JA/PJ 76

JOGI ART.ARTIST IS PRAKASH JOGI. City Life: Prakash Jogi is also a contemporary artist practising in a traditional idiom, but his innovative approach of fusing the two gives rise to a unique style of painting. Jogi art practitioners come from the same family. Originally wandering bards, they were encouraged by Indian anthropologist Haku Shah to start drawing their experiences on paper. This is how Jogi art came about. The scene depicted here shows a man and woman on either end of the composition, separated by urban development that plagues all developing cities in India. A generic scene, the skillful pen work transforms this banal observation into a visual delight. The eyes follow the use of dots and dashes and are led to reflect on the modernisation of cities and towns around us. A marshy meadow is abruptly interrupted by a fence, beyond which are tall skyscrapers. Windows in the buildings reveal humans and their ‘urban’ activity. Smoking chimneys and wire towers interject the skyline while heaps of cement point to the ongoing and never ending construction. The man and woman wear a pensive look, mere spectators to all the industrial activity around them.