Reconstructing Ramayana

An architect by profession, Vandana Sehgal’ exhibition brings her father’s work to life. It appears that painting the story of Ramayana was pre-ordained. These paintings serve to illustrate Ram Varma’s modern epic, Before he was God: Ramayana, Reconsidered, Recreated, published by Rupa.

Ram Varma has shunned all the embellishments and myths of the original Puranic version and given Ram’s life and times a touch of reality. He has tried to prove the historicity of the story that has captured the imagination of the continent for ages. And his daughter Vandana’s paintings also lend an air of fresh air to the saga.

Much has been written on the subject as painted. The illustrations, till now, have mostly been done in traditional folk motifs or in the ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ mode, where little is left to the imagination of the reader. Vandana Sehgal endeavours to give a new genre that retains the mystical quality of the saga and yet illumine the episode, the ambience and the times of the story.

Needless to say, her works exhibit her preoccupation with spaces, whether physical or metaphysical.This series that comprises of 66 paintings, is inspired from the text of Ram Varma, which is written in free verse. Through the text, the impressions that have been part of Vandana’s psyche and work have overlapped to give the final expression in oil on canvass.

“I have endeavored to give a new genre and yet retain the historical quality of my father’s work. The paintings exhibit my preoccupation with spaces, whether, physical or metaphysical in element. My works depict a lucid story seen through my eyes of the ancient text.” explains Vandana

When & Where: Artist’s Centre Gallery, Kala Ghoda