BHASKARAN R B

R. B Bhaskaran’s [1942] engagement with different subjects makes his contribution significant. Over the last four decades Bhaskaran has steadily progressed in his stature both individually and artistically. The confidence is manifest in his oeuvre where the authoritative forms, complex web of lines, gritty textures and enigmatic space have commanding presence, inviting the viewer to engage with them. If the “Couples” in his works are reticent, and the “Cats” with their mesmeric eyes and uptight postures hypnotize, then his vases and fishes in still life assume monumentality. His themes and subject matter have a wide gamut and range from evolution, to life cycles, to cats, to marriage photos and recently the still life. His still life series cleverly and astutely juxtapose all his protagonists of earlier works, namely, the hills, mountains, trees, cats, couples, melding them to create compositions that bear his signature mark. As a thinking experimental artist, Bhaskaran has definitively moved on with his artistic language, foregrounding simplicity in terms of objects and space manipulation that lies at the heart of his works.