Untitled

This mid-career watercolour by Gobardhan Ash is a celebratory work infused with the spirit of festivity with colours such as red and yellow, associated with festivals, rituals and fertility in India. And thus, is diametrically opposite to what the major body of Ash’s work has been about—suffering of the helpless common folks in the face of monumental tragedies like the Bengal famine of 1943. A rich infusion of colour is balanced by minimalist lines which are used to denote the form of a decked-up belle; just a few strokes and dots of paint mark out her elaborate jewellery.