Rustic and perplexing! Iranna's aesthetic truth

Artist G.R. Iranna's earliest influences are of growing up on a farm in rural Karnataka. His education, which took him to Bijapur, Gulbarga and New Delhi, brought about a deep love for the Virashaiva saints, the architecture of the Vijayanagar, Tipoo Sultan and Wodeyar periods and contemporary global art, all of which find themselves reflected in his work.

The National Gallery of Modern Art's latest exhibition, 'And the last shall be the first' showcases Iranna's works between 1995 and 2015, curated by Ranjit Hoskote. A cultural theorist and poet himself, Hoskote has written about Iranna on several occasions, through an association that goes back many years. “The exhibition will draw on the artist's upbringing and early student years in Karnataka, as well as addressing his subsequent career as a
Delhi-based artist working in the context of global contemporary art,” said Hoskote.

As a child, thanks in part to where he was born and raised, Iranna became inclined toward the Lingayat sect, as a firm believer in Lord Shiva. His deep philosophical beliefs find their way into his work, which tries to bridge the gap between the inner and the outer world, juxtaposing one's own spiritual journey with the urban social fabric, seeking unity between two polar opposites.

“Iranna's art is structured along three major dualities,” explained Hoskote. “While he remains committed to the figurative idiom as a means of exploring psychic, social and political disquietudes, he has retained a  deep formal concern with the sensuous poetics of abstraction. Second, while regarding the past with cautious nostalgia, he is profoundly concerned with the predicaments and crises that will attend humankind's destiny. And third, while being engaged with the secular everyday, he has a deep fascination for the spiritual quest.”

The exhibition at the NGMA is a mid-passage look at Iranna's work, tracing its evolution (and his), over the last two decades. A combination of paintings and mixed media works, the exhibition will draw from his upbringing and his early student years in Karnataka, while also addressing him within the context of global contemporary art. Iranna has held a number of solo exhibitions at galleries in new Delhi, Mumbai, London, Munich, Singapore and Hong Kong, among many others.

• What: And the last shall be the first: G.R. Iranna Works 1995 — 2015
• Where & When: January 16 to February 16 at National Gallery of Modern Art, Manikyavelu Mansion, Palace Road