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ART INTERVIEWS
Kazakhstan Contemporary Art Gallery
Subhashis Ghosh: "My Art is a Fusion of Oriental and Western Essence”
EXCLUSIVE online journal 15.01.2017 Text: Dina Duspulova
Since mid‐90’s,the artists of Kazakhstan bolder appeal to the language of the abstract art to talk about invisible, but available to feelings and mind the spiritual content of life. Contemporary artists often resort to abstractionism without knowledge the intricacies of this art direction. The Indian painter Subhashis Ghosh is an exception. Since the first exhibitions in 2012‐13, his individual style is of interest in the world, which is unusual for the artist who has
started his journey in art. Recently, his work has been acquired for the largest art collection
of Bob Guccione Foundation (read Penthouse magazine).
Subhashis Ghosh. Born in 1973. Lives in Kolkata, India.
Subhashis, tell about your early interests. How did you begin your artistic career?
I never thought about art as a profession. In India, it was a very bad choice for career. Before
me, there was none an artist in my family; my parents gave me closeness to the nature. Mom
was originally from the small village of Bengal, my father was kind of bohemian in his youth and
he loved to travel a lot all over India and forests; he was a railways employee. From early
childhood I was drawing with pencil, then with paintbrush on paper, copying images from
magazines, newspapers or books. It was like other children did, but my copyworks were so
good, that parents, though not seriously, started encouraging me. I tried few art schools and
competitions, but I was not exactly ‘shaped in the box’. I never liked to learn in a local art
classes. Such is my nature: not to get into the regular mundane rules. From my teens I got used
to literate myself through books,films and music. I was so inspired by classical painters of
Renaissance that I was copying their works continuously. It is not the path to become an artist,
but actually that was my learning process. My father was quite against professional art
education and even I was not much eager to get fine art studies. At the age of 18, I was more
interested in graphic design. Only while I was studying commerce in college, I hastily, for three
months, learned few basic of figure studies in private class of art college.
How did you become an artist then?
It took a long time span before I realized that painting is the most favorable way to express my
thoughts. Thus the beginning of becoming an artist; I left my job and now I am continually
seeking of how to shape my visions. The hidden truth of the nature haunts me and pushes to
express the feelings. Painting, being the most comfortable form of communication, helps me to
shape my ideas, emotions, questions in visual format. Nature is my most wanting subject. My
inspiration comes from the presence of the magical side that exist in nature and sensuality of
natural elements. Can I play the hidden feelings of nature? I try to convey this striking contrast
on paper and canvas. The most important thing is that I can be devoured by my intuition such a
way, that I reach innermost depths. Following mind search, I find inner pace in each of the
earth element and I do control the free will of my art work and give it a destination. This
journey is very crucial to me, as it is an intercourse of philosophy and art.
Do you have a particular style, or a manner, which makes you different from others?
I do not fit into either category, which many classify me: impressionist, Flemish, expressionist,
Neo‐Chinese. My artistic style comprises of Chinese brushstrokes, Indian wash technique with
the Western‐Indian color schemes and the energetic force. I never tried to invent it, as it was
originated by itself when the subject demanded the true way of projection. I think, this
fundamental part makes the difference with the rest. My works are more getting into the
genre, which is dependent on strong and subtle brush strokes, with vibrant colors spreading in
existential energy The energy source is important as it rises from the work itself. My brush
strokes are splashes out the colors in abstract form and through abstraction I try to reach the
mystery of the composition.
How much the enthusiastic reviews of foreign colleagues motivate you?
Definitely, it defines my work to the next level. There is no point to deny, that the high
appreciation of Dr. Mimi Schmidt (western cultural historian and art expert) is the finest
motivation and strong boost for me. The well‐known American artist Paul Russo also reviewed
my works in his own point of view. Paul has depicted them as Classical Flemish traditional,
while Dr. Schmidt has found my soul affinity with the late phase Chang Dai Chien. The latter is
known as "Picasso of Asia", though I had never watched any of his paintings before. Yes, I do
love working with watercolor and ink, like Chinese painters. But,most of my works contain
complex details, unlike Chinese painting, there are detail pastel, pen and ink job, and mixed
media in my works. I don't think I have close resemblance with pure Chinese art or Flemish
style, aside from ‘Greens and woods series’. Such assessments say rather about a fusion of
oriental and western essence in my art.
