Three shows, one city and a new look at old masters

The city of Delhi is serving as a backdrop to an interesting moment in art history. Exhibitions have been taking place over the past few months to celebrate milestones of significant artists, who have contributed to the evolution of art in post-independence India. While five late masters—Ram Kumar, K.G. Subramanyan, F.N. Souza, V.S. Gaitonde and Mohan Samant—mark their centenary this year, Himmat Shah, who turned 92 this year, contemplates the process of creation, which continues to form the essence of his lifelong pursuit of art.

At this important juncture, how one can look differently at well-known practices of these well-loved modernists. The answer, perhaps, lies in newer curatorial perspectives. And indeed, if one were to travel from one exhibition to another, one would find newer readings and connections being made between the various practices, the sociopolitical context and art movements. At Bikaner House, the show, Ninety and After Excursions of a Free Imagination, spotlights archival photos and news clippings related to Himmat Shah, who continues to be prolific at the age of 92.

These don’t just showcase the personal and artistic journey of the artist— known for his bronze sculptures, drawings and burnt paper collages—but also contextualise him within broader art history. There are precious photos of Gulammohammed Sheikh, Raghav Kaneria and Shah at the Fine Art Fair, 1968, taken by fellow artist Jyoti Bhatt. These place Shah within the context of Group 1890, a short-lived but influential collective formed in 1962 by 12 young artists like Shah, J. Swaminathan, Sheikh, Jeram Patel, Ambadas, Bhatt, Kaneria, and M. Reddeppa Naidu, who looked “to envisage a new world of experience with greater freedom, challenging the notion of art needing to represent or challenge reality,” as mentioned in the group’s manifesto, which was adopted in 1963.

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“These images reveal a lot about the friendships between the artists, the discussions on art and philosophy they might have embarked on, and their combined need to break from tradition,” says Mamta Singhania, founder, Anant Art Gallery, who is presenting the show at Bikaner House.

Much before the group came into being, one of the key influences on Shah was his teacher, K.G. Subramanyan, at the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara. The viewer can move from Bikaner House to Arthshila, where a new show, A Forest of Many Suns, focuses on the multifaceted career of Subramanyan, including his role as an educationist. Curated by R. Siva Kumar, the exhibition offers a nuanced understanding of the 73-year-long practice of the Indian modernist, who scripted a new artistic identity for a newly independent nation.

While you find exploration of his work as a painter, muralist, textile artist, children’s book writer-illustrator and toy maker at Arthshila, another ongoing exhibition at Vadehra Art Gallery focuses solely on the last decade of the artist’s career when age didn’t diminish the creative fire within him. Select works from Subramanyan’s practice also form a part of a group show, India’s Rockefeller artists, at DAG, New Delhi (on till 19 October).

It places him within a group of iconic Indian painters and sculptors, who travelled to the US on philanthropic grants offered by the John D. Rockefeller III’s Fund, and later through the Asian Cultural Council. Some of the notable beneficiaries included Ram Kumar, Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, Krishen Khanna, Natvar Bhavsar, Jyoti Bhatt, Avinash Chandra, Bhupen Khakhar and Rekha Rodwittiya. Viewing the works together doesn’t just offer a glimpse of the different vocabularies that enriched 20th century art, but also the role that philanthropy can play in fostering artistic practices.

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Some of these newer readings are pertinent to bring the focus back to important aspects of a practice. For instance, Gaitonde has been in the news for the past few years for the prices that his works have fetched at auctions. And yet, there have to be fresh ways of looking at the legacy of this reclusive abstractionist. Writer-critic Meera Menezes and author of the 2016-book on the artist, Sonata of Solitude, for one, would like to look at his works in conjunction with that of the Progressive Artists Group (PAG). “It was Husain who drew Gaitonde into the folds of the PAG in the late 1940s, and once the group disbanded, Gaitonde joined the Bombay Group, whose members included Ara and Hebbar. By bringing these different artists and their practices again in conversation, I would be interested in the new insights that can be gleaned about that time,” she says.

Another approach would be looking at Gaitonde’s shift from a figurative to a nonobjective phase. This would trace the influences of miniature painting in the early part of his career to his encounter with Paul Klee and later with Zen, Chinese calligraphy and the teachings of Indian spiritual leaders such as Ramana Maharishi, Jiddu Krishamurti and Nisargadatta Maharaj. Several artists started with figuration, moved to abstraction and then returned to figuration. “But Gaitonde actually didn’t,” she says.

For Ushmita Sahu, director and head curator, Emami Art, Kolkata, such newer curatorial readings are important to reintroduce artists to a newer audience—young artists or students, who might have come across these practices and works in books, but not had the chance to see them in real life. “Such surveys allow us to connect the past with the present, and to offer material that others can take forward in their own way,” says Sahu.

Himmat Shah: Connecting with the spirit of the material

At the Centre for Contemporary Art, Bikaner House, New Delhi, the drawings on display offer a rare peek into artist Himmat Shah’s mind. An Untitled work from 2020 resembles a nebulous cloud from afar. When you go closer, however, you can make out foliage, musical notes, wires and more. These drawings created in 2020-21 are a part of the show, Ninety and After: Excursions of a Free Imagination, presented by Anant Art. What comes through is the artist’s commitment to the process of creating art. It is not the end result—the final object—that is significant but it is the act of making art that holds reverence, almost like worship.

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Mamta Singhania, founder, Anant Art, has known Shah for nearly 20 years. Over this period, the modernist has continued to engage with the spirit of the material, be it clay, ink or graphite. He has often talked about the fact that the material keeps awakening and evolving with time, just as the soul of the artist. The show becomes significant and inspiring as you can see the artist at 92 drawing with such a steady hand. The recent drawings done during the pandemic years are like outpourings of his mind. “His personal life and artistic practice are deeply interlinked. He is a seeker, his work is karma for him, a continuous journey about looking within,” adds Singhania.

To show this evolution, these drawings have been juxtaposed against sculptures and other significant works borrowed from the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, and archival material—photos, exhibition posters, documents—curated by Asia Art Archive in India. One of the highlights is a display of his recent bronze sculptures, which show his relentless pursuit of form and material even as he navigates the challenges of age. Drawings have never been a preparatory tool for Shah’s other works; rather they hold a place of their own within his visual repertoire.

“Many of these are like labyrinths of the mind. There is a release of some kind of anxiety, some unspoken uncertainty, which allows the hand to move a particular way. It has a lot to do with an internal expressive urge,” says Roobina Karode, director and chief curator, KNMA, who is the special adviser to this show. “He just picks up a pen, pencil, graphite or ink and just plunges into a space. And in that very space, he keeps on creating and drawing—and these works acquire their own internal logic and rhythm.”

She finds it unique—this act of immersing in the media that he works with. It is something that he lives with, shares space with and practises every day. So if he is working on a terracotta sculpture, that clay becomes a part of his daily life. “He touches it everyday, waters it everyday and must reflect on it everyday. That is the way he understands the medium, and very few artists have that kind of connection,” says Karode. “An exhibition like this has been very inspiring, as even after so long, he talks about searching for art. He is still in the process of understanding and enjoying the adbhuta of the world. Neither has he lived superficially, not has he practised art superficially.”

At Bikaner House, New Delhi, till 6 October, 11am-7pm.

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A legacy for the next 100 years

In May, Mumbai-based curator and cultural theorist Nancy Adajania set out with