Emergence
“L’Ordre du Monde” is a magnificent new book that unites Sujata Bajaj’s paintings with texts by Jean-Claude Carrière, one of France’s foremost writers and thinkers. The title, “L’Ordre du Monde,” translates to “The Order of the World,” but it doesn’t fully capture the profound meaning behind the phrase. It delves into the intricate structure and sequence of the world, exploring its spiritual essence and the fundamental nature of our existence.
This book serves as a dialogue between artist and writer, with Sujata’s pictorial language harmoniously complementing Carrière’s written words. Each element enhances the other, creating a captivating interplay of visual and textual expression.
Sujata Bajaj’s work immediately reveals a complex yet comprehensible visual language that is characteristic of an artist. She confidently employs colour and exudes an expressive bravura, yet her art also possesses a certain formalised structure. The vibrant colours of her Rajasthani homeland are evident, but I often perceive a more European structural formality, even perhaps a Nordic sensibility, particularly in her mixed media pieces.
Sujata demonstrates a profound understanding of the harmony between colour and form. She uses the most vivid palettes within a structured framework, extending this concept to the highly absorbent handmade papers she occasionally employs. The shape of the paper itself, often torn and collaged, adds to the overall aesthetic.
Sujata shares this structural sense and vivid palette with Sam Francis, the renowned American abstract painter who revolutionised colour and form. The paper and canvas become a starting point for a thrilling adventure into a phantasmagorical landscape. However, like Francis, Sujata always managed to anchor her art in a structured sense of balance. Her works also evoke Victor Pasmore, the great English abstract painter, who often gave musical titles and compositional structure to his work. This involved a harmonic proposition (a literary thesis) and counterpoint (the antithesis) leading to a unified whole composition (synthesis). To achieve this, the artist must have complete control over the palette and a deep understanding of the interrelationship of abstracted forms and the chromatic consequences of colour juxtaposition. The application of shape and colour must be spontaneous, innate, and instinctive, yet the artist must have absolute confidence in the visual impact of each brushstroke.
Some writers use cosmological terminology to describe Sujata’s painting. Look at her work, and you may sense the elements of life, primeval life forces, traces of antiquity in the ancient script, and the firework colours of an alchemist. Energy and vitality permeate her art. Consider looking through the Hubble telescope at exploding stars at the galaxy’s edge or into the depths of a boiling volcano. These examples demonstrate the vastness of Sujata’s canvas, which is both of this world and beyond.
The chromatic complexity of her palette adds to the artist’s challenge. The serrated, deckle-edged, and layered handmade papers pre-suppose an even more elaborate multi-dimensional structural requirement. The introduction of calligraphy further increases the compositional complexity.
Her pictures are utterly dynamic, and her ability to understand colour and form is self-evident. Perhaps more so in her recent work, which exudes remarkable self-assurance in conception and execution. Take a look at one mixed media piece (page 87 in L’Ordre du Monde). At first glance, it appears to be a spontaneous, typically exuberant composition. However, upon closer inspection, you’ll realise that the juxtaposition of key elements is not coincidental. The central dramatic circle of inky black acrylic is precisely positioned to counterpoint the calligraphy and frame the outline of the collaged, torn paper. Visually, this is entirely satisfactory, and the finishing touches, literally, are the three small spots of crimson that harmonise and complete the composition.
Sujata’s light and airy Paris apartment is modern and uncluttered, almost to the point of austerity. Sujata herself is a creative dynamo, and her personal energy is infectious. When she’s alone and left to work, this passion and conviction are unleashed upon the canvas. She has titled this exhibition “Emergence,” a word rich in meaning. Does it perhaps suggest that her work has fully matured, that she has discovered the full means to express herself after a long personal journey from India to Norway to Paris? No artist ever reaches a final destination, but perhaps there’s now a self-confidence and assurance. She has found a visual language that speaks to us clearly and unambiguously.
Sujata has been working tirelessly on this exhibition, her first major London show, which coincides with the release of the long-awaited L’Ordre du Monde. She has demonstrated great personal strength and single-minded determination to create what is undoubtedly a wonderfully accomplished and mature body of work.