• Charan Sharma             • Prof. Yogesh Atal             • Niyatee Shinde Website Designed & Developed by Fifth Quarter Infomedia Pvt. Ltd.   Thereare several ways to read Charan Sharma's work. On cursory viewing, his work seems to belong to the world of a realist. His works are, no doubt, located within a realist world, and yet they are unfettered by any of the characteristic constraints of the realism. Charan invokes a fantasy world in the starkness of the real world while creating an appropriate setting for disquieting thoughts. In his paintings, there is an intimate interface between the real and the imagined. The paintings of the Buddha by his brush juxtapose reality and spirituality in a unique manner. A tranquil monastery set against an awesome sky, large up-scaled prayer wheels, serene-faced Buddha carved on stones weathered over ages and looming over the cliff-side, lotuses strewing rosy pink petals appear part-realist and part-illusionary. As a gifted and spiritual magician, Charan weaves images that are not mere depictions of a land or a locality but are an output of a seasoned mediator and a sincere interpreter. This painter admirably lifts salient features of the traditional and popular visual imagery and concocts a variegated combination, a rarified oeuvre. In an age where the copier and technological skills at image enhancing computer packages cover the expanse of a canvas at the speed of a click, Charan's paintings with their meticulous detailing stand out distinctly. He has remained faithful to painting. Skilled drawing is central to his art practice. Spun on the fabric of an inherent spirituality and subsequent assured myth Charan's paintings are rooted in the present and yet can be viewed as records with that timelessness of the real. Charan Sharma takes his conformity to its illusionist extremes. His style compares favourably with the work of artists known for their trompe-d'oeil (literally, trick of the eyes). Charan's work neither belongs to the category of the surrealists - who invented an unaffected and naturalistic manner of representing their strange and unusual dreams - nor to the German painters of the New Objectivity School - who spiked and shrouded their realist portraits with acerbic psychological insights. The large canvases in billboard fashion, exacted with photographic detail and with the reality of temple frescoes are filled with sculpted images of Buddha - who must have been painted countless times by thousands of painters and artists over the millennia. Multidimensional in effect, Charan's paintings invite and secure your attention. Is this a monk's devotion; is it an architect's fulfilling accomplishment or merely a magician conjuring up diasporic distended dioramas? Moving across several categories in a career that spans nearly three decades this present body of work places him at the apex of engagement with the unpredictable within realist depictions. The way he mediates this engagement and the stark imagery and play of composed light that he brings into view distinguishes this painter from the rest. Way back in 1989 the ineffable and well-known pioneer of Indian contemporary art, Francis Newton Souza wrote about Charan in his article published in the now defunct Illustrated Weekly of India: "Charan, in my opinion is one of the ten best artists of this country". A decade later, Souza again wrote in the prominent Hindi Weekly of the times - Dharmayug 1991. "Charan's paintings - some of which are true masterpieces - possess all the eclectic elements like sentimentality, suspense, and magical effects, which can only be borne of a true artist". Those who knew Souza well will confirm that he was an artist who would not suffer fools easily and who commented always with a brutally honest tongue. That Souza's prediction was not an over statement of Charan's potential is amply proved by the prolificity and brilliance of Charan's work over the past three decades. Charan has perfected not only his skills as a painter but also the grammar of expression. The brilliance of his paintings lies in the perfection of this language. - Niyatee Shinde    October 2005