Bharath Rajpal
Indian Cubist Artist(1980-2020) Born in Bangalore, India.
"Those whom the gods love die young." - Lord Byron
In the depths of our grief, we, the proud yet grief-stricken parents, embark on a journey to celebrate the life and remarkable talents of our beloved son, Dr. Bharath Rajpal. We fervently pray that he now resides in a realm of joy, peace, and happiness. It is an unprecedented challenge for us as parents to find the delicate equilibrium, peace of mind, and the enduring exuberance required to conquer the trials that lay ahead.
Fully cognizant of our inherent parental bias, we humbly pen this testimonial. It offers a glimpse into the life and artistic journey of our dear son, viewed through the prism of our shared life experiences.
Bharath's artistic odyssey commenced at the tender age of two, where his drawings, scribbles, and doodles became an inseparable part of his schooling. Initially perplexed and somewhat concerned about his unconventional childhood proclivities, we could instinctively sense that there was more to his artistic inclinations than met the eye. While other children reveled in outdoor games, Bharath, alone, immersed himself in a world of color pencils and crayons. We decided to go with him, rendering unstinting support.
Our joy knew no bounds as he blossomed into an "all-rounder," excelling not only in theater, encompassing play acting, stand-up comedy, singing, and dancing, but also in the realm of fine arts. As a young adult, he transformed into a creator, painter, and writer par excellence.
Bharath Rajpal was a master of Abstract Creativity, specializing in Realistic Modern, Cubist, and Abstract Art. To him, art represented the ultimate avenue for self-expression, a realm where imagination and creativity danced in perfect harmony.One belief always guided him: "Believe you can, and you are halfway there." We nurtured and encouraged his burgeoning talent, constantly motivating him to explore the depths of his artistic potential.Bharath was a self-trained, self-taught artist. A night owl, he tirelessly practiced his craft, meticulously constructing and deconstructing images like a marathon. His ability to tackle artistic flaws with astonishing precision left us in awe. Drawing was more than a hobby; it was his life's passion. As parents, we fondly remember him compulsively sketching as a toddler. He embarked on a tutorial marathon, seemingly determined to transform the entire world through his art.
Glimpses from his life
Early Life
In a world that feels threatened by people who don’t follow conventional rules and societal norms, life was never easy for the young man brimming with ideas and ideals – he was determined to find out what he wanted in life. The urge to be different and take creative risks, both in terms of form and shape and to pave the path for something new was what drove him. He took the road less travelled and remained unconventional in his thinking and shattered mindsets in the process with his paintings. Bharath’s tumultuous life was marked by mood swings and the creative genius of this young man led him to bring out an oeuvre of works that pointed to the unbridled and promising talent that lay embedded in him waiting to be discovered and nurtured. Born in May 1980, in his short life spanning 40 years, this prolific painter has churned out several paintings including award-winning ones, which have been highly appreciated by the artist fraternity. Bharath’s artistic passion showed up early in life and, even at a young age, he would draw on textbooks and notebooks and subsequently he graduated to the canvas. His artistic abilities were eventually honed at the Srishti Institute of Art Design and Technology where he had to unlearn things and become open to new ideas.Not for him was the 9-6 life of an office and he ended his budding career in an advertising agency where he felt shacked and constricted and chose instead to be on his own where he could focus on creating what was his expression of his inner self. Few contemporary artists have been able to create works with such depth and beauty as Bharath. His paintings reveal an extraordinary sensibility, profoundly individual in perception and yet diverse in sympathies. Indian in its subject and yet dwelling in some undefined territory, Bharath painted cubist style of portraits and nudes, interiors and landscapes, each markedly of his own style that was both refreshing and overwhelming and showed a maturity and sensibility well beyond his years. Best known are his artworks depicting a cubist style of women, Bharath specialized in realistic, modern and abstract art. His guiding light and passion was Picasso and he poured over each of the master’s paintings and tried to decipher and deconstruct them. He took famous works of this pioneer of cubism like ‘Guernica’, ‘Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon’, and ‘Portrait of a woman’ and modified them in what he termed ‘glitch cubism/ abstraction’ and curve mirror cubism where he reinterpreted Picasso’s female body drawn with flat geometric shapes and changed them so that the upper half of the work was elongated and the lower portion compressed. The artist was prolific in his work and brought out paintings at a frenetic pace as he sought to distract himself from the pressure of conforming to societal norms that yearned to break free. Bharath in retrospect was a free spirit – a genius whose form of expression could only be reflected on the canvas.
Personal Life
The Rajpals were delighted with their first- born. Bharath’s early childhood was normal and unremarkable. At the age of 3, the Rajpals noticed something unusual in Bharath. Whilst other children played outdoor games, Bharath was to be found alone-busy with color pencils and crayons. Doodling became figurative drawings at age 5. The earliest sketches were landscapes; and at age 7, he received his first accolade; (at school) topping in his very first inter-class art competition. Given their background; the puzzled parents nevertheless rendered full support to their son’s novel idée fixed. Puzzled, doting mom Vandhana, actively encouraged Bharath to delve deeper and hot –housed him- broaden his artistic taste. He graduated to sketch pens and paints /brushes, spanning different art forms to cartoons, caricatures, realistic and abstract art.
