‘Intimate Vistas...’ by Nikhil Chaganlal

Nikhil Chaganlal’s interiors reminisce the work of French artist Pierre Bonnard, who painted in the post-symbolist era of modern art.

Nikhil Chaganlal has extensively exhibited his work both in India and internationally. His new solo show at Art Musings features 21 mixed media works on Masonite, depicting his famed interiors. Regarding his new series, he states, “The painting - each one a room - is like a private diary that discloses places of old-world charm, with an embrace of intimacy and nostalgia, of happy days now almost forgotten.”

In his latest show, entitled ‘Intimate Vistas of the Interior’, he has chosen to tread a territory not often traversed - portraits of the interior. He prompts the viewer to ‘escape into the paintings’, and to put it in the artist’s words, ‘feel the sea breeze on their faces, and listen to the soothing music in the background’.

The latest body of work, according to him, is ‘a painterly autobiography’ of a suggestive presence of people drawn from his past. Narrations hidden in furniture objects and artifacts sometimes reveal emotions of restless sexuality laced with aspiring spirituality.

Only obliquely hinting human presence, the rooms with their orgy of untamed colors and cozy clutter draw you in. They resemble to an extent French artist Pierre Bonnard, who belonged to the post-symbolist era of modern art. It must be noted that Nikhil Chaganlal's paintings exude his own style and vision.

The interiors are akin to the artist’s ‘moments after he has left the room’. They are like strange dream views of civilized home settings, where everything is proper, albeit a bit skewed. Gently decadent and starkly hypnotic, they mesmerize one on constant gazing. The reality does not here bear any resemblance to the idealized spaces conceived that are his rooms.