A painting by Paritosh Sen at the Summer show of CIMA Gallery. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

A state of mind. An idea. A mood of contemplation. A concept. When artists choose to depict on canvas or paper their deepest thoughts, they often move away from the world of forms and figures. They have done so from the dawn of the history of art.

Without going into the glories of abstract art as we know it in our times, here or in the West, viewers will get an opportunity to see some fine works by one of the leading Indian abstract artists at the current Summer show mounted by CIMA Gallery.

These are small but significant works of Prabhakar Kolte, the artist from Mumbai. He uses a limited palette of beautifully orchestrated acrylics in varying shades and textures of grey, blue and ochre. Or else it is just two bold vertical brushstrokes in charcoal grey.

The artist had surely pored over the blank mount board before application of paint and deciding whether it will drip on or slash the space. This gives each work an intense meditative quality.

As a matter of fact, the current show is a celebration of abstract art. There are a couple of tiny works by two other artists too ? Manoj S. Kanchangal and Rajendra Dhawan. They both work ? at least in their paintings on display ? in the minimum of space and with the least possible use of paint. A patch of pigment, a squiggle ? and that?s it. Yet they make a lot of impact ? comparable to the minuscule landscapes of Abanindranth.

One is familiar with Amitava Das?s smaller works. Here, the Delhi-based artist presents a huge canvas ? nearly white ? where he creates the texture of crimped textile. On one border are squiggles akin to the circuit on a mother board. The effect is quite different from the abstract paintings we are used to seeing. Samir Aich has used black on black with remarkable effect. The wings of a crow spans the breadth of a canvas, a caricature with a wicked glint in its eye.