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A little something about my upcoming painting - 'Mi Guernica'

During my contextual studies in art, the one painting that stayed back on my mind even after the lectures got over is Guernica by Pablo Picasso. An anti-war statement, it portrayed in abstract form the tragedies and horrors war inflicts upon innocent civilians, and to this date it holds a monumental status among the masterpieces depicting war and its aftermath.

It was hard to not get engulfed by the painting's grandness. And, thus started my own rendition of Guernica. Even as our nation reels back from severe blows of corruption, war, terrorism, domestic violence, rape, it's equally dismaying to see that nothing majorly happens to prevent them. There is an uproar, then debates, then discussions, then mentioning, then whispers, and then people forget and move on. I'm no saint either, for I have my share of drawbacks. But, I believe there is a great deal of power in a piece of art to change the course of history. I remember a quote by Picasso I recently read. He said - Painting is an instrument of war. My Guernica is my effort to make a statement against the horrors that I find in my vicinity.




Two months since I started my work on Guernica and it has already put my mind in a quaint isolation that is oblivious to others around me. Turbulent emotions, pictures from the past, vulnerability, social detachment, everything kicks in like a freak whirlpool in the sea. And yet there's an uncanny satisfaction in it that a viewer may feel the same intensity of my haywire emotions in the painting, with which I made it.


'Mi Guernica' is in its final stages of completion and I can't wait to get it out in the crowd for everyone to feel what I felt as I worked on it. There’s a lot more I wish to say about it; but I guess that will have to wait until the painting is revealed. I hope you all can make it to the exhibition in July.


~ RN
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