Indian Monalisa

About Artist

Farhad Hussain's colourful work that includes drawings and watercolours besides paintings on canvas, features day to day visual experiences of the middle class urban India. He endows his narrative with an iconography and personality through his figuration, their posturing, dress and the surrounding imagery. The drama of subtle complexities of human relationships and social environment are grounded with a sense of satire mixed with pathos. Farhad’s colours help enhance the brightness and aura of his paintings while he also partakes elements from traditions such as the formulaic textile patterns of Indian miniatures. His compositions are often set in a familiar drawing room or a social space, playing out with humour and sarcasm, the narrative psychologies of human life and encounters at various levels. This young artist who has also experimented with sculpture, has already carved a niche and an instantly recognizable individualistic style befitting his aesthetics and concerns. Farhad has chosen to use tempera on cloth for his works, the media allowing him to achieve the desired vibrancy of colours. A slow build-up of images and spontaneous flow of colour while balancing colour and composition simultaneously follow structured formatting. This meticulous planning in the composition and layout is the beginning of a process from where onwards it is very spontaneous and intuitive. Another technique used through out Farhad’s work is the method of applying colour: dot-by-dot till the entire area is completely covered. Various elements from miniature paintings, Kalighat paintings, Japanese prints and images from mass media are scrutinized, transformed and transferred on to the surface through the artists own style of expression.