Works combining Indian motifs with renaissance art on view in Delhi

New Delhi : Around 30 paintings by artist Raghu Vyas, whose works combine typically Indian mythological motifs and the European Renaissance technique he learnt in Italy, are on display at an exhibition that opened here on Friday.

The solo show, coupled with the launch of a coffee table book on his works of 20 years, features paintings Vyas is best known for, including one on Hollywood actor Nicole Kidman.

Vyas's coffee table book -- "The Art of Raghu Vyas" -- contains around 200 paintings he has done over two decades. It was launched by former Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra.

Inspired from Italian painter Raphael's "Three Graces", with its date of origin still contested as between 1503-05, Vyas's "Three Graces" shows Kidman in three avatars, including one that's playing a flute and wearing peacock feathers as headgear.

"I learnt the Renaissance technique around 20 years back in Rome (Italy), where they use the golden ratio amply in their works. It has come into my works too," Vyas told IANS.

On his paintings that look spectacularly Indian despite the western technique -- a style called contemporary imaginary realism -- the 62-year-old artist said he paints for the Indian people.

"This is what the Indians understand best."

The exhibition, without a theme, displays his work from the Saraswati series, the Sikhism series, the Buddha series and the Krishna series, among others.

Vyas, a devotee of Krishna, also paints the Hindu deity generously. "Krishna is recognised globally as Indian. Indian people connect to him very well," he said.

Another painting on freedom activist Bal Gangadhar Tilak shows a confident Tilak during his trial in 1908 in a sedition case.

The exhibition is open for public viewing till November 15.