivansh Rai Bachchan's Madhushala (The house of wine) was lent a new hue when his granddaughter Namrita (daughter of Ajitabh Bachchan) interpreted the English translation of poem in the form of artworks.
The paintings (25 of them in all) that form the part of a book titled Madhushala were put on display at her solo exhibition also titled Madhushala at Palette Art Gallery recently. Namrita has interpreted every eight line verse in an individual painting and the verse is mentioned along with the figure. “The work is my individual response to my grandfather’s art. Using my own sense of saturated imagery, I have recreated Madhushala in my own style on canvas. This project gave me an opportunity to delve into my grandfather's creative world in a deeper way and understand him more. It was a creative challenge, and being his grand-daughter made the journey more emotional,” said Namrita.
While one of the paintings has her grandfather wearing a colourful garland, another painting depicts her grandmother that is titled as A girl with tinkling ornaments. “I’ve recreated Madhushala in my own style. It was a creative exploration with every stroke. I wish he were alive to see my works,” said Namrita. This 33-year-old trained graphic designer has formatted the book as a bilingual illustrated read, so as to enable the poem to fit the sensibilities of today's essentially visual generation.
The content of the poem is timeless in nature and addresses the experience of life in all its bitter-sweetness, using a rich lyrical language which lends itself naturally to being picturised. The book is a creative dialogue between poet grandfather and painter grand-daughter, and to that end the pictures have been titled using little verses from the English translation of the text. “Having been born and bought up in America, I am not fluent in Hindi, so the translation in English helped me a lot in understanding his thoughtful poems,”added she. She is herself a poet at heart. “Poetry like any other form is about my emotions. I have read his poems on children and found they were written for their grandchildren. But, Madhushala has its own ever lasting charm,” said Namrita. The exhibition ends on December 12 at Palette Art gallery.
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