by Kenneth Kiff
29 May 1935 - 15 February 2001

When considering this preface, Ranbir came to see me an we had a long talk about the difficulty of writing about and discussing painting. It seemed to us both that the artist wants the painting to be ‘right’, or to ‘speak’, or to ‘sing’ - and is very likely thinking of the whole painting ‘speaking’ or ‘singing’, not just a part of it - and in using these or other such words has in mind something which is ultimately not illustration, or propaganda: or ‘formal’ picture-making. This has nothing to do with mystification, nor mysticism, nor religion.

Not that it is easy when painters talk about painting not being illustration to define what is meant. Clearly many painting European or Indian have been made which illustrate a story and yet which are agreed to be painting.

Sometimes, on the contrary, painters take the position that the painting is ‘about’ nothing or that it is only ‘about’ painting. This sounds an understandably defiant position in face of one temporarily pervasive intellectual context or another. All the same, it seems to painters like Ranbir and myself that that position makes no sense. A painting is more positive than that, it radiates into the world; communication does take place.

Not a question of ‘formal’ or ‘abstract’ qualities, exactly, nor off illustration or iconography exactly; but communication is there, and the artist’s physical activity has shaped it. The infinite flexibility of what the fingers can make is surely crucial to a consideration of painting; perhaps this is one of those simple ideas which are not really though about enough.

Ranbir emphasised the transformation that takes place as the materials used (colour, shapes, forms) cease to be merely the servants of the illustrative function. Ranbir emphasised also that the medium, not just the oils or the pigments, but the medium which is painting itself, offers a resistance, but this resistance is a source of freedom., and as it dissolves, the transformation into painting may begin to take place.