Jai Zharotia rarely explained his paintings, but he spoke often about what painting was for. These are his thoughts on art, in his own words: from a lecture he gave in Korea, a written statement, and conversations recorded in Hindi.
The painter and the viewer
The relationship between a painter and a viewer is like that of a mother and child, where the child stands as the artist and the mother as the viewer. To understand her child, who cannot yet speak a word, a mother understands through his body, the way he cries, the sounds he makes. The same deep desire and involvement is needed to understand a painting.
From a lecture by Jai Zharotia in Korea
Between the known and the unknown
As a student, Zharotia fell seriously ill. During his recovery he read the Bhagavad Gita and books on Buddhism, and was left with questions that never left his work.
Who am I? Who created this universe? Who is sustaining the whole process? Sometimes science gives answers, but gaps remain. The unknown creates a mystery in my mind, and I have always been fascinated by its power. So I started to paint compositions that tried to depict mystery.
From a lecture by Jai Zharotia in Korea
Thoughts were flowing like a continuous stream, a river. It made me realise that a human being is nothing but a bundle of thoughts.
From a lecture by Jai Zharotia in Korea
Why there are always two
Almost every painting by Zharotia holds two figures. He explained why:
इसलिये मेरे दो character होते हैं क्योंकि अकेला तो कोई बात नहीं कर सकता है । डायलाग तभी संभव है जब दो हों ।
That is why my paintings have two characters, because no one can hold a conversation alone. Dialogue is only possible when there are two.
From a recorded conversation, translated from Hindi
The two forms are never simply opposites. In his lecture he described them as forms “not known to each other, yet holding a bond”, an invisible relationship that lets them survive together and remain independent.
Images as a vehicle
मान लिया जाये अगर मुझे कोलकाता जाना है तो कोई ना कोई माध्यम की तो आवश्यकता पड़ेगी ही चाहे ट्रेन हो या जहाज हो कुछ भी हो । भले पहुंचने के बाद माध्यम नगण्य हो जाता हो । So I used my images to reach the unknown.
Suppose I have to go to Kolkata. I will need some vehicle, a train, a ship, anything at all, even if the vehicle stops mattering once I arrive. So I used my images to reach the unknown.
From a recorded conversation, translated from Hindi
खुशबू को पकड़ना मुश्किल है लेकिन खुशबू होती है उसे आप महसूस कर सकते हैं । … लेकिन फूल की तो आवश्यकता होती ही है ।
Fragrance is hard to hold, yet it is there and you can feel it. But you still need the flower. So I made an image of a man so lost in himself that a flower grows out of him. It looks strange, but feel it from within: he is so full of joy that flowers begin to come out of him.
From a recorded conversation, translated from Hindi
मैं उस चीज को पकड़ना चाहता हूं जो स्वप्न मे है ना इमेज में बस एक अहसास है ।
I want to catch the thing that is neither in a dream nor in an image. It is only a feeling.
From a recorded conversation, translated from Hindi
Colour that can be heard
Nothing is meaningless in this universe. A colour creates a sound, and eternal music can be heard through the eyes, depending on how intensely you are involved. Colours carry emotions as human beings do: they love, hate and support each other, and get angry too.
From a lecture by Jai Zharotia in Korea
Now I see the canvas as a borderless open space, where the sound of music mingles with silence. I listen to an unspoken visual dialogue, which can be heard through the eyes.
From a lecture by Jai Zharotia in Korea
When a painting is finished
जब मुझे वह आनन्द महसूस होता है तब वह पेंटिंग पूरी होती है, क्यों कि मैं समझता हूं कि जगत को हूबहू पेश करना कोई आर्ट नहीं है ।
A painting begins with the physical world. Once it is done, my real journey begins: how to weave into it a joy that lies beyond the physical, adding a little here, breaking something there. When I feel that joy, the painting is complete. I believe that presenting the world exactly as it is, is not art.
From a recorded conversation, translated from Hindi
In the beginning there is a subject, but in the process it takes in many other ideas and mysteries. It tells more than I intended, and goes beyond myself.
From a lecture by Jai Zharotia in Korea
Everything has feelings
Imagination is the most enjoyable faculty man has. I watch my thoughts carefully. They are continuous, without any gap. They take you away from misery. They make you happy.
From “Nature and Life”, a statement by Jai Zharotia
Nature offers us pictorial and aesthetic beauty as images and ideas. I add to it elements of abstraction, distortion and simplification to create an alternative world and life, where the physical and the mystical live together.
From “Nature and Life”, a statement by Jai Zharotia
Everything, whether it is a living man or animal or something non-living such as wood, stone or leaves, is equal and has emotions like me. Hence I create works like Dream of a Fan or Dreams of a Bucket. Animals, trees and other forms in my work have human faces; they too have feelings. And I give human beings animal faces, to show the animal instinct that dominates their behaviour in today’s world.
From “Nature and Life”, a statement by Jai Zharotia
We do not know our boundaries: who I am, why I am here, where from. We live in a known and yet mysterious world, which keeps life curious. It is a joy to enter into the unknown and become part of it.
From a lecture by Jai Zharotia in Korea
Hindi passages are given with an English rendering by The Jai Zharotia Foundation. Quotations from the lecture are lightly edited for reading.