For Barwe, aesthetic production involves "discarding all associations, pre-conceived notions, concepts, and the mind becomes an empty canvas." (p. 57, Dyaneshwar Nadkarni, "Prabhakar Barwe", Indian Painting Today 1981, Jehangir Art Gallery, 1981) In Barwe`s Silent Observer, the floating forms are not manifestations of a premeditated idea, but their curious synergy gestures towards an underlying significance. Inhabiting an...
For Barwe, aesthetic production involves "discarding all associations, pre-conceived notions, concepts, and the mind becomes an empty canvas." (p. 57, Dyaneshwar Nadkarni, "Prabhakar Barwe", Indian Painting Today 1981, Jehangir Art Gallery, 1981) In Barwe`s Silent Observer, the floating forms are not manifestations of a premeditated idea, but their curious synergy gestures towards an underlying significance. Inhabiting an indefinable context, somewhere between abstraction and the representation of a landscape scene, the painting hints at a truth that is not forthcoming in intellectual terms, but is approached through subconscious relations.
Here, colored images float on the surface of the canvas, constructing a surrealistic dreamscape, reminiscent of Yves Tanguey`s works, where indecipherable shapes form unexpected connections with each other. Barwe`s tranquil blue and green motifs are contrasted with the slightly menacing cloud-like formation, which hangs darkly brooding, over the scene. The title, Silent Observer, could be an allusion to this structure`s ominous presence or it could be a reference to the artist himself, who travels "without fear, without sentiment" to "witness the birth of the new image." (Ibid.)