Indian Yellow: Science unlocks the mystery of a fabled pigment
<p>The distinctive quality of this style, is that each painting is an artistic interpretation of a poetic verse-couplet, which is itself written as a eulogy for music. There are many verses composed in this vein, mostly in Sanskrit, although Telugu is not uncommon. Every Ragamala painting centers thematically on the imagery and metaphors of a specific verse-couplet. That verse is inscribed in a panel on the top (the panel is missing in some paintings) and the art is positioned underneath. The painting is not a literal interpretation of the words. It instead attempts to do what music does — create a mood; preferably one that matches the music and it does this by deploying the imagination in form, circumstance and color. Each work is thus, a combined experience of three major art-forms — music, painting and poetry. The architecture of a Ragamala locates the inner spaces of life and living within the outdoors; in both a physical and a metaphysical sense. This conceptual arrangement allows the artist an explosive range of expression in structure, landscape, color and sentiment.</p>
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