P. Mansaram: “Art is not just brush and paint.” And it is not just a visual experience. There is more in art than meets the eye. It is an expression of an inner energy. It is imagination, it is the sub-conscious. It is what you see with the third eye. It has boundless dimensions. Involved in art are multiple languages.
A simple village boy toying with a piece of paper to produce some form is in the throes of creation. What we see thousands of people do is folk art. In art, there are hundreds of languages, perhaps modern art is mostly folk art.
Mansaran’s art journey has taken him to many countries – Norway, London, Paris, New York and finally to Candada where he has been living for the last three or four decades. He has held exhibition in all these places, but in Canada, he has held several solo shows and participated in hundreds of group shows.
He remembers his stay in the Bhulabhai Memorial Institute in the city. He was a witness to the artistic vigour of M.F. Husain, Tyeb Mehta, V. Gaitonde, Prafulla
Dahanukar, Ebrahim Alkazi.
The artist now does mostly collages. The current exhibition at Piramal Gallery is mostly collages. In his works, can be seen harmony, arrangements which light the imagination. What is seen in the photo collages are people and things on the move. They are all action scenarios. There are many famous people in the creations – artists, politicians, gallery owners, film actors, common people.
It is a most fascinating exhibition which reveals the artist’s approach to life, his sense of form and colour and his deep intitusive knowledge of the mystery and wonder of creation.
And once a year, he goes away from Canada and Mumbai and then stays for a while in his pleasant hide-out in Mount Abu.
The exhibition by P. Mansaram will go on till January 31 at the Pirmal Art Gallery, Nariman Point. Contact: 2202 9483 ,6623709.