Interview
Kashmiri Khosa
Kashmiri has been working as a professional painter since 1962. He has held more than twelve solo exhibitions of his paintings at Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. Most of these exhibitions have been organized by galleries like Artoday, Arts Trust and Gallery 7.
Kashmiri has participated in major national and international shows in India and other countries. He won the National Award in 1981, and the President of India’s silver plaque in 1974. His paintings have been auctioned by a number of auction houses in India.
Kashmiri’s artistic enquiry has impelled him to collaborate with his contemporaries in poetry, literature and theatre. Such concerns earned him the Department of Culture’s senior fellowship (1979-82) for integrating the visual language of art and content, and coordinating it as a whole. His paintings, along with his concerns have been extensively published throughout the country.
Kashmiri has a 28-minute documentary on his life and work, which was released by the national channel of Doordarshan, including the DD world and the Prasar Bharti Channels in 2003-2004. You can read the whole interview -here-. A few of Kashmiri’s interviews and films can be seen on YouTube.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I’m the son of Somnath Khosa, a well-known Gandhian painter of India who painted the life of Mahatma Gandhi in a series of paintings, I was born and brought up in an artistic environment. Art became a part of my life from the very beginning of my childhood. This artistic environment has also influenced my children. My daughter is a painter/sculptor, and my son a film director.
My works can be divided into three phases. The first phase belonged to the genre where the subject of the painting was important. Colors and forms were only instrumental. The second phase went on to reflect the storm of emotions or passions. Here, the lines that were flowing, sinuous yet tense. The paintings used to hover between figuration, abstraction and representation. The third phase—which is where I am at present—belongs to someone who looks outwards, even as he learns to turn his gaze inwards to become aware of a secret life; the larger life buried within.”
What does your work aim to say? Does it comment on any current social or political issues?
“Over the years, I’ve been painting and trying to express, not momentary beauty, but momentous, mind grasping tidings, and the very roots of our being in this modern, material world. The usual stance of modern painters like myself is not in tune with their community or responsibility towards their tradition. Therefore, it took me time to recognize my obligation beyond the claimed freedom of an artist.
Due to a burning desire within me, I started creating metaphysical works of art. I’ve been trying to imbibe and grasp the positive thoughts and wisdom of different world cultures, trying to transform them positively, and uplift their mental status for our future generations. The whole world seems to be going through some kind of tremendous material crises today. This includes asking questions about the nature of consciousness, and the relationship between mind and matter.”
“I’ve come to the conclusion that truly humane art involves a wrestling with ourselves. It is to entangle the self with the basic stuff of reality. It is to get out of our time-bound egos and enter the world of universal energy. Can there be any other purpose of art than to convey this energy?”
Do you plan your work in advance, or is it improvisation?
“My paintings are never preconceived. First, I destroy the flat surface of the canvas with all kinds of lines, colors and textures. Then, I keep that canvas in front of me on the easel, and keep looking at it and meditating on it for hours. After a while, I start seeing some kind of image on it. I see those images which I imbibed either while seeing or reading, develop them, and turn them into monumental works of art.
I keep on creating and destroying forms and images till I feel the painting is complete in terms of form, color and texture. Finally, the painting is given its title.
I’ve been experimenting with color — using different materials while applying and lifting the colors, creating interesting surfaces.”
What process, materials and techniques do you use to create your artwork?
“Real success for me is to be able to make some kind of breakthrough in the visual language of art, rather than simply selling and making money.
I use oil and acrylic colors on canvas and paper. I’ve been trying to create different textures by lifting colors while the paints are wet. I keep at it till the painting is complete.”
What does your art mean to you?
"Art is an expression of what I have imbibed through what I’ve read, heard or seen. The images are extracted from the very source of my being.”
What’s your favorite artwork and why?
“There are many favorite works which I have created over the years. These are works which are more to do with the very source of our being. For example, the Mortal Storm series dealt with the storm of emotions and passions we experience. Another example is the Mountains of the Mind series.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“Osian’s auction house and Astaguru auction house in India, and many other charity organizations like Concern India and HelpAge India occasionally auction my work.
To trace my growth as an artist, my paintings can be found in the significant collection of National Gallery of Modern Art, Collage of Art, International Airport Authority of India and numerous private collections in India, America, Canada, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Europe.
Some of my paintings have been reproduced by the International Design journal (No.42) Seoul, Korea. Among the most prestigious of my reproduced works is an extensive interview along with the reproduction of paintings which was published by Temenos 13. an international review journal devoted to the ‘Arts of the Imagination’, edited by Kathleen Raine, and published in London.
My other exhibitions are as follows:
2015 - Participated in Scope Miami Art, Voice of an artist.
2014 - Represented India and participated as an artist in an international show, Stitching White Cube Global Village in Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.
2004 - A slide presentation of the three decades of my paintings was held at an International seminar of The Indira Gandhi National Center of the Arts, arranged in collaboration with the Millennium Trust of Britain.
1994 - Represented at the sixth Babylon International Festival of Art in Iraq.”
Website: www.kashmirikhosa.com, www.artmoire.art/kashmiri-khosa
Instagram: @khosa_2040
