Mother and Child. By Durlabh Singh
London artist Durlabh Singh scrutinises the human condition, with his exhibition of oil paintings set for July 20 2015 at London’s Nehru Centre, By James Brewer
A magnificent creative force – Durlabh Singh is thus described by those who know him, and the next public exhibition of his dramatic oil paintings will open on July 20 2015 at the Nehru Centre in London. From even the briefest acquaintance with his output, his deep philosophical convictions and critical acumen are seen to stand out. In his artwork, he looks humanity – and inhumanity – squarely in the face. In conversation, he has sharp words for the commercialism that is running and he believes ruining much of the world, and hanging like a cloud over the arts.
His direct advocacy and precise techniques are conspicuous amid the more discursive commentary of many of his contemporaries both in visual arts and literary essays.
Durlabh Singh communicates his ideas through any means he can: principally painting, poetry, prose, and photography. His writings are extensive, while his brushes are rarely still, turning out one (what might be called) expressionist composition after another.
Durlabh Singh with illustration of one of his oil paintings.
The ardently conjured paintings transcend representations of mere figures and dry intellectual pursuit: not only does he display acute observational powers, but he brings out the resistant spirit of the best of humankind.
Alongside a graphic fidelity, whether in ink on paper, or in oils as in the Nehru Centre exhibition, he calls on the viewer to engage with the woes visited by contemporary society and by social history on the innocent. He is attracted to momentous moral themes, chronicled through the individual subject.
The polymath – he has a BSc and qualifications in mechanical engineering and fuel technology, an MA in visual art, and PhD in English literature. – says of his approach to painting: “You do not beautify, you express what the reality is or is not. Beauty to me, it comes out as a byproduct.
“Art has gone into the service of capitalism. It has become purely what you call commercial enterprise. Commercialisation of art is like murdering your soul. You cannot serve Mammon in God, as Christ said. Exactly!”
Mountain Lake. By Durlabh Singh.
Durlabh intuitively empathises with the downtrodden. The focal point is the element of human nature: what drives the inner force and what threatens from without. “What is life? Life is suffering. Not to have is suffering, not to fulfill yourself is suffering. You cannot explain it in logical terms; you can explain it in emotional terms. Our mind is a vast thing: we do not use 1% of it.
The Drummer. By Durlabh Singh.
“We become reactionary only, reacting to our memory. We no longer are ‘actionary.’ The function of art is to live intensely with emotional intelligence. Art uplifts you. Art tells you different things: suffering, elation, letting your spirits out.”
As for his artistic path, “each painting is breaking new ground. I do not repeat myself.”
Some of his themes might bring to mind the vivid interpretations by van Gogh of peasants working in the fields. Other canvases, such as Mother and Child, and The Drummer, depict their characters in Brecht-like torment. Lady of Rockwith its sensual skin tones might call up an Edvard Munch-esque version of Venus at a Mirror, by Rubens. Comparisons with Munch are inescapable: see Durlabh Singh’s Mountain Lake, and Mountain Scape, where he lets his palette colours run riot.
Constantly, he brings forth the sensuality – “I do not want to exploit it, I want to emphasise it” – of the human body.
In Angst, a woman distressingly lies upside down.” I am putting myself into the personification of how she feels.” In an ink portrait, Candles, three slender wax cylinders are aflame and confine a woman like the bars of a prison cell… “but candles are the bringers of light.”
Lady of Rock. By Durlabh Singh.
Another work is Ode to John Keats, reflecting his admiration for the romantic poets like Keats and Shelley, and Byron “who brought the spirit of freedom.”
The wilderness is another theme, and the account of the 40 days spent in meditation by Buddha (who appears in skeletal form in the painting), just like Christ. “That [period of solitude] was the start of new insight.”
Of his method of work, the Kenyan-born London artist says: “I do a pencil sketch then build up the colour more intensely. Colour is the vibration of life. I use pure colour: once you mix it, you are spoiled.
Meta Muse. By Durlabh Singh.
“Painting is the poetry of art, ” he declares, “and drawing is the prose of art. Do not try to logical-ise it. The extra faculty we have is the the aesthetic of art.”
Paintings of Distinct, oil paintings by Durlabh Singh, opens at the Nehru Centre, 8 South Audley Street, London W1 at4pm on July 20 2015 and will run for the week until July 24. www.nehrucentre.org.uk
