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L.N.V. Srinivas

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The abstract paintings of LNV Srinivas are symbolic representations of landscapes with an internalized philosophy. They are decoded. Yet coded - revealing and yet concealing. All encompassing. Neither the uneasiness of the starting point nor the final goal holds any fascination for the artist - all the excitement lies in the enquiring middle path.

Says Srinivas about his works "My paintings are notions that break away from...
Read More The abstract paintings of LNV Srinivas are symbolic representations of landscapes with an internalized philosophy. They are decoded. Yet coded - revealing and yet concealing. All encompassing. Neither the uneasiness of the starting point nor the final goal holds any fascination for the artist - all the excitement lies in the enquiring middle path.

Says Srinivas about his works "My paintings are notions that break away from preoccupied images. The metascapes, my earlier landscapes series, picture my physical presence surrounded in a spatial wilderness, which I abandoned, for it subjugated me further to my feelings and emotions"

The paintings generate momentum with slashes of colorful energy radiating in all directions, stopping short of an explosive finale. The lines, forms, shapes and colors are illuminated with energy of Srinivas' inner metaphysics - be it the essence of Gita, which he heard in his childhood, or Jiddu Krishnamurthy's influence during college or the essential Zen book, which he is contemplatively reading at present.

Figures - swift sketches of images with which he catches the movement of everyday life on railway platforms - could not hold his thoughts. So he goes to the vast expanse of landscapes, to find liberating forces in the majestic heights of mountains, harmonic waves of the sea and the river Godavari in spate.

And in these vast expanses, the artist represents himself as a small line and a dot. Not content, he deletes the objective representation of himself in the next phase of his paintings. He proceeds to paint the Godavari as a shimmering band of white, between two green bands. His native place is captured in anther three bands of greens and browns, a symbolism best understood in reference to the national flag. Even these could not sate the desire to produce an aesthetics of the minimal. Then the Zen triangle that holds the stability of the whole universe became the central point, and later started splattering all over the canvas, with the shadow of a Buddha-like figure in the corner. Enticing greens, yellows and blues, textures in pastel shades, have a transcendent quality with specks of white sparks and dots flying about. Broad strokes radiating with sunlight become symbols that carry an evolving philosophy. Within the abstract symbols of the landscapes, one discovers true meaning.

Srinivas uses his skill in differing compositions, spread in variations of vertical, horizontal, curvaceous, radiating, broad and sharp strokes, to invite the viewer into a journey of discovery - of moods, of peace and excitement, in the abstract landscapes. If comparisons have to be made he would be a cross between the supple and evocative colors of Adimoolam and trans-energy radiating from the universal art of Krishna Reddy. A simple commonplace subject like moonlight is treated minimally and with a meditative spirit - the shaded moons soft light against the velvet black sky.

It is not the narrative of the Gita or the Zen, but the wisdom behind them that had a synergistic effect on the artist, leaving him with an intuitive insight. He makes the moonlight all-encompassing, the waves incessant, the shining sunrays incisive. His differing angles and compositions transport the viewers to an infinite plane. The influence of pointillism is seen in some works, with splashes of differing hues and shades, reaching a point of transcendence.

Most people do not understand the abstract, he laments, but does not dilute the essence of his transmeditational art to accommodate them. But then most people did not dare to buy red cars a few decades ago. Is his art ahead of the times for most people? Only time will tell. "In my attempt to temper restive nostalgia, originating from a never ending thought process, I realized that the purity of a painting and the truth of life cohabit, celebrating a certain moment, when the act of painting transforms into a meditative art: A gratifying experience which occurs in evasive fragments. Therefore, I relate to those moments as absolute truth, when life becomes on with creation and creation becomes the truth."

It was after returning from a visit to Ellora, where the artist, not satisfied with the objective images, sought to move from the outer realism to the inner subjective essence. He captures the grandeur of Ellora caves through symbolic vertical pillars and concave receding caves in swatches of well-controlled greens and blues, and then he proceeds to add subtle textures that evoke an ethereal response in the viewers. The paintings develop from a state of intuitiveness, which develops synergistically with no preconceived imagery.

They are spontaneous reactions. In the process the subject becomes irrelevant, dissolves into strokes of color and texture and proceeds further on its own. At times, the momentum is not contained in one canvas, the subtle forces spill out into 2-3 frames.

Despite his intellectual inclination, Srinivas is easy going and always ready to share a joke. At the golden Threshold, while doing his masters, he learnt about harmony, rhythms, variations in composition, different lines and colors from his teachers, but it was college library where Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock leapt off the shelves and silently crept into his art. Young Srinivas seriously pursues his art with an ease that comes from conviction and shows great promise. The artist transforms himself from constantly, innovating with a philosophical energy. He only wants the viewers to reveal in them.

Honours and Awards

2006 Camlin Art foundation Award, (Euro tour)

2001 Recipient of Telugu University Award

1991-92 Recipient of National Scholarship, Department of Culture, Government of India

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