Barwe, Prabhakar

In King and Queen of Spades, Barwe employs solid, contrasting colors, in a style reminiscent of Basohli painting, a school of Pahari artists who often use deep reds and yellows. Also recalling Indian textile design in its alternation of fields of color with more intricate designs, this painting reflects Barwe’s association with the Weaver’s Service Centre at the Government of India’s Ministry of Textiles in Varanasi. Meeting artists such as Ambadas there, Barwe went on to mine the patterns and designs found in Indian crafts, challenging the hegemony of Western visual idioms in modernist art.