London-based White Cube Mason's Yard presents 'Paradise Lost', a new series of work by Raqib Shaw. An accompanying note elaborates: "Historically, John Milton's epic poem, based on the Fall of Man, has inspired artists such as William Blake or Gustave Doré, yet Shaw steers away from this grand narrative to create a visionary ode to his own childhood memories and imaginary paradise.
The artist stages his 'Paradise Lost' paintings according to a specific time, climate and season. On one side of the gallery, three paintings depict a wintry mountainous nightscape, centrally lit by a full moon while on the opposite wall, spring blossoms as the sun creeps over the horizon.
Born in Kolkata and raised in Kashmir, Raqib Shaw left India in 1998 for London where he studied at Central St Martins School of Art. Shaw has exhibited internationally. Major solo exhibitions include Kunsthalle Wien (2009), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2008), Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami (2006) and 'Art Now', Tate Britain (2006).
These paintings are mirrored in format as two octagon-shaped paintings sit either side of an elliptical panorama, each depicting a lone or contemplative character attempting an impossible feat. One waits attentively for moonbeams to drop in to an ornate chalice while another swings from the trees randomly catching the falling blossoms or one of the many circling swallows. All these figures appear preordained or literally bound to these futile tasks while the wildlife actively seek and attack their prey of all denominations.
The culmination of this imagery pours into the first chapter of the trilogy 'Paradise Lost' (2011), Shaw's largest painting to date. Here the viewer embarks on a journey from the aspirations of the lone figure who alongside a wolf howls before the bitter moon to the natural carnage as the dawn breaks.
Raqib Shaw heralds all this by depicting the release of a single nightingale from its cage, a bird favored by the poets as creative with a spontaneous song. Then, as seasons pass, a flight of swallows migrate south symbolizing an inherent free spirit and desire to return to a place of origin. This notion is at the heart of Shaw's paradise - a romantic yearning for a bygone era, where innocence and beauty prevailed - a personal mythology that embodies hope, disillusionment and the underlying entropy of life.
London-based White Cube Mason's Yard presents 'Paradise Lost', a new series of work by Raqib Shaw. An accompanying note elaborates: "Historically, John Milton's epic poem, based on the Fall of Man, has inspired artists such as William Blake or Gustave Doré, yet Shaw steers away from this grand narrative to create a visionary ode to his own childhood memories and imaginary paradise.
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