My Upcoming Exhibition on Anamorphosis

Anamorphosis... deceiving the eyes

Our eyes are familiar with regular shapes and shades. When anything tries to deviate from the regularity our brains receive a signal and instruct our eyes to concentrate more to find out regularity/ organization in whatever irregularity the object in front shows to us. The art of Anamorphosis is such a hide and seek game for our eyes and brain. While our brains are to conclude, the eyes help in seeking the hidden reality.

All the known ways of creating optical illusion are practiced since the time anamorphosis took a place in the world of creative art which originated in the sixteenth century. The figures are painted in such ways that if we look directly at them the figures appear to be distorted but they take their normal appearance when seen in a special mirror or from a determined angle.
At the time of emergence of anamorphosis as a visual art, artists who had the mathematical knowledge to create anamorphic pictures kept their calculations and grids a well-guarded secret. Now it is relatively easy to create such images by computer. But it really demands skill and knowledge of mathematics when it comes to create such pieces on analog media and to correlate science of optics with aesthetism.

Anamorphosis has huge recognition in the other parts of the world, but In India this art is almost an unknown sort and nothing much is heard about this. Till date it’s practiced by the only Anamorphosis artist of India Mr Avtar Singh Virdi who is a master of making portraits. His art is unique as the portraits he makes in distorted shapes can themselves be considered as abstract art, but the same when looked through cylindrical mirrors talks of his mastery of creating portraits.

I was attracted towards this sort of art when I saw the images of Andrea Pozzo’s Ceiling of the church of San Ignacio, Rome or “Glory to the name Of Jesus” on the ceiling of the Church of Gesu, Rome by Baciccio or domestic scenes such as Raphalle Peale's nineteenth-century, tongue-in-cheek parody of a Baroque theme, entitled "Venus Rising from the Sea—A Deception (After the Bath) ,or The ambassador by Hans Holbein ,Still life of Pablo Picasso in twentieth century.
But as a beginner I took the sort of making portraits as circular abstracts. I created a few anamorph portraits in last one month and arranging an exhibition in Kolkata in December with those works. I have plans to try my hands on every sort of anamorphosis practiced throughout the world in future.

Here are the details of my exhibition on Anamorphosis and interpretation in life.

Gaganendra Silpa Pradarsasala

1/1 Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road

Kolkata 700 020

Date: 7th to 9th Dec'2009

Time: 2 pm to 8 pm