Paris-based Sujata Bajaj showcasing her Spacescapes at Art Mumbai
Large in size and vast in scale, Sujata Bajaj’s Spacescapes take on the most immense subject of them all, the cosmos itself. These dramatic and uninhibited orchestrations of pigment by a colourist at the peak of her powers constitute perhaps the artist’s most ambitious project in a life full of challenging undertakings.
Like outer space, the paintings have no pre-defined markers of up and down. Sujata approaches them from all directions, placing the canvas on the floor and adding layer upon layer of thin acrylic pigment, attending equally to all parts of the picture surface such that a viewer focusing on any section will find material to transfix their gaze. To evoke starlight, she uses silver foil that leaps from the canvas while darker shades recede, generating complex interactions of surface and depth.
Although these compositions unmistakably conjure the impression of deep space, they bring to mind aerial views of earthly phenomena as well: the calderas of volcanoes, icy fjords, mangrove-lined estuaries, cities lit up at night. The Spacescapes are also in some sense landscapes.
While Sujata’s recent paintings depart significantly from what preceded them, there are common threads that tie the new work to the old. Her art has always been celebratory and that remains true of her current suite of canvases. The most common title she has used for her paintings over the years is Energy, which represents an elemental, creative force that these immersive views of infinity, just like her previous works, evoke and exalt.
