Subhakar Laskar : Rhythm Art

An article by Rupanjali Baruah

Subhakar Laskar’s keen sense of color and light enables him to delve deeper into creating a poetic multi layered associative language of abstract painting. There is a inherent pull of tensions as his sensibilities are overlapped spaces where he looks for an organic whole. The creative richness of fluid art allows organic transformation with fantastic interplay of color and images or entities. Magnificent nature transforms into phenomenal creations on canvas.

Sometimes reflections of self are internalized to give wholeness to abstractions. A close up view allows us to see the lost map of his psyche. Different color effects provide insight into layers of thought. So here we have a teller of his own tales. Each day is to him a chance to do something beautiful.

His abstractions are compositions beyond forms of spatial compositions, non-representational color schemes. This is another form of aesthetics beyond known forms of nature. There is no linear progression and pure abstraction excels thus. So it is distinct from other kind of art of Cubism, Impressionism and abstract expressionism. He pursued to reinvestigate into this mode of expression and bring these ideas into fine arts.

Abstract art can be a painting that does not depict a person, place or thing in the natural world -- even in an extremely distorted or exaggerated way. Therefore, the subject of the work is based on what you see: color, shapes, brushstrokes, size, scale and, in some cases, the process so close to that of great master Wassily Kandinsky.

Subhakar’s red is lively and confident; green is peaceful with inner strength; blue gives depth of the supernatural; yellow is warm, exciting, disturbing; and white seemed silent but full of possibilities. He also assigned instrumental strokes of tones to go with each color: Red sound like a trumpet; green like a middle-position violin; Light blue like flute; Dark blue like a cello, yellow is a fanfare of trumpets; and white is the pause in a harmonious melody.

These analogies to sounds come from the artist's appreciation for music, especially that of the contemporary. Subhakar’s titles often refer to the colors in the composition or to music. He gravitated toward abstraction following the rhythm in any soulful piece of music.

Subhakar uses a visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world and so it cannot be underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. A way of growing up amidst purity of nature had become accessible to him since an early age and that later showed alternative ways of describing visual experience to the artist. By the end of his academic studies, the artists felt a need to create a new kind of art which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place in his own philosophy of good living. The sources from which this individual artist draws his inspiration are his myriad sensations that affect him maybe at the break of dawn in a cold wintry day, and they are as diverse as his reflections.

Subhakar’s abstractions indicate a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation can be slight, partial, or complete. Abstraction exists in his psyche like a second breath along a continuum. There are geometric abstractions, for instance, where one is unlikely to find references to naturalistic entities. He alters the forms of the real life entities. One can enjoy the symphony of color and derive a sublime absorption of thought. Artistic independence for artists is a necessity and Subhakar explores the bold use of paint surface, drawing distortions and exaggerations, and intense color and as a result produced emotionally charged paintings that were reactions to and perceptions of contemporary experiences. The artist sometimes drastically changes the emphasis on subject matter in favor of the portrayal of psychological states of being that brings his work very close to pure abstraction. His use of color and lines are close to mysticism and that makes his creations sometimes wild, multi-colored.