As a printmaker Jaskanwal has etched a unique place for herself with her unique style. In her landmark solo show she has exhibited a cache of fifty works chosen from her three-decade-long art career. Having received her initial training from the noted printmaker Jagmohan Chopra, known for his independent mindedness, Jaskanwal too, has not followed the usual way of other artists.
Taking on bold abstract forms, this artist uses novelty of technique to express herself and bring out emotional expressions that maintain the essence of who she is. Though her works show figurative forms, they are abstract too, creating a unique amalgam of the two. The tones in the colours used are skilfully ‘muted’ so that the greys become etched with inclusions of black and yellow accents, while the crimson blurs into pinks and fades into textures and colours that balance the compositions beautifully. The fluid forms suggest movement and flow, defining the struggles of human existence, as one passes through its various phases. The overall graphic format makes the composition acquire a transcendent quality.
An artist who works on her compositions with immense patience the works seem to talk to her through their interrelated forms and colours. This close communication is what viewers can listen to, as they face each of her paintings in the gallery. On view at the Shridharani Gallery, this artist has exhibited her art after a thirty-year hiatus, in which she has tirelessly been working behind the scenes. Not one to take reprints of her creations, she dismisses suggestions about it saying that she wants to live her life free of extra baggage. Thus Jaskanwal related with her viewers on several levels all at once.
…. Subhra Mazumdar
