An iconic period for Indian Art, the collaboration of two distinct and prominent artists, this show, Eternal Landscapes, promises to etch in one’s memory for ‘Eternity.’ It is not every day that Abhishek Bachchan takes up a cause for art and inaugurates an art show. However, even a star of his calibre could not steal the limelight of the real star of the show, which were the picturesque paintings created by most artist. Abhishek too was enamoured by the works of the two artists and had a good look around the entire gallery with Owner of ICIA Gallery, Vikram Sethi.

Most people stoof mesmerized at the use of water colors in Paresh Maity’s work, along with the startling use of vibrant as well as subdued colors. His painting depict that he is one with the buoyancy, calm and life nurturing qualities of water. He confesses to be a romantic realist in love with plaintive things that have lasting quality and will live. Paresh says “I have tried not to be something I am not. No shock treatments, no political messages, my landscapes are not snapshots of nature’s randomness; they are meditations on nature’s harmonious perfection which I visualized in my mind’s eye and transferred to canvas.”

Ram Kumar’s paintings are inspired by the natural environment in its many manifestations, wilderness, mountains, ravines, crevices, rifts, fissures, gorges, canyons, hillsides, forests, deserts, fields and rivers. Ram Kumar modifies them to a point of making them unrecognizable. His works cover a wide spectrum of possibilities often based on emotional response to a natural setting rather than a specific depiction of a place. Ram Kumar was born and grew up in Simla. Although he resides in Delhi, he still lives in Simla at times. His fascination with nature continues to overwhelm him the painter paints from within taping into an imagery created in his mind that suggests the vastness of nature.

From Arti and Kailash Surendranath to Poonam Dhillion and Deveika Bhojwani, every individual present was awed by the masterpieces created by these two artistic geniuses. The show brings together two diverse landscape painters. Ram Kumar from the pre-independence generation, one of the pioneers of the modern art movement in India, and Paresh Maity from the post-independence generation, a young turk of the contemporary art movement in India. Eternal Landscapes presents the viewer with the opportunity to be led into a new invigorating experience of landscapes. The timeless elemental power of nature is expressed by these works the dialogue created between these works of varying scale eliminates the nature of our relationship with the environment and our human scale within it. Both painters express a faith in the spiritual benefits to be gained from the contemplation of nature’s bounty.

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