A talking With Sangram Majumdar

A experience With Sangram Majumdar

I recently had the necessary steps to interview painter Sangram Majumdar, Whose exhibit NEW WORK was on view at Steven Harvey Fine Arts, nyc, From January 12 through feb 19, 2012. Majumdar, Who has been teaching painting at the Maryland commence College of Art since 2003, Has described his prints as being "Conversations between the notion of the familiar and concerns it raises through the medium of painting,

I also was talking to Steven Harvey who was able to give me his observations concerning Majumdar's works. The two talks, Or a slideshow, Try below.

SH: I first seen Sangram from the painters Stanley Lewis and Will Reed in 2008. I met him at an art fair I was doing and he showed me a catalog of his work for a future show. I was expressly taken with one image of a still life on a mantelpiece. I thought that this painting effectively built upon the muse of Lennart Anderson and Edwin Dickinson.

I assumed "What an interesting starting point for from, When I saw Sangram's paintings in person I loved the direction they were made, Their very complex and user 'factura.' with his second show at my gallery, Sangram's paintings continue to evolve in myriad directions from their main thrust; What are the outer limits of what you can do in painting based on observation.

So the viewer has to work a bit pinpoint what is there. Even it's ambiguous, An image of a woman in a mirror trying to connect the top section of a coat rack to the rest of that coat rack which is standing ahead of the mirror. It is an extremely tough event, But beside that limitation, On the required side of the canvas, There is a yet more obscure indication of something resembles a dark Indian wall painting. The way delicate bright color drawing floats on the dark surface evokes for me, Odilon Redon and additionally Gustave Moreau.

I see a strong interest on the part of young painters in the conversation that Sangram is having in painting and I think this is associated with a very interesting moment in painting that is happening now.

SM: I started drawing young (4-5) And was highly encouraged by my father and grand daddy. I drew just about every part, From yet all the same lives, To copying works of art, To cricket and sports (Snowboarding) Plus De 100 Pages De Réflexions Pratiques Et De Conseils Illustrés Pour Batir Son Propre Style. écrit Par Un Coach En Relooking Professionnel, L’ebook Look Est Le Guide De Référence Sur L’art De L’habillement Au Masculin. Ebook Look De Lifestyle Conseil Games and Hindu gods/goddesses might be a big part of Bengali cultural identity. Looking back what seems to be a common thread is my interest in complex spatial spaces. Back by using 1990, Along with the fam, At age of 13. Has this explore -- to be born in India and coming here as an immigrant -- affected work as an artist?

SM: Every filters into my work, The existing and the new, And sometimes I pull on something is specifically biographical while other times my work has really nothing overt about it. I am not someone who likes to localize himself to a specific historical/ethnic nature, Other than the prevailing banner of 'painting' which is complicated enough.

JS: Tell me a bit about how your interest on art emerged. Have you considered important influences, Mentors and ideas?

SM: My own time at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Was highly important, Most exactly the painter Gerald Immonen. Gerald (Gerry) Was my freshman year 2D design professor and one who until last year when he passed away, Was a large mentor and friend. We described painting non-Stop and his in order to see, trust, And talk deeply and thoughtfully really has a profound impact on my painting and teaching practice. In a good number of circuitous way, His interest in Asian art and early Renaissance painting led me to see the shared affinities and pictorial logic together.

My home is Brooklyn and work in Baltimore, And feel lucky to have access to see some of the most beautiful paintings ever made within an hour or two's notice. And based on past viewpoints, I am aware that artists/paintings that seem awkward or problematic to me initially are those that eventually win me over. Lately I traveled through India studying architectural motifs and temple sculptures and I intend to return again for a more sustained visit.

Concurrently I am drawn to periods within specific artists or in artforms when multiple influences are visible. Their early formative works of DeKooning, The Matisse works of art from 1914-1917 and the moments when local, Deccan or European influences weave through Indian Painting at the city Museum of Art, Fine-tune are places I return to repeatedly.

I consider some of one of the best paintings to be my mentors, And I am amazed how they hold up to sustained looking and survey.

JS: Have you always been that has us convinced art that begins in observation? Can you say a few things about with time of your art?

