Priti Ali is simultaneously a non-objective, non-figurative and naturist painter. Her themes and approaches are closely connected to physiological experiments
।। Takir Hossain ।।
Priti Ali is simultaneously a non-objective, non-figurative and naturist painter. Her themes and approaches are closely connected to physiological experiments. She has also added illusion and emotion to her paintings. She uses loose brushstrokes to delineate the various elements in her compositions, in which the subjects provide movement and colour, in which light and the atmosphere create a mysterious effect. Her use of colours is thick, expressive and nostalgic. Her paintings are splendid in terms of her personal techniques and in creating the effects of shade and the essence of nature. She occasionally likes to experiment with diverse vague and plain forms, and enjoys breaking and constructing them in many ways. She mainly gets inspiration from the power of imagination which she has nurtured in her soul over a large span of periods. She truly feels life, eternal truths of time and reminiscence of her childhood days. She gets the exact meaning of life from experiences and observations.
Priti builds up her lines, forms and compositions in an individual mode. She has meticulously gone through various phases of experimentation with colours, textures, lines, and tones. The artist always feels that paintings are an appearance of the thoughts, the inner world and what literally makes the daily life of an artist. Her works show the world the way she sees it, and manifest the essence of the things she has seen. Her paintings are also mirror of her mind frame. Her lines signify the modern mode of expression. Some of her paintings clearly highlight pure composition which conveys her fondness for rectangular and triangular forms.
Priti is very courageous and has a strong control over canvas. She never feels afraid to work with large canvases. To her, a large canvas gives the opportunity to express herself properly. She has worked with different sized canvases and her mode of expression is pure abstract expressionism. Abstract expressionism had been developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and 1950s. It is often characterised by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity.
Priti is a true naturist painter. Her keen aptitude is to draw the philosophical aspect of nature, volume and colour and to create poetic compositions. Her use of acrylic is fresh, contemplative and provides the spectators with a sense of bliss. Her artworks are lively and have the right kind of restraint. She feels rhythm is the main root of all creations. Nature has its own rhythm and her main focus is to unfold the pulses of nature and loneliness as well as quietness are the most important features in her paintings.
Priti is an ardent follower of pure abstract expressionism, who is now quite active in Dhaka art scene. Her paintings are also very much connected to humans’ affection, ecstasy, anguish and isolation. She is an emotionally charged painter and she draws what she feels from the core of her soul. Her paintings can be explained in many ways where one can find the touch of mysticism; some can get the taste of harmony, melancholy or despair. In her paintings, one feels the lament of a lonely soul, an underlying sorrow or a feeling of bareness. As an intense onlooker, Priti’s manipulation of forms, sprinkled patterns and cognizant brush strokes create a language simultaneously natural and contrived. Her palette swings between mellow and bold, her strokes between rugged and controlled conjuring up a visual playground for joy and glee. It has been very apparent that Priti has now hooked herself with vibrant colours for bringing the internal articulations of concrete formations of paintings. Besides this, the painter also constantly experiments with forms and compositions. The artist enjoys her liberty to recognise herself with her structuring of varied shapes and unusual patterns that are apparently harmonised and technically phenomenal. She strives to proceed with a certain style that has become a personal hallmark for her works. She intermingles sensation and intelligence, believed to have been applied to utilise abstract expressionism in her paintings. Her paintings emerge to be sparkling and dynamic because of the use of profuse shades and evocative textures. Priti bears witness to the insanity of current times through an eruption of vicious colours in different layers. The eruption of colours is accompanied by contrast, and the reality of texture is created in her abstract expressions. It has also been observed that the artist has meticulously blended the essential elements of her paintings.
Priti has used sweeping strokes and sometimes very polished strokes when she used to symbolically portray varied vague forms and the six seasons. Her strokes and forms are simultaneously natural and capable of creating a language which is alien to us. Her colour is both bright and mellow and appears rich and smooth. Her soul is always on the lookout for space where the green, azure, red, crimson, off-white and yellow are filled with great joy and ecstasy. She loves russet hues and cobalt blue. Remarkable forms and various suggestive objects create a unique language in her paintings. Many of her paintings are composition and form-based- with varied sizes-rectangular, vertical, horizontal, half-curved and full-curved. Space division in her compositions is dramatic; with big spaces kept flat while smaller areas have several tiny patterns. It is obvious that the artist has spent a considerable time to create the illusion of space.
With the passage of time, Priti has refined herself. She transformed herself as a pure abstract expressionist painter. She occupied herself mostly with acrylic medium and the medium gave her a true sense of persistence. As the paint is a beautiful medium, it can attain buttery glosses, thin luminescent glazes, and rich colours like none other. Her paintings delved deep into pure forms, compositions and hues which have been used according to the space. Sometimes she played with neat forms and compositions and time and again, occupied herself with healthy curved horizontal and vertical lines, straight lines, elliptical, non- elliptical shapes, cubic forms and rigid structure. She played with space and sometimes the space played a vital role for many of her paintings. Occasionally forms engrossed either middle or lower parts of the canvas. Sometimes it seemed she was more conscious about space and forms. The application of forms gives a cerebral and contemplative look to her works. Her works are very expressive due to the effective use of space in her paintings. During the time, many of her paintings feature complex compositions, textural strength and thickness of colours. A number of her paintings look neat and tranquil as the works focus on colours and their various layers. The colours are azure, crimson, red, black, white, yellow, cobalt blue, yellow ochre, purple ochre, burnt sienna, umber and emerald green. The painter has played with texture and illusion for surface effects, as her surfaces look more impressive and appealing. Colours have appeared flatly in some of her works. The tonal plus linear approach gives her work a different quality and distinctive look.
Priti is a workaholic painter. Over the course of time, she has been tirelessly experimenting with lines, forms, spaces, textures, tones and overall shapes and designs. Her forms and motifs have a specific explanation. The painter is always driven to explore something new. It breaks monotony for her and she believes art can be enriched through repeated changing of mediums. To her each medium has a special feature, which demonstrates individual light, tone and space.
The writer is an art critic and cultural curator.
