American artist Jon Den Hartigh gives the art aficionados a taste of pop art in his ongoing solo exhibition at the Bengal Art Lounge in Gulshan.
As done in the pop art style, Hartigh deals with the things which are commonplace and trite for the city dwellers but caught the attention of the foreign artist, who devoted two years to bring them to life on canvas.
Beginning in England in the mid-1950s and America in early ‘60s, pop art, the short form of popular art, focuses on everyday objects rendered through an adoption of commercial art techniques. Objects like food, vehicles, birds, electronic items etcetera often become the subject of pop art.
Since the artist is conducting the10-day solo for the delight of Dhaka audience, the subjects of his 27 paintings on display at his first ever solo in Dhaka titled ‘Pop Wallah’ comprise of auto-rickshaws, urban crows, bicycles, rickshaws and more elements from the urban setting of Dhaka.
Hartigh has a fairly unique style of his own, he works in multiples; the larger paintings are in a set of 3, whereas the smaller ones are done in groups of 10. He says, ‘Working with multiples of the same image free me to focus on the process, to strip away concern about particulars. Doing something once provides no opportunity for improvement and further experimentation; multiples, on the other hand, provide me with that opportunity.’
The artist did his paintings mostly on oils, acrylics and other media of arts using a myriad of bright colours. He professed that he likes to see colours next to each other and scrutinise the way they interact with one another. He has combined colours and multiples in such a way that they bring out the various facets of the city that make Dhaka, as it is.
In one of his paintings, the artist has interestingly captured birds perched on haphazard coils of wires hanging in the air; in another he has depicted a pair of local, handmade arcade games. His series, titled “Man on a Rickshaw” has been notably inspired by a photo of famous Evelyn Cameroin standing on a horse named Jim.
Jon Den Hartigh was born in 1976 in the USA and grew up in a Dutch community near Los Angeles. In 2003, he received MAT degree from Minnesota State University. Till date, he has a total of five solo exhibitions across the world to his credit. He has been working full-time as an art teacher in American International School, Dhaka.
It is open to all, continuing from 12:00pm to 8:00pm until April 7.
-With New Age input
