“painting” process of Bari Kumar
How does Bari Kumar combine his personal context with the larger cultural context and history?
How do you interpret his art? The same or differently than he does?
In thinking about color, tradition, and symbolism, is one element more expressive or meaningful to you?
(sketchbook assignment on widget for Art 1)
mygbkartclasses 
But yah, so i don’t really get the meaning or any possible meanings to take away from this…
I like the colors he uses and its much easier to see how intricate the design is when you look at an individual piece of cloth. The cloth is cool.
That is all.
Look at your classmates’ comments and you will get some insights into the possible meanings the art has through the choices the artist made in creating it.
He does a painting on the theme of Renaissance but giving it his own style by wanting to blind fold her which im guessing gives it more of a meaning. I interpret his art as really historical but giving it a, “behind the picture” meaning. Color and symbolism were what I thought were the most expressive and meaningful. I like the fact that he gave us a little trip to India, too!
He has a really good understanding on how you can manipulate a painting in a small way but totally
change the feeling of the art. I still am trying to guess what inspired him to paint that blindfolded
women. I would like to see some of his original artwork though.
I was really interested in how much work he put into that…. I like the fact that he took an image and made it his own. Using the fabric was a good touch too. I liked that something as smooth and fluid as fabric created that pixelated image at the very end. The blindfold has a lot of symbolism…. I thought that it was nice that he added it to reflect the epic.
I really liked the texture of the painting and how he re-created a Renaissance painting. It’s pretty incredible how patient he is with the process as well. The blindfold really does give the painting a different feeling, and I really like how he tried to implement his own ideas into such a classic piece of artwork.
Bari Kumar combines renaissance Europe with his own Indian culture to combine a unique piece of art that stretches between the two. Although it is an amazing job he has done with the huge piece with all of the tiny rectangles, I am not sure how I interpret the art of Bari Kumar. The symbol of the blindfold is strong, but I like the color that he uses more. When it shows the steps of the construction of the huge paneled version of the art piece, it is amazing to see how many shades are used to get the color just right. All of the different tones make the face look so real and lifelike.
I love the layered look he gets by using all the different individual pieces of cardboard covered cloth. I’m really impressed by the final outcome of his artwork. Also, I like the symbolism of his art. I like how he pointed out that by adding the bindi, Mary has no longer become a european figure (as expressed in the Renaissance painting). She has become a Indian figure. I think that by adding the blindfold, he’ pointing out that faith a personal experience, and while religions differ dramatically over the world, there is a fundamental human-ness to it all.
Also, I liked the anecdote about the wife who blinded herself to see the world her husband sees.
I liked how he brought together the Western culture and Indian culture with the bindi. The story about the blindfold was interesting, and I liked that it was based on an ancient Indian epic. I think his art is very spiritual and shows a sort of unity between different cultures and religions by the way he blended the two in the painting. I liked his use of cloth when he remade it, and it gave it an interesting sort of blurry effect which creates a more striking piece of art.
It’s really interesting how that small addition of the bindi altered the painting so much. While I appreciate the symbolism in the blindfold, I almost liked the painting better before he added it because it was striking to see such a familiar image changed so much by a red dot.
I also thought the “painting” using cloth was really inventive. I liked the pixilated texture it gave. Probably takes a long time to do though!
it was interesting to combine between the western culture and indian culture.And The blindfold has a lot of symbolism, it’s really nice and I like the colors and it’s easy to see.
He does the bindi on the forehead, which makes it not just catholic. I interpret his art as a twist on old art. I think symbolism and color are both meaningful to me.
I think it is really cool that he is integrating two very different cultures into this painting. The bindi and the blindfold have a large impact on the painting and change it a lot. I really like the method of using the pieces of fabric for his art.
I think it’s interesting how Bari Kumar took an old Renaissance painting and combined it with his own Indian culture, creating a much more interesting and meaningful piece of art. I also found it shocking how just adding a bindi to her forehead changed the painting completely. I think using the pieces of cloth to create a “pixelated” reproduction of the painting created a feeling of unity between the blindfold and the rest of the painting (since they’re both fabric).
Excellent insight into the connections between the blindfold and the fabric. His media functions on multiple levels: symbolic, visual, and cultural.
This was really interesting for me to look at because it’s my culture that I can see embedded in this Renaissance piece. Watching the video, I didn’t really have any idea what he was going to do, and I was somewhat confused when they started cutting fabric into pieces. Then I learned that he was going to stack the different pieces to create a larger picture. It created a more 3D sort of image, even though everything was still on one plane. I also enjoyed the “blocky” look of his style of art (which is obviously created by using the different cloth pieces.)
I was impressed at how much just adding a chanlo (aka bindi, which symbolizes marriage) changed the context of the image. Now instead of a Catholic theme, a Hindu theme took over. And when he added the blindfold I made the connection with the Mahabharat. From what I remember the king’s wife blindfold herself because the king is blind, and she couldn’t bear the fact that she was able to see and he wasn’t. (I remember my grandma reading me this story and the Ramayan to me when I was little.)
