THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
M PRAVAT
Anant Art Gallery, 2006 (May)
Catalogue Essay: Ina Puri
24 pages
THEATRE OF THE ABSURD: APPRECIATION OF M.PRAVAT’S WORKS
The images in rich oil, depicting imaginative spaces and hedonistic orgies straddle the naive and ingenuous world of make believe, achieving miraculously a fine balance in the process. The artist’s imagined Utopia, harks back fascinatingly to another time zone, leapfrogging adroitly to an age where such gracious rituals of leisure were possible. In spirit, the artist seeks thus a romantic alignment with the Past Perfect. An undertone of pathos underlines this whimsicality of the Absurd. The artist reinvents not only his surroundings but himself as well, we see Pravat, sauvely attired. Clark Gablesque in canvas after canvas. The book lined shelves, the grandly laid buffet, the packed bags become metaphors. The colour palette of warm tones serenades that classical bygone and ‘Gone with the Wind’ come to the mind.
(excerpt from the catalogue essay ‘Theatre of the Absurd: Appreciation of M.Pravat’s works’ by Ina Puri)