Unknown Artist
173 x 173 cm; 68 x 68 in
The work has been published in Seven Contemporary Indian Artists, Ravi Kumar Publishers, New Delhi, 2003, p. 131. From his early works that had hints of the human figure to his abstracts that celebrate the tints of erosional splendour and textural tactility in soils, his works have moved from non objective landscapes to deeply spiritual tenors that are born out of his experiences and understanding of the sacred texts in Jainism. The deeper understanding of the texts is emblematic of the holistic thoroughness that is seen in his works. The universe of Manish glows with warmth and the sparkle of an incandescent moment, his palette is awakened within the dictums of his own search, a quest that rests within the coloured vibrations of the tenor of time. He plays with the power of dominant and recessant as he either plays up or tones down the islands of tonality to gives us an idea of the islands of shift and radiant freshness. The perspective and the landscape are both subjected to the rhythm of resonance and to the symphony of colour. The hazy quality that he achieves is formed from the incantation of memory of the stuti (prayer) and therein lies the life force of his titles that bring on the silent presence of the bhava (feeling) of the eternity that embraces. An avid reader and a listener of music Manish has exhibited all over India but it was in 2002 at an exhibition in Delhi that he was really discovered for his silent symbolism. A propounder of the inherent chants in the Sanskrit ?shlokas? it is his understanding of the spiritual essence and its multiplicity that has brought his works to a climax of sorts, in terms of the reverberations that he wishes to seek. In the personification of the quietude of the spiritual wake his works have an ability to personify the inherent strictures of the finite frequency found in the infinite pool of wisdom. On his trip to Paris in 2002, Manish was attracted by the stained-glass windows of churches in and around Paris In these he discovered the motivation for developing in his paintings the inherent luminosity within. He was exposed to a new kind of light that he had never encountered before. The lights of Paris, whether in the stained glass windows of Notre Dame or in the darkness of the shadows, inspired him to depict them in oil and acrylic on canvas in a collection of works on Paris.? Uma Nair, Bodhi Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2006