JEHANGIR NICHOLSON ART FOUNDATION
18th December 2016 | Workshop with BMC school children from Aseema Charitable Trust
23rd December 2016 | Workshop with BMC school children from Teach for India
The workshop began with a brief introduction of the artist Laxman Shreshtha and his abstract works. It dwelt on the importance of music in his life, the power of silence, his sojourn in Paris and finally his return to India.
The students were then asked to create two collages using the many textures provided like jute, bubblewrap, wool etc. Different genres of music were sed to encourage them to engage with the work through their emotions: Indian and western classical music, Jazz, regional folk songs and finally the importance of silence. The aim of the workshop was to understand the role that music and silence can play in an artist’s journey and the various textures and patterns that emerge because of the various moods they were able to create.
Laxman Shreshtha was born in Siraha, Nepal in 1939, and had an extensive education: The University of Bihar, Patna; the J.J. School of Art; the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Paris; and the Central School of Art, London. In the Parisian tradition of the atélier, he also studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and with the legendary print-maker Stanley William Hayter at Atélier 17.
Shreshtha began his career as a figurative artist but gradually moved onto abstract works. Coming from an aristocratic Nepalese family and ending up a struggling art student on the brink of starvation, resulted in him embarking on a spiritual quest, which has continuously been reflected in his work. He looked for answers to his early existentialist dilemmas in books on Western philosophy. Later, he turned to the Upanishads and to Buddhism and his paintings reflect these experiences.
Shreshtha’s abstract works are greatly inspired by landscapes, and sometimes echo the mountain peaks of his native home, Nepal; the pristine white light sears through the dense opacity of colour, creating dazzling effects. His desire to capture the expanse of the Himalayas allowed him to create his large-scale world. Shreshtha’s works are both sensuous and meditative in their shifts and balances of colour. There is an intermingling of vivid blues, yellows, reds, oranges, and browns. He is greatly inspired by Jazz and classical music and listens to it while he paints.
Since the early 1960s, Shreshtha has held numerous solo exhibitions of his works, and has also been represented in major curated exhibitions, both in India and internationally. He has been the recipient of many awards, fellowships, and honours, including the French Government Scholarship, the British Council Grant, and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD, Germany) residency.
Since the 1980s, Shreshtha has led an isolated life. He lives and works in Bombay.
