Structural abstracts

Artist Anwar's abstracts are references of the human body where balance and expression need to be in sync to become a perfect work of art.

Abstract artist Anwar strongly believes that he was destined to paint. He recalls growing up in Morena, a small town in Madhya Pradesh that did not have even a remote association with art.

Anwar was charting the regular course as he studied Science in college, till he fought with his professor and had to quit college. The Government College of Art was en route to Gwalior and had always caught his eye with its students's artworks visible from the road.

"As a child I was fascinated by the designs created by cracked and damp walls that would fuel my imagination," says Anwar, who decided to enroll in the Art College armed with a good hand for drawing.

"As a student one finds art very easy," says the artist, "till one discovers oneself and finds one's own language of painting, which is difficult and takes a long time," he adds philosophically.

Anwar credits the late artist J Swaminathan for moulding him and his art through his college days to the 16 years he spent in Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, confessing to being spellbound by Swaminathan's personality and philosophy.

It was graphics "" woodcuts, lithographs and etchings "" for Anwar for a considerable number of years as they were easier on the pocket and he had no money.

He started working on canvas with oil paints in 1992 only when the artist Akbar Padamsee bought some of his works and Anwar had money to buy canvas and paints.

"I came to Delhi to buy a whole lot of canvas and paints, some of which is still with me," he says with a distant look in his eyes.

Anwar has closely guarded all things that form part of his struggling days "" his science books, the paints and all his works before 1992. "I will never sell those works, it's my life," he says.

The only time the artist attempted figurative art was when he had a show in Mumbai. The slums of Mumbai, the condition in which people lived, sometimes in pipes with stray animals, moved him to paint the bleakness, but other than that he has always done works in abstract.

His philosophy, like other abstract painters, is not to relate to things as they have been conditioned. "I try to bring in the whole spectrum in my works," says Anwar who can only paint when the mood allows him.

He calls himself an instinctive artist who is clueless about what he's going to paint next. "It's beautiful phase when you are clueless," he says, claiming that an inner voice guides him and then the movement to paint become like a dialogue with the canvas where the painting adapts a soul.

Anwar's abstracts have a horizontal or vertical structure with small details in a few corners. He dilutes the oil paint heavily to make a tint "" as transparent as possible, connecting it to the transparency needed in life. Colour choices for him too are instinctive, all black at times to earthy tones to the bright ones.

The structures in the abstracts are metaphors of the human body where each element inside them needs to balance well; else there would be a breakdown.

"Likewise, a body that is not tuned right fails, so does a painting," says Anwar, for whom (apart from the material and the atmosphere in which to paint), the mood to paint fuels a feeling of frenzy.

"After exhibiting some works I am exhausted, unable to paint for months till the restlessness starts building," says Anwar who is a distraught at some of the commercial demands that the art world is witnessing today like "" churning out works with deadlines and on demand.

Anwar explains that his art is as personal as prayer and that "you cannot ask someone else to pray for you". He shifted to Delhi as Bharat Bhavan's atmosphere was dying, he says, while Delhi continues to flourish.

Gallerist Renu Modi of Gallery Espace, who has been showing Anwar's works for 15 years, says, "Anwar has evolved successfully in every medium, from dry pastels to oils, that make his works interesting."