At age of 12, he was fascinated by Dalal Street stock broker bull Harshad Mehta; whose spectacular rise to dizzying heights and equally dramatic fall were captured in a cartoon; captioned “what a way to rise and fall”. This brilliantly configured cartoon was featured prominently in India’s flagship newspaper- The Times of India. Next he took to cartooning; studying and learning from those premier cartoonist of yore; R.K.Laxman, and particularly Mario Miranda.Meanwhile, he continued; to win prizes at inter-apartment/building/society and their- school competitions. Worried mamma prevailed upon him to make time for academics’ hand in hand, which he did-an average student. He excelled in swimming and badminton; his returns smashes are still remembered by his wilting trainers.
In 10th std; fervid imagination tempered by worldly realities; he did the regulation sindhi thing completing a two year commerce foundation course. A gawky youngster, he metamorphosed into being the ‘life and soul’ of the party; his sense of humor flowered; mirrored by growing wizardry in mimicry. Everyone was his target; from the cutter in dad’s garment factory to 6 pack abs Salman Khan.
In late teens, he took to dancing and performed Michael Jackson’s Moon Walk to public acclaim; developed a penchant for telling jokes’ which he picked up from papa. Dad and son spent many happy hours trading jokes. He learnt to sing in Shankar Mahadevan’s Academy; regaling audiences in Namma B’luru.
Set on a career in Fine Arts, he joined Shrishti School of Art Design and Technology; polished his burgeoning- art skills. At 20, fine Art his chosen field, he naturally progressed to advertising and Graphic Designing course at UK affiliated Wigan and Leigh college. He then went into copywriting/ advertising; essay in a salient role in redesigning the kingfisher logo and caption.
As he grew in art career, he experienced in full the slings and arrows of hard commercial art fortunes. Tempering naivety, he began to take more objective scientific approach to art.Working for diverse advertising agencies across the spectrum, Bharath became a hardnosed professional, learning the ropes at the deep end and doing the hard yards.But as it was a moment for him to make a long-haul career, parents intervened.
It was decided by Bharath’s joint family that he would join the family business. But when a genius holds many feathers in the cap, he shines in every field he steps into. In Bharath’s life it was no different. He proved more adept at business than his battle- hardened dad within a very short period.After his proclaimed success in business, he never stopped himself from investing his luxury time indulging deep into his art practice. That made him more special as an art practitioner.
Influence from Cubism
Through a discrete journey into the perspective, the artist has empathized with the dimensionalities of the canvas and, much like Picasso, broken down nature into geometric forms, and fractured objects and created relief-like spaces. The constant inspiration could be seen overlapping into the works by the artist yet the series tends to yield a sequel of uniquely-produced ideals framed within the boundaries of cubism, yet fast-forwarded in time. Artist had the strong intention to accentuate the difference between the reality and painting. Although there seems to be a strong sense of familiarity with the choice of preferred motifs from the artist’s works and the pioneers of the cubist movement, i.e., the still life bottles, glasses, musical instruments, playing cards, pitchers, newspapers, human faces and figures, but also he formed this subversive style of modern art in response to the rapidly changing modern world. A style of expression through artwork, which was mainly originated by French artist Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in the first two decades of the twentieth century, was extensively influenced by French Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne. John Berger identifies the essence of Cubism with the mechanical diagram. “The metaphorical model of Cubism is the diagram: The diagram being a visible symbolic representation of invisible processes, forces, structurs. A diagram need not eschew certain aspects of appearance but these two will be treated as signs not as imitations or recreations.” Likewise, Bharat Rajpal’s artistic journey was deeply influenced by the famous Picasso.
Bharath Rajpal: The Bohemian Art Genius of Bangalore
Bharat Rajpal was an open minded and free spirited thinker who embodied the Bohimeian lifestyle and acting freely without regard for conventional rules and practices. He was a gypsy soul who was always seeking for change and adventure, and was inspired by various ideas, attitudes, and experiences. With a passion for giving his Bohemian dreams wings and taking creative risks in the art world, Bharath was on a quest for discovery and invention, always seeking to break through to the other side and create something new, novel, jaw-dropping, and unorthodox.
Bharath aimed to carve a niche for himself in the art world by introducing new concepts and combining science with abstract art. His vision was as bold and innovative as Pablo Picasso, the 19th century Spanish cubist fine artist. He had introduced convex and concave mirrors, architectural perspective, glitches (analog and digital errors), cubicle parabolas, pincushion lenses, the sinusoidal map, distorted images, panoramic failures, anamorphic abstractions, and D’Arcy Thompson’s Theory of Evolution into abstract art. He emphasized to create a creative breakthrough in the art world and establish signature art styles different from Picasso yet reminiscent of the Spanish Cubist master.