I finally made it to the NGA today..yes IM Pei’s east wing to view the much awaited Henri Rousseaus in a wonderful space doing justice to fascinating permanent and transient exhibits.
I think I first saw his work as a child in a book, back home at varsha aunty’s place - not holding much meaning then, except that the artist was very expressive with vegetation and animal life amidst a forest.
But today it meant more - ofcourse the short film, historic context, the notes accompanying the paintings, critics’ comments and then my very own palimpsest of information, recollections, comparisons and thoughts. (and hats off to nga curators for superb signage graphics and precise minimal texts - i was quite impressed by the degree of "less is more" attitude in this show)
Im trying to recall his works, and as usual I always come back with a few that stay with me. What strikes you most about his work is the variety, colors and boldness of vegetation and foliage in the jungles. There are animals in action (well defined and animated), sometimes human beings (more generic and lack detail - no indication of being french, infact i was in splits when i saw a native indian unless im missing out on some history here!), or humans indicating their primate stage or animals shown in human-like actions…but they are all scaled down to allow the flora-fauna to dominate the landscape.
And whats important then is that he’s not a frequent visitor to the forests, but he lets his imagination run wild at the jardin des plantes in paris. Among the urban anxieties of then modernizing paris, he seeks out and imagines the "exotic" …taking clues from tropical species in the greenhouses and the animals exported from the versailles zoo to paris during the french revolution.
Each painting is a concoction - realistic in subject and unrealistic in technique.He does not stress on the sense of perspective - its all in layers and very 2d. (i realized when Margritte does that in Carte Blanche, its to trick the viewer. but this guy is simplistic in his intentions)
I think it was the finale of the show and his life that appealed to me most - The Dream. Its quite bizzare - amongst the nocturnal wilderness, in the foreground you see a reclining nude female on a sofa! and then around her are animals curiously looking at her or out at you!…a snake gliding through, an elephant in the background (just grey enough to merge with the foliage), birds and …then the moon to reinforce the night. What adds further meaning to the painting, is a dark figure playing a musette to the woman to enhance her experience…and the artist accompanies his work with a poem that adds music into the night.
I did sense similarities now and then between Rousseau’s work and Indian miniatures, which often address the same spectrum of subjects and accessories. They hold high value for their intricacy of the human body, definition of their surroundings, and the unchallenged beauty of indigenous vegetable dye colors. They have stories to unfold, but somehow I feel they are just too static and lifeless - as if meant to be framed as an object, and not for a viewer to be consumed into the landscape. (maybe they were meant to be that way, at that time in the mughul era..)
So that was a refreshing day…some food for the eyes and thought.
