A view of the show at Lalit Kala Akademi
| Photo Credit: special arrangement
Today, the Lalit Kala Akademi gallery is red. Many gradient shades of the colour hang heavy on the 90-odd canvases that fill the space: crimsons and reds that are sometimes sharply broken by a deviant, rogue black or grey. But they inevitably find their way back to the reds again, much like artist Gita Hudson herself, whose penchant for the colour is nothing new .
Titled Transit…From the Studio, the show is a mix of her body of work across mediums over the last two years. Not only canvases, but moving images, films and installations too are part of this display. Gita’s experimental work (read: what appears to be a butterfly made out of old DVDs) are all part of the collection, which highlights her journey with abstraction.
The artist is frank. “I just wanted to see two full years of my work together in a gallery,” she says.
The year was 1999. Gita recalls the moment she turned to the world of abstraction. “When I first looked at works of Raza, Gaitonde, or Achuthan Kudallur, I thought they were great things! I found them extremely spiritual.” Subconsciously, she was obsessed. She started at a time when the overload of imagery and the constant exposure to the same, were yet to become a part of daily life. “I didn’t have any pre-existing images in my head. I see music in a lot of these textures. That’s how the colours flow,” says Gita. In 2005, with a show held in Lalit Kala Akademi, she realised how abstraction grips her.
One of Gita Hudson’s abstractions
| Photo Credit:
special arrangement
“This time, I wanted to show my abstracts and semi-abstracts. And I also do a lot of films on artists, so I have re-edited them and run them in loop, especially for the benefit of young students,” she adds. Her late husband was a collector of world films and world music. “He had put all the DVDs in huge folders in a particular order. DVDs have become redundant now and I didn’t feel like giving them away. So I made art out of them. It is in some way preserving his collection as well,” says Gita. A few works from her folk deities and temple series are also part of the display.
“As I work, new colours emerge. But I do have a certain palette, and I tend to explore within that palette.” Does it ever get tiring with the reds? Gita is honest. “Yes, sometimes it does. But if you look closely, you see the whites and pinks, and only as a whole, do they look red.”
One of Gita Hudson’s abstract works
| Photo Credit:
special arrangement
Transit…From the Studio is on display till January 31 at Lalit Kala Akademi, Egmore, Chennai
Published – January 28, 2025 05:24 pm IST
