The Tirthankars

Bharat Tripathi's conviction, that art which refers to the scared and embodies ideas culled from spiritual traditions in superior to all other artistic expression, is evident in his current exhibition of twenty-four paintings on jain thirthankars. Though not born into the jain faith, Bharat's genuine engagement with the people philosophical and ideological tenets of Jainism is the inspiration behind the current body of works on display.

Jainism is one of the oldest religion in the world and it traces its history through a succession of twenty-four propagators of the faith. These enlightened and spiritually evolved beings, who are ascetics beyond comparison, are known as Tirthankars, with Adinath as the first Tirthankar and Mahavir as the last in the current era.

The intimately rendered acrylic-on-canvas paintings of the Tirthankars aim to string together a narrative that provides a glimpse into the Jain cosmology to the informed, while providing ample visual engagement to those who would rather approach the painting exclusively for their visual content and chromatic and formal arrangement.

As a medium encapsulating and expressing transcendent truths and aspiration of the heart, Bharat's painting certainly succeed. This body of work, displayed under the title "The Tirthankars", further clarifies Bharat's voice of balancing his passion for the making art with his desire to engage with the spiritual and metaphysical traditions of ancient India.

Baiju Parthan
(Januray 2014)