Helmet is part of the Unknown Soldier series Broota undertook in 1990s and 2000. These paintings are examples of Broota`s `nick-blade` technique, adopted in 1980, which involves scratching the surface of a pre-painted canvas with the sharp edge of a broken blade. Through this elaborate procedure, Broota enacts aesthetically the struggle of man. In this work, the face of the soldier is painstakingly delineated, carved out from...
Helmet is part of the Unknown Soldier series Broota undertook in 1990s and 2000. These paintings are examples of Broota`s `nick-blade` technique, adopted in 1980, which involves scratching the surface of a pre-painted canvas with the sharp edge of a broken blade. Through this elaborate procedure, Broota enacts aesthetically the struggle of man. In this work, the face of the soldier is painstakingly delineated, carved out from the surrounding black gloom. As the image of the combatant wrestles for definition against the structure of the painted canvas, Broota underscores man`s inevitable battle for individuation and the formation of a distinct identity.
The military apparel of the man in Helmet takes on a metaphysical dimension, highlighting both the conflicts of human existence and man`s ability to overcome them. "His mythico-classic figures... have their genesis not as legatees of a grand tradition but in the travails of the ordinary and the unknown, whom he invests with an unlikely heroism. Particularly in the last decade or so, the affirmative gesture of striving, of pushing the body into unpredictable spaces vests his figure with determined stoicism." (p. 24, G. Sinha, "Edge of the Precipice: The Art of Rameshwar Broota", Rameshwar Broota Shridharni Gallery, Exhibition Catalogue 2001)