Viswanadhan at Nathalie Obadia, Paris
- tanishagandhi96
- Mar 14
- 3 min read
Forms of light
17 - January - 8 March
Written by : Tanisha Gandhi
Nathalie Obadia’s Paris gallery on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré began the year gracing us with a long-overdue retrouvailles* with a talent who had been underground for a moment. Their latest exhibition running from January 17 till March 8 invited us into the world of Viswanadhan.
Born in Kadavoor, Kerala, and currently based in Paris, Viswanadhan was surrounded by art from a young age. His family came from a lineage of traditional architects, painters, and sculptors. While his formal education was rooted in Western art and its principles, he always found himself drawn back to the essence of his origins: simple gestures, sacred geometry, mandalas, and the infinite.
A short visit to France in 1968 transformed into a permanent stay and immediate artistic success. He exhibited frequently at the prestigious Galerie de France, alongside modern masters like Hans Hartung and Pierre Soulages, and his work became part of major collections, including the Centre Pompidou (Sable). Early in his career, he won the Palette d’Or Prize** and an award at the 9th Biennale Internationale de Menton (France, 1972). The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw him exhibiting across France, Belgium, and India, with notable group shows at Nature Morte Gallery (New Delhi, 2016), Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2018), and KANAL Pompidou (Brussels, 2018). Despite this momentum, his name somehow faded from the international art world—until now.
His latest show at Nathalie Obadia is a stunning reintroduction. Mostly monochromatic at first glance, the works reveal subtle, playful intersections of blue, red, and yellow, capturing light through bold yet meditative gestures. Thanks to this exhibition, Viswanadhan is back in the spotlight—exactly where he belongs.
His artistic language has always been one of transformation and self-discovery. He began with geometric forms before shifting toward a more minimal abstraction, marked by thick brushstrokes. His deep, textured reds feel almost like glowing embers—comforting, rich, and layered. Fascinated by light and form, he explored casein, a material that allows colors to retain vibrancy while maintaining a unique matte finish. The way his colors interact—overlapping yet holding their own—was something I found particularly compelling.
His relationship with cinema also plays a role in his paintings. He has developed a fascinating filmography, and the repetitive horizontal strokes in his later abstract works evoke the rhythm of film stills—each layer capturing a moment in time, yet all blending into a continuous, unfolding sequence. His works tell a story, not through narrative progression, but within a single frame.
There’s an undeniable visual connection between Viswanadhan and S.H. Raza, another Indian artist who made Paris his home. But while Raza worked within structured geometric compositions, Viswanadhan’s approach is looser, more gestural—somewhere between atmospheric and color field abstraction. I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to see his work next to a Rothko. There are visual similarities, yet the emotions they evoke feel entirely different.
His presence at both the Sharjah Biennale and Gallery Nathalie Obadia reaffirms his place in contemporary abstraction, where time, light, and space converge in his ever-evolving practice.
*French word for reunion or rediscovery
**The Festival International de la Peinture (Cagnes-sur-Mer, 1971)
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