Visual Arts Library
World Goes On
Artist: Arpana Caur
Date:
1984
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 182.9 x 121.9 cm
Event: India - Pakistan Partition
Motif:
Collapsing Space
Arpana Caur's series World Goes On was inspired by the Sikh massacres that occurred after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in1984. In these works, Caur explores the inevitable tragedies of life, the isolation of people in despair, and the apathy of the world around them. Painted in deep, resonant colors, the works are usually divided into three defined areas of water, earth, and sky. Water, which Caur often uses to symbolize death, is often seen as a river or stream at the bottom of the paintings. The subjects of the paintings always consist of a dying or suffering figure, onlookers who are indifferent to the suffering, and in some cases, a deity floating in the sky, representing the unchanging nature of the gods. Although the composition of the works might seem to suggest a dreamlike feeling, the undertones of oppression and trouble make clear that the situations depicted are grounded in reality.
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