Abalal Rahiman’s seemingly random still-life composition captures fruits cluttered on the table without any neat or pretty arrangement. The viewer’s attention is drawn to half-cut, half-peeled, half-eaten fruits casually placed beside flowers in a transparent glass. The contrasting proportions of the assorted fruits in this work get amplified. Far from being idealised or painted against a seductive backdrop, the painting in its deliberate ordinariness gets closer to lived reality and everyday observations. The treat for us lies in closely studying the lustre of the elements that the artist so beautifully captures.
published references
Karode, Roobina, ed., Still-Life: Adaptations in 20th Century Indian Art (New Delhi: DAG, 2007), p. 29 Singh, Kishore, ed., Manifestations VII: 75 Artists | 20th Century Indian Art (New Delhi: DAG, 2012), p. 149 Singh, Kishore, ed., A Visual History of Indian Modern Art, Volume II: Birth of Modernism (New Delhi: DAG, 2015), p. 305
Abalal Rahiman
Untitled
1912
Oil on oil paper
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Abalal Rahiman
Untitled
1912
Oil on oil paper
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