By Dr Ved Prakash Bhardwaj
Abstract painting is a theatre of colours, lines and forms, where each element asserts its presence like a silent actor. There are no recognisable characters, nor do scenes appear in their familiar forms. Yet what unfolds on the canvas is as real and evocative as anything found in representational art. The difference lies in the means through which this experience is created. While representational art draws upon familiar objects and scenes, abstract art constructs its own world through colours, textures and the relationships between them. Mangesh Chorge’s paintings inhabit this very realm of silent performance, where meaning emerges not through a narrative but through the visual interplay of colours and forms.
Before Chorge’s paintings, the viewer’s gaze cannot settle comfortably on a recognisable object. Instead, it must move across the canvas, negotiating the density, transparency and tensions of the colours that inhabit it. Some colours command attention through their solidity, while others create depth as they emerge from beneath translucent layers. Mystery and curiosity persist because no single interpretation can fully contain the painting. The viewer may attempt to recognise something familiar, only to find themselves drawn into the independent visual appeal of the colours themselves.
Particularly striking is Chorge’s interplay of light and dark tones. The resulting effects of light and shadow evoke the lighting of a theatre, where illumination brings one character into focus while leaving another enveloped in mystery. Similarly, the contrasts between colours lend different degrees of emphasis to various parts of his canvases. Here, light is not merely illumination from an external source; it is an effect generated by the relationships between colours. A luminous passage may appear even brighter against its darker surroundings, while a deep, shadowy area introduces a sense of stillness and depth. The drama of these paintings thus arises not from the depiction of a scene but from the internal dynamics of colour.
Alongside this theatrical quality, Chorge’s work offers an immediate visual pleasure. He says that he paints happiness and wishes to share that happiness with his viewers. This statement provides an important insight into the aesthetic sensibility underlying his art. Happiness here is not confined to the representation of celebration or pleasant scenes; it also resides in the harmony of colours, the rhythm of visual elements and the delight produced by unexpected forms. The viewer’s experience is therefore twofold: there is a desire to discover what is unfolding on the canvas, but no obligation to resolve its mystery completely. The relationships between colours are, in themselves, a source of pleasure.
Texture plays an equally important role in deepening this visual experience. Chorge builds up successive layers of paint, exploring the contrasting qualities of solidity and transparency. In some places, underlying layers remain partially visible through the upper coats; elsewhere, the thickness of an earlier layer rises to the surface, producing a distinctive effect. The canvas consequently ceases to be a flat plane and becomes a structure endowed with depth and density. Colour acquires significance not only through its visual impact but also through its material presence.
This layering also hints at the process of making the painting. Surfaces that remain concealed or partially visible suggest that the work has evolved through successive stages and visual decisions rather than emerging all at once. Texture, in this sense, is not merely decorative; it is integral to the painting’s internal structure. It intensifies the effect of colour and invites the viewer to experience the canvas as an active, almost living presence.
Many of Chorge’s paintings evoke mountainous landscapes. The thickness of the layered paint, the suggestion of uneven terrain and the contrasts between light and dark tones may conjure up the memory of hills and mountains. Similarly, certain works appear to suggest abstract images of multistorey buildings or architectural structures. These associations prevent his art from becoming entirely detached from the real world, even as it resists the direct representation of a mountain or a building. Nature and architecture appear here not as identifiable subjects but as visual possibilities.
This quality lends another dimension to Chorge’s abstraction. His forms may suggest the irregular contours of natural terrain or evoke the verticality and layered arrangements of constructed spaces. Yet these associations cannot be regarded as the paintings’ definitive meanings. They are possibilities that emerge through the viewer’s memories and experiences. One viewer may discern mountains, another architectural structures, while someone else may perceive only the autonomous interplay of colours and surfaces. The significance of the painting does not depend on any single act of recognition.
In this way, Chorge’s non-representational art becomes another way of expressing the real world. Rather than reproducing the external appearance of objects, it evokes the visual qualities associated with their experience: height, depth, density, expansiveness and the effects of light. Abstraction here is not an escape from reality but an alternative way of seeing it. Colours and forms free themselves from familiar references to establish an independent visual structure, while retaining their capacity to engage with the viewer’s lived experience.
The achievement of Chorge’s paintings lies not simply in the possibility of identifying a scene or form within them. It lies in the way colour, texture, light and shadow combine to create a coherent visual experience. His art allows viewers the freedom to seek meaning without compelling them to accept any predetermined interpretation. The allure of colour draws them in, while the mystery of form keeps their gaze engaged.
Ultimately, Chorge’s canvas becomes a silent theatre in which colours are the actors, texture their body language, and light and shadow the instruments of drama. There is no explicit narrative, yet a succession of visual events continues to unfold. The pleasure of this silent performance lies in the freedom it offers: viewers can observe it, experience it and enter into a dialogue with it through their own memories, without feeling compelled to confine it to a single meaning. This openness is at the heart of the distinctive appeal of Mangesh Chorge’s abstract art.
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