SM: I have been an image-Based plumber, Whatever the source, Be it photos, Doing your job from life, Or pure creativity. art prints for sale Often the reason I start with something physical and actual is because it gives me something to combat. There's an immediacy to the knowledge that gets actualized through paint. But I recieve treatment from photos, Memory storage end maquettes. During couple years, I have been doing a number of paintings that take everyday objects and 'cast' them in a theatrical manner in my studio -- a place I often toy trucks as a stage-group. Normally, I am open to all assets. Painting for me becomes an easier way to undo the logic, Generate a space that is interstitial and ephemeral.

Apple voracious appetite for all types of art, Including works of art, And in my own studio I tend to jump around a group of work. I try to avoid be programmatic in my search, And enjoy playing with historical, image, And thematic conferences in painting. Extremely, I could have a painting happening that is a studio 'fiction' while another that is done straight from life. In my most up to date solo show there were paintings that could fall into a range of visual conventions - from pictures, To nevertheless lives, To studio decorations, And allegorical narratives and of every size. I like the thought of a visual 'echo' in my work, One where certain actual forms or objects come back or are re-Presented inside contexts. I am interested in buying spaces that break logic, But hold together none the less.

Some time ago, I have found myself going back to the still life genre, Especially because in times past it always got the raw deal, But also because it's an 'other' that may well project hybrid spaces, And has the wide ranging to play with pictorial conventions of the figure, Landscaping or pure abstraction. And using the services of found, 'nameable' forms as opposed to hand-Altered and built forms also I enjoy the conversation it promotes between recognition and the strange.

JS: You have mentioned your paintings are "Chitchats, Can you talk about this?

SM: Going up to a painting is about beginning with a dialogue that is codependent on both the viewer and the viewed. Information and facts is passed, Ideas shoot up, And feelings and memories of all types pass involving the two, From the past to instant present, And in great-Case scenario they linger long then. Theres few paintings, Art objects and spaces that I return to constantly, Often finding something more challenging or surprising that I hadn't considered.

In the studio I work on multiple canvases and I am always looking at what a painting that might be 'hanging out' in the corner is saying to something I am working on. I like ultimately running into an idea, And often I leave a painting around in my studio for months throughout stages before I know what it needs. The process under way always 'talk' and think that if I keep painting, It are appropriate. But prints do talk back, And it's vital to listen.

Instead, My paintings often end as being a few fragments parsed together from disparate sources, 'conversations overhead' as they say. It's akin to how I felt when when initially when i first read Italo Calvino's novel, If on a Winter's Night a criminal. What I love about this experience is how the idea of the familiar, Or 'real' keeps shifting and yet a narrative unfolds regardless, Even if it isn't one that the various readers expects.

JS: What keeps you committed to painting and how do you see yourself in a state-of-the-art context?

I like Willem DeKooning's quote to Philip Guston about art work being about 'freedom' -- freedom to directly go wherever the eye and the hand goes, Perfectly as the freedom to carve out a narrative that is as personal as it is singular.

The phenomena of twitter and facebook, Is good exponential nature of how we are able to find information in any form, Any energy. to do, Choosing to be a painter is an intentional decision to work on the other hand of this streaming data- the slower and the tangibility of direct human time. But in addition to being anachronistic or foolhardy, I am curious as to how our information about our own immediate lives, When slowed to the way of measuring a heartbeat, Compares to our daily intake of virtual suffers. Simply real?

I also believe absolutely vital to know what's going on around us. It's very similar to reading the newspaper or watching the news. However I think it is incredibly important to know or constantly evaluate where one belongs in it and stake out one's position. Kitaj, An artist whose language and words is terribly expansive, To the point that he seems to embody multiple individuality and ways of seeing. Not long saw a show of Magnus Plessen's paintings which I'm still mulling over in my head. Beyond that I'm sufficiently lucky to get know a range of amazing painters who are directly addressing painting, Images, And previous. It's all a big difficult and glorious mess, And history is being rewritten. What's great about being a painter is that we get to play effortlessly this everyday. How amazing often that?

Explanation Chardin, Corot, Matisse, Bonnard, Rousseau and Morandi differ from their contemporaries and Sangram says it so well - as they quite simply could listen to their work making demands. The DeKooing instance: "I like Willem DeKooning's quote to Philip Guston about picture being about 'freedom' -- freedom to directly go wherever the eye and the hand goes, As well freedom to carve out a narrative that is as personal as it is singular, Is also invaluable in a moment when FB and the 'net are close to convincing young artists and musicians that style is a valid goal. Style is not, Freedom is every piece