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Figurative


Image of Melancolia (Sorrow's Refrain)

Melancolia (Sorrow's Refrain)
Print

2010
68 x 48 in. (172.72 x 121.92 cm)

Chitra Ganesh (Brooklyn, New York, 1975 - ) Primary

Object Type: Print
Medium and Support: Lambda LightJet print on paper
Credit Line: Museum purchase with funds contributed by the Collection Committee
Accession Number: 2011.10

SJMA Label Text


Initial Public Offering: New Works from SJMA’s Permanent Collection (2014)

Inspired by Albrecht Dürer’s iconic Melancolia I (1514), Chitra Ganesh created this large, mixed-media print as a meditation on the self in dealing with the complexities of contemporary life. Like Dürer, Ganesh depicted the universe as a balance of opposites: light/dark, hard/soft, empty/full. The emotional condition melancholia itself encompasses opposites: one can experience both positive and negative feelings. In the prints of Ganesh and Dürer, the main figure is steeped in contemplation and reflection. Ganesh, however, employed the visual narratives of comic books and graphic novels to bring these ideas into the present. At the top of the print, she added a text that refers to black bile, one of the four medieval bodily “humors” and associated with melancholia.


So, Who Do You Think You Are? (2011-2012)

Finding inspiration in Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer’s iconic Melancolia I (1514), Chitra Ganesh created this large, mixed-media print as a meditation on the self in dealing with the complexities of contemporary life. Like Dürer, Ganesh showed the universe as a balance of opposites: light/dark, hard/soft, empty/full. Melancholia is also a balance of opposites during which one can experience both positive and negative feelings. The main figure in Ganesh and Dürer’s respective prints are shown in deep contemplation and reflection. In her print, Ganesh also employed the visual narratives of comic books and graphic novels to bring these ideas into the present. At the top of the print is a text by Ganesh that refers to black bile, one of the four medieval bodily “humors” and associated with melancholia. However, as in all of Ganesh’s work, there is disjunction between image and text, which challenges viewers to resolve this relationship.

Exhibition

A Point Stretched: Views on Time, November 4, 2022 – July 9, 2023, Plaza and Gibson Galleries, San José Museum of Art.

Initial Public Offering: New Works from SJMA’s Permanent Collection, March 1, 2014 - August 24, 2014, New Wing, First floor, Gibson Family Gallery and Plaza Gallery, San José Museum of Art.

So, Who Do You Think You Are?, September 25, 2011- January 15, 2012, New Wing, Second Floor, Central Skylight Gallery, San José Museum of Art.

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Dimensions
  • Image Dimensions: 68 x 48 in. (172.72 x 121.92 cm)

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