It is always interesting when practitioners and students of science cross over to the world of literature and the arts.  Is their artistic endeavor superior to more traditionally trained artists? I do not know. I can only speak for myself. The scientific perspective in art and literature invariably impresses me. The clear eyed precision scientist-artists bring to their craft confers a particularly satisfying uncluttered quality to their work.   

On my recent visit to New Delhi, I visited one of the city’s well known art galleries. Among the gallery’s many works, I came across an exhibition of paintings by young Richa Arora. Her work is bold, interesting, clean and impressively confident. I had the pleasure of meeting Richa who was present at her show. She graciously gave me the permission to post some of her pictures on my blog. I hope the readers will enjoy her paintings as much as I did. And perhaps leave some comments for her.

A few words about Richa Arora:  Richa graduated from Delhi University in 1999 with a major in physics. Changing trajectory, she decided to pursue a career in art and has trained with Rameshwar Broota at Triveni Kala Sangam since 2002. She has participated in several group exhibitions in major art galleries of Delhi. Her solo exhibition is currently on at Triveni Kala Sangam. After graduation, Richa vacillated between a career as a pilot or an artist. In the end she chose flight of fancy over flying and we are glad for that.

Richa has this to say of her own work:

“For me art is an unending journey into new possibilities. Sometimes celebrating life’s spectacles, sometimes questioning its various frames of meanings. I as an artist am always in search of new frames of mind….  What I paint does represent the natural world, but does so by capturing something of its immutable, intrinsic qualities rather than by imitating its external appearance. My work depicts real forms in a simplified or rather reduced ways, keeping only an allusion of the original natural subject.”

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Note: This post appeared on Accidental Blogger in March 2006 soon after I met Richa.  I thought it opportune to introduce the readers of this blog to her works while the after-glow of the recent lively debate here on what constitutes good art is still fresh in our minds. Richa’s work is abstract but she is no “dripper.” As is evident from my description, I find Richa’s meticulously executed art quite compelling – so much so that I acquired one of the paintings shown below for my personal enjoyment.

An interesting aside on artistic intent and viewer perception. (Thankfully there was no meddling, officious art critic to explain things). What I saw as the subject of the painting I purchased is not quite what Richa had in mind, I found out later. Although we were not that far apart in our interpretations – my more playful and prosaic version was different from Richa’s romantic one. But that didn’t spoil the fun for me – I continue to see what I saw before and it still makes sense.

Also, let me note that Richa Arora is no relation of Namit Arora, the sage administrator and editor of Shunya’s Notes. So please feel free to comment on Richa’s work without the constraints of politeness.

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All the paintings are all oil and acrylic on canvas.  From left to right (please click on images for an enlarged version):

Integration, Ascent, Cross Beam I, Crystallization I, Cross Beam II, Contours of Blue, Substratum, Crystallization II & Towards the Beyond