There is also a strange incident, which is responsible for heightening my journey into the art
world. It really played as a positive note for me. At 2010, I was working for a series named
"Boy". Suddenly, one day I found online almost similar painting of a Russian artist named
Evgeny Agnin. I never ever heard about him before. But, both of our thoughts resembled
exactly the same. I had to stop that painting and get in contact with him to let him know this
amazing experience.
Realistic style in your drawings gives way to abstraction in painting. Why?
This comes naturally. If you look at my infinitesimal detail pen and ink works of ‘Greens and
Woods’ graphic series, you can find those details create an impression of time and space:
landscape is not so important there. But, pen has certain boundaries of its own, so when the
limitations of pen come to a saturation point, I transferred the same series intoabstract form
with mixed medium. And it’s true that the realistic style of Greens and Woods series
transformed into abstract nature, where abstraction serves to reach melancholy, a mysterious
time‐space conjecture.
How much an idea and metaphor is significant for you?
It depends on what subject I am working with. I can’t always use a metaphor in descriptive
work. Like, you can see a scarecrow positioned in the crops beside a nice, peaceful river in
‘Greens and Woods 13’. Here the scarecrow’s presence makes a subtle, uncanny feeling. The
subject was needed, so I used it. In other works it was not necessary.
But, there are more works,where ideas played a major role. Specially, in ‘City’ series you can
see:...a roaring horse thrashes out the hypocrisy‐television and cars‐snails, used as the dream
catcher, landing down by parachutes – people are somnolent ‐ my city. I paint. Lots of ideas and
metaphors I used in ‘King’ series, where the fighting of an unicorn illustrates the agitation of
common man, insects, crawling up towards the sky, a beard face, oozing out smoke amidst the
debris of death, where a face with gas mask rising up. And I am continuing those two series,
which are very important to me. Beside that, another one is coming up, which is totally based
on idea.
Call two or three of your favorite works, and why?
There are many works, equally important to me, but there are some, which brought me true
satisfaction. It reached the climax in ‘Greens and Solitude 1’, where the unknown feeling is
coming out from the green grasses and the dusk luminosity. Secondly, ‘The Orange Hat’, where
shaded eyes of ‘the girl from nowhere’ is the most significant thing: I tried to catch her
emotionless journey as she lost into the time. The third one is very personal to me. It is my own
portrait: I am alone and stunned in another version of world, where time and space are lost in
the enormous truth of universe. Only one color is used here to feel the strive to touch the
eternal mystery of universe.
What is your deepest creative insight?
Deep down there is a layer that is just enthralling: to find out the truth. The search for truth has
forced me to get along with fine art. Painting has no restrictions, it is opening doors like books
and music. Painting is not just a medium to express for me, but a tool to explore philosophy.In
the end, philosophy is the search path, the peak of a magnificent journey, in which the mind
finds satisfaction. Truth of existentialism is that humans, centered upon the analysis of
existence, can find themselves existing in the world. This existential belief portrays in my works,
the basic idea always plays behind the back: to find out who and what we are, and why we are
here? These questions drive me throughout my life and working with brushes is a process to get
some answers.
What styles and mediums are you going to explore as a challenge in the future?
I never fix my periphery for future. As I said previously, I do not follow any particular genre or
style. It comes naturally with the process. In case of medium, I have a distant thought to try on
video installation. Film is very close medium for me, and my thoughts are very clear of its use. I
have experience about film medium, so the technical challenge will not be new for me.
Thank you very much for the interview.
Interviewed by Dina Duspulova, art expert
Copyright: 2016 . KZArtInvest
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