Black and White, and Red

The colour black is traditionally a negative colour, the colour of gloom. Just like white is the colour of purity, the colour of bliss. Black, white and all the shades of grey can together convey a whole gamut of emotions.

Add a swirl of red, and it creates drama in the visual. Red conveys warmth, aggression and life.

Anup Kumar Singh restricts his palette to these colours, black, white, red, and some shades in between. His recent exhibition at the Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi, was about men, women, animals and the environment, and the way these mingled. Red was used effectively to create the right sense of dramatic action, and highlighting.

Most of the works were on paper, and used watercolour, pencils and acrylics, He did add some times a few shades of other basic colours like yellow and green here, but they were rather muted, and only accentuated the shades of grey, or black and white, and of course red.