Featured Artist Amar Singha

Artist Amar Singha presents a portfolio of contemporary abstract art influenced by Cubism and his Indian heritage. View more by visiting his website.

 

 

My life didn’t follow the normal path. As part of a baronial family in North Bengal, I was brought up in royal flamboyance that deeply affected my childhood in several ways. It was a very monotonous childhood. I was alone most of the time and had no companion to play with. Perhaps for that reason, I was given some paper, colored pencils and colored pastels, and told that I had to express something on those papers that I found interesting. I guess this was the beginning of my journey as an artist.

 

 

I was admitted to an art college in Calcutta. Before I graduated, my father passed away. This threw me into a search deep within myself as to the question of impermanence—life and death. I removed myself from public life to pursue those questions.

 

 

After many years, I emerged, developing a new relationship with the world around me. I learned a lot while on my journey, eventually discovering the reality behind human life. Later on, this new perspective began to be reflected on my canvases.

 

 

I faced some adversity, but eventually I became a professional artist in 2013. I am inspired by the “melody” or feelings and emotions of human beings—such as blossoming aspirations, torment, exhilaration, anxiety, sorrowfulness, and so on.

 

 

Nature surrounds me in all its beauty, and whispers to me her stories, which I rephrase with the language of form, color and shape.

 

 

Based on my emotional approach to my art, I pick up those unimportant things in our daily lives and work to depict them meaningfully on canvas. As a resident of a rural community, I portray the peaceful existence of its inhabitants; they appear on my canvas with a lyrical quality, inspired by the beautiful works of Indian ancestral artists which have always prompted me to keep going.

 

 

When I approach a canvas, my style is to create a geometric pattern inspired by cubism and imbue it with Indian concepts, ancient Indian grammar and patterns. I bring characteristics of both Indian and western ideas together to help me construct the composition.

 

 

Because I use an emotional approach, I sometimes feel that my paintings are getting closer to the concept of expressionism in an abstract way. Perhaps my work will be considered a new form of expressionism with an Indian approach.

 

 

For me, my work is a devotion to the freedom to express myself. My collectors tell me that my contemporary abstract pieces bring them a hard to describe quietude and a sense of union with all things.

This is the ultimate goal for my artwork. Is there any lofty thing beyond tranquility?

 

Artist Amar Singha invites you to follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

 

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