Ratnadeep Adivrekar is an acclaimed Indian contemporary artist who lives and works in Mumbai and Berlin. He graduated from the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai, before embarking on an illustrious career, beginning with an exhibit at Chavan Art Gallery in 1998 entitled ‘Memoirs of the unreal city and findings through journeys’. He then went on to have several important solo exhibitions, including one at NUS Museum, Singapore; Galerie Sylvia Bernhardt, Germany; and Pavillon du Centenaire/Arcelor Mittal, Luxembourg. In 2013, Ratnadeep exhibited at the prestigious Deutsche Oper Berlin a series of works titled 'The Golden Ear- A Tribute to Wagner', based on Richard Wagner and his opera "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (Ring of Nibelungs).
Though Ratnadeep has specialized in post-modern art painting, his work defies easy definitions. He has experimented with a wide range of styles and subject matter, and brings together metaphors from contradictory or unpredicted sources, both historical and contemporary, by using diverse materials and techniques. In fact, Ratnadeep's artistic diversity, and his resistance to any form of categorisation, can be seen as the consistent theme in his work.
“Ratnadeep's desire to see everything at once is apparent in many of his paintings, perhaps most overtly in the overlay of one image on top of others, as if it were possible not just to see through a particular image but to hold them both in a sort of suspension. In these superimposed, suspended and translucent images the structure of narratives is overt. Each of the images is both there and not-there, as the eye is drawn from one to the other. Ratnadeep's works invite the spectator to consider. His task is to reintroduce their significance into a tension with form – but without allowing the images he uses to fall into utter nostalgia. His work is to help the spectator re-evaluate the power of the static image, its ability to make reference to our histories and its power to reinvoke our thoughts and our participation through small acts of attention.” From the catalogue "Proverbial In(ter)ventions 2009".
Works being displayed at The Petite Project exhibit
Title: Synthesis of an Idea
Size: 22"x30"
Medium: Charcoal, acrylic, ink on paper
The lower part of the work is multiple self portraits of Stanisław Witkiewicz (novelist, photographer and philosopher) done in St. Petersburg around 1916. We see a manifestation of introspection, a reflective moment of pause in a circular tango of thoughts. Witkiewicz, a Polish nobleman, and in the situation of the nation's non-existence, during World War I he enlisted in the Tsar's army. In uniform, a young man looks in the tempestuous period of adolescence with anxiety and fear into his own features. The situation here is a paradox. An artist joining the army is enclosed in the form, trying to reject.
Deep down it seems rather logical/patriotic. A mise-en-scène of a brainstorming session with himself, a tussle of an artist who cannot step off that path as long as he is moving in the same direction and the only thing that changes are the vector heads; He looks in the mirror, looking for answers to the vexed question “who are you?”, adjacent to numerous permutations of Rubik’s cube.
Title: Picasso and his muse
Size: 22"x30"
Medium: Charcoal, acrylic, ink on paper
The Muses in Greek mythology are the goddesses of the inspiration of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths.
Picasso had affairs with many women and his different painting styles reveal much about his attitude towards them. He was prolific – Picasso painted more than 2,000 works and each time he mastered one style, he quickly moved on to the next. As he developed new techniques, his paintings became more honest and revealing. The same could be said of his affairs with women – and the relationship between the women in his life and his different styles is intimately interlinked. Picasso was brilliant and charismatic and he loved women. The attraction worked both ways, and many strong, beautiful and passionate women fell for him. Fernande Olivier (1881-1966), an artist’s model, met Picasso at the Bateau-Lavoir in 1904, when Picasso was an unknown and penniless artist living in Paris and by the next year they were living together. Fernande Olivier was Picasso's first great love and long term relationship, and subject of many of Picasso's Rose Period paintings (1905-07).
On the left is image of Fernande Olivier and artist friend, Venedetta Kanals photographed in 1904. And on the right is image of young Picasso with drawings of self portrait overlapping the painting. Whether it is his own reflection he sees or the personification of his muse forms the essence of the painting.
This work is from the series inspired from artist-muse relationship where women who inspired the genius and obsession of eminent men.
Title: Garland around the neck - A tribute to Puran Singh
Size: 22”x30”
Medium: Charcoal and acrylic on paper
The image on the right is of Puran Singh and Piara. It is a part of tribute series - a kind of elucidating commentary, the releasing of a certain event from pages of history.
Puran Singh was a legendary figure, who shunned public recognition for the humanitarian work to which he devoted his entire life, eventually becoming one of the most respected Sikhs. He lived his life with few material belongings and dedicated his life to the needy. The life and work done by this man who had dedicated his life to the concept of sewa, an important ideal in Sikhism.
One of the most amazing stories about this unassuming social worker is the way he looked after a dumb, mentally impaired and incontinent child he found abandoned in Lahore in 1934, whom he named Piara (the loved one).
On the left part is figures which resemble Puran and Piara from Michelangelo Buonarroti fresco of people taking refuge in the Noah's Ark.
