He was one of the most reclusive artists of our times, and yet, whenever late Sohan Qadri’s name surfaces, art lovers sit up and take notice. Bringing to art aficionados some of the most sought after works of this master-artist, renowned for tantric art, is Delhi-based Kumar Gallery that is showcasing 50 of his paintings in a solo show titled 'Celebration: Paintings by Sohan Qadri from1970-2010' at Kumar Gallery, 56, Sunder Nagar, New Delhi, from January 20 to February 5 from 11 am to 7 pm.
The exhibition is a collateral event of India Art Fair and includes oil impastos on canvas and ink dyes and incision on paper works. Many of these works are being exhibited for the first time. Sunit Kumar, director, Kumar Gallery, said, “The exhibition includes oil impastos on canvas from 1970s and 80s to his later works of the 90s and the new millennium that were done using ink dyes and incision on paper. This is an odyssey of a pioneering Indian abstractionist.”
Qadri was an internationally acclaimed artist, yogi and poet. He abandoned representation early on in his long career, incorporating tantric symbolism and philosophy into his vibrantly coloured minimalist works. His works are included in Peabody Essex Museum, the Ruben Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Royal Ontario Museum among others.
He infused tantric symbolism into his own abstract, modernist language using broad areas of open color, capturing the northern landscape and sky of his Scandinavian surroundings. Although he began his career in the 1950s, painting in oil on canvas, he worked on paper from the mid 1980s.
In 1966, Qadri left India and traveled to East Africa, Europe and North America and later had studios in Zurich, Paris and Toronto. He had more than forty solo exhibitions in Mumbai, Vienna, Brussels, London, Oslo, Stockholm, Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York. He passed away in 2011.
