PAINTING THE COSMOS

A CAREER-SPANNING RETROSPECTIVE AT DAG, NEW DELHI, CAPTURES ARTIST SHOBHA BROOTA'S LIFELONG SEARCH FOR BEGINNINGS, INFINITY, AND THE ESSENCE OF CREATION

- -Aditya Mani Jha The exhibition is on display at DAG, New Delhi, till Oct. 18

LAST WEEK, SURROUNDED BY SHOBHA BROOTA'S 'Origin' series of abstract works (mostly oils and pastels), a long-dormant memory of visiting Kolkata's Birla Planetarium resurfaced in my mind without warning. I was very young and the vivid images and animations pertaining to the Big Bang were fascinating and frightening in equal measure. A similar feeling enveloped me while staring at 'Origin 48' (1990, oil-on-canvas, 96.7 x 67.5 inches), part of Shobha Broota: Painting Infinity, a career retrospective currently on display at DAG, New Delhi. The painting was created using Broota's signature finger-flicking technique, wherein the paintbrush does not enter the fray at all. Instead, Broota uses her fingers to flick paint directly onto the canvas, creating intricate, pointillist fever dreams like 'Origin 48'—which looks as though a blazing primaeval sun suddenly materialised on a dark planet, saturating every inch of it with unforgiving, white-hot light.