Door II by Abir Karmakar
84 x 32.5 in
Oil On Canvas
2013
Through creaking doors
walk my ideas of people.
Cracked frames, bent and sullen.
Groaning hinges, bones
bruised and rusted.
– Lisa Bellissimo
Door II is an oil-on-canvas painting by Abir Karmakar, created in 2013. Born in 1977 in Siliguri, West Bengal, Karmakar graduated in 2003 from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda with a MA (fineart, painting). He became known for his voyeuristic, sensual and androgynous self-portraits in which he almost forces a viewer to actively particpate in the art’s narrative and challenges their notions of gender and sexuality. With impeccable brush work, warm, golden lighting and a commitment to realism infused into the painting, his works are reminiscent of those from the baroque era. His work, very immersive and interactive, has been displayed at various solo shows in gallery espace in New Delhi, The Museum Gallery in Mumbai, the Aicon Gallery in New York and galerie heike curtze in Berlin.
This piece in particular is, at face value, a wooden door that fills and almost creates the canvas itself, painstakingly detailed with scratches, scuff marks and fading, all on a startlingly realistic rendition of a wooden surface. Abir Karmakar’s other works also consist of such well rendered commonplace objects, which, devoid of human figures, require the viewer’s attention and participation to complete the narrative of these almost anthropomorphised objects. When Door II is understood as a part of the anthology of these extremely inviting, authentic domestic interiors, whose creator is influenced by the Baroque era where concept and execution are of prime importance, its meaning and purpose becomes clear. With its quality of looking like an object study painting, Door II pulls its namesake out of symbolism laden paintings and reconceptualises the symbol of a door by itself: the potentially infinite possibilities that lies behind it, in a viewer’s imagination.
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