Olivia Fraser: A Journey Within

18 September - 20 October 2020

This world around us: one can see it through the doorway of the eyes (chakshu-dvaara); but it is through the mind alone (mano-dvaara) that it can be known.

- old Sanskrit saying
"I feel there is a natural affinity between a traditional Indian artistic aesthetic, whether it be Tantric Art or miniature painting, and Western ideas of Minimalism, Op Art and Geometric Abstraction. All explore essence, sensation and perception. I have sought to combine these perspectives, by focusing in on the iterative, pairing it down to the minimal and ultimately striving to reach for an essence while also pursuing the idea of movement which is innate in the texts and practices of yoga."
Olivia Fraser
Metamorphosis I, 2018
Stone pigments, Arabic gum and Gold leaf on handmade Sanganer paper
Consists of 5 panels
Total: 27.9 x 139.5 x 27.9 cm
11 x 54 7/8 x 11 in
"On first seeing 'The Scent of The Lotus', in which a swarm of bees radiate in towards a central lotus blossom, I found myself drawn - no, pulled - into the image by its great centripetal force, and I also seemed to hear or feel, at some deep internal level, the vibration of the bees' wings as they move with order and urgency to their goal. 'On hearing the sound of a bee from within,' declares The Gheranda Samhita, 'lead the mind there.' " - Robert Macfarlane, 2018
Olivia Fraser
The Sound of a Bee, 2018
Stone pigments, Arabic gum and Gold leaf on handmade Sanganer paper
76.2 x 147.3 cm
30 x 58 in
£ 12,000.00
Olivia Fraser
Lotus, 2017
Stone pigments and Arabic gum on handmade Sanganer paper
91.4 x 73.7 cm
36 x 29 in
£ 8,000.00

The Lotus flower has ancient sacred associations within the art of India. As a flower that blooms out of the mud, it is associated with purity, perfection, resurrection and spiritual growth. The shift in scale and minimalist isolation of the lotus floating within a field of intense blue is an attempt to test the abilities of the image to expand its meaning and become confrontational.

"This is a painting about iconography and texture and here I have contrasted flat plains of colour with minute brushstrokes made with a single - haired squirrel brush for the prataj or shading work. It is a form of shading particular to the Indian miniature painting tradition and involves rhythmic, slow, deliberate brushstrokes that feel almost meditative in their intensity and concentration."
"I am now concerned with inner landscapes rather than external ones, so the majority of my works over the last few years are painted or enclosed within a square format reflecting the idea of a mandala with its associations of energized space and acute meditation."
Olivia Fraser
Kalachakra, 2016
Stone pigments and Arabic gum on handmade Sanganer paper
27.9 x 27.9 cm. (11 x 11 in.) each.
27.9 x 83.8 cm. (11 x 33 in.) overall
£ 8,000.00
Limited Edition Prints Available for Sale
OLIVIA FRASER: A JOURNEY WITHIN
PUBLISHER: HARPER COLLINS INDIA
A Journey Within documents Olivia Fraser’s acclaimed paintings over the last decade, which reflect her remarkable inner quest towards elaboration by simplification. Following her induction into Indian miniature painting in a traditional Jaipur atelier, Fraser’s focus shifted from painting the world around her to depicting a landscape more metaphysical in nature. Trained by her Jaipuri gurus, she learned to grind and mix mineral pigments to their correct consistency. She is especially influenced by Nathdwara pichwai paintings and early nineteenth-century Jodpuri Mansingh-period imagery, produced by the Nath yogis, whose visual language reaches back to an archetypal iconography rooted in India’s deepest and most philosophical artistic heritage – complex abstract thoughts captured in seemingly simple visual language. The work Fraser has produced inspired by these twin muses is nevertheless profoundly contemporary, breaching both temporal and geographical borders, emerging as it does from her twin life between East and West.

Hardback

Pages: 208

£35

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