16.12.2023

Sunil Shavhan's painting exhibition "The Key of Life" at IRMT

"The Key of Life" is the title of the exhibition of contemporary artist Sunil Shavhan, which opened at the International Roerich Memorial Trust on December 16, 2023. The exhibition was opened by Suresh Kumar, IRMT Indian Curator, Larisa Surgina, IRMT Russian Curator, and Valentina Vinogradova, assistant of Russian Curator. 

Sunil Shavhan believes that the main purpose of art should be to capture folk tradition – and that it can best be understood through women.

Women's images occupy a large place in the artist's work. They often take on features reminiscent of Hindu goddesses, reinterpreting the much-important and necessary concept of the Muse in any artist's life and work. 

Sunil Shavhan is a master of abstract painting, combining mythology, symbolism and new forms of art. Abstract creative thinking has been inherent in Indian culture since ancient times. All kinds of signs and symbolic models of the cosmos represent an integral part of Indian philosophy of art. 

His works reveal combinations of objectless forms and color configurations, referring to the ideas of ancient treatises on art. His compositions seem to be woven from the forms of European modernism and images of ancient Indian art.  Shavhan's works also refer to the tradition of the Bengali Renaissance, a movement that emerged in India at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, which harmoniously combined the pictorial traditions of the East and the West.

"Art is a great unifying force. Different kinds of art are interpenetrating and form a link between different strata of society and the most remote peoples," noted artist and philosopher Svetoslav Roerich. 

The great interest in the exhibition of Sunil Shavkhan and similar contemporary artists confirms the relevance of Roerich's words: international values of beauty and true creativity are the "Key of Life" that opens the gate to the Future.