It’s hard to pick just one aspect that is most meaningful to me because to different people, with different backgrounds, the painting will be different. For me, it’s a “western” depiction of a Hindu classic. To someone else it might just be a blind Indian person who slightly resembles Mary…
Thanks for sharing these personal insights!
How does Bari Kumar combine his personal context with the larger cultural context and history:
He does this by bringing his culture together with, in this case, a symbol from Christianity, and merges the two into what he believes is a symbol that will appeal to a wider base.
How do you interpret his art:
I interpret his art as an attempt to merge together two types of cultural symbol.
The same or differently than he does:
I’m pretty sure the same as he does?
In thinking about color, tradition, and symbolism, is one element more expressive or meaningful to you:
As far as the elements added to the original painting he added three things: the bindi, the blindfold, and his particular artistic style. I must admit that none of the elements are particularly meaningful to me; however, I do find his art style to be interesting.
He combined his personal context with history by taking a renaissance painting and combining it with his culture. I think it is really cool how he made a mosaic using little pieces of cloth, which adds another aspect of his culture to this piece. It’s interesting how when I saw the painting with the bindi, I immediately associated it with Indian culture. I also think the blindfold had a huge impact on this piece and changed its meaning completely. The symbolism was really meaningful.
~ Ramsey Kerr ~
Bari Kumar believes that his picture represents the how the ideal woman is blindly fallowing the faith, I dont know if he thinks that they are ideal because they are blindly fallowing the faith, or if the woman is being blinded by fallowing the faith. i don’t know how to interpret this because i dont really know what the dot on her forehead means, or who it is, or what their religion is and how it is practiced. So it is nor really meaningful to me, and the colors are not exciting, but i do find his method interesting, like putting a puzzle together by using very slightly different colored cloth pieces.
Q:How does Bari Kumar combine his personal context with the larger cultural context and history?
A:he combined an old renisanse painting with his own culture. mixing the two together
Q:How do you interpret his art? The same or differently than he does?
A:I interpret his art a a cultural bridge and a very clever way of sowing it off(the cloth cards). that could be different than his idea, but i don’t know
Q:In thinking about color, tradition, and symbolism, is one element more expressive or meaningful to you?
A:it is very symbolic but the color transitions also play an important part.
I didn’t know whether to focus on the meaning of the painting or the creating on the work involving the cloth wrapped cardboard bits. However, our assignment was to create a collage so I’m guessing the focus is on the medium. At first I didn’t understand where Kumar was going with his idea but eventually I caught on. I could see that task being very meticulous and time consuming. It sure did turn out nicely!
Yes, you are working with color, and collage to put materials together for a painted effect so it’s good to focus on that bu,t by all means, please look to the symbolism, the subject, and the meaning behind his artistic choices since that is where you are headed with your work.
This was my favorite video we have looked at so far because of this artists creativity and his love for his culture is pure and clearly shown. I respected how he turned the original Renaissance painting into something he can relate too. In all the ways I have seen artists communicate through their choice medium and paints, this one attracts my eye because of its uniqueness. I also loved how much he was dedicated to his work and culture.
I would say symbolism is very important to me. It can change people’s lives, and it has certainly impacted mine. A few of my favorite artists use very subtle symbolism in their art, and it really goes a long way. I think his work is very dedicated, and he seems to really appreciate everything around him, which I find comforting.
One thing I found particularly symbolic was the use of the christian symbol of the virgin Mary in a more worldly context. I did think the painting looked better than the cloth art though.
I thought it was interesting that he used such an iconic, “western” image and transformed it so it reflected Indian culture. His use of the bindi, representative of motherhood, and blindfold on Mary has many connotations for me. Mainly, I get a sense of patriarchy and devotion of a wife to her husband that is valued in both cultures.
Symbolism is most powerful to me. Certain images carry far more meaning than color could ever convey.
I thought it was really interesting how he incorporated parts of the epic into his painting, and then by using fabric–the very thing the women uses to blind herself–to make something visually interesting. I personally don’t like the ‘pixelated’ look, and the blindfold looks…off when he’s finished. But despite that, the process was really interesting and impressive.
I found the combination of European images with his own Indian additions to be fascinating. In addition it was cool how the use of the bindi was capable of changing the image. This was interesting because it showed how small manipulations were capable of changing the art in a profound way. In addition I thought using the fabric was interesting and added to the art.
it is interesting to see how he is combining both the western christian symbols and the eastern religious symbols and showing how they are both the same in this work of “blind faith” where both are really just faith in something you can’t see. I think his work with the cloth is really cool, it is a creative way to create an image. I’m not sure his idea of what the symbols mean are exactly the same as my ideas because everyone has a different interpretation, but because of that I think that symbolism and tradition are extremely important in art. It allows the viewer to make their own decision about the art based on what they think of the symbols involved.
I have not seen a lot of work like this before so to me the idea of combining different cultural symbols into a single pieces of part is original and a great idea that I have not seen before