Shuttling between The Hague in Netherlands and Pune in pandemic times is not an easy task for anyone, least of all an artist operating from two distinct studio spaces. But sculptor-painter Bhaskar Hande, 65, has not just managed the cross-continental distance since 1984, but also a lifetime passion—celebration of the super-evocative visual vocabulary of 17th century-Marathi saint and poet Tukaram Maharaj. 

Hande is currently in Pune for the release of Vi Cha Kela Thoba (Vishwakarma Publications, R200), the second work in a book series that deconstructs visual images, metaphors and similes in the saint’s devotional Gatha. Of the total 4,500 abhangs (a poetic form), Hande articulates 41 creations in three-dimensional objects/sculptures and silkscreen prints. The reader is taken on a picturesque journey in which each abhang is explained in literary terms, and then distilled through the crucible of chromatic perceptible visuals, which are resident in verse, but unseen to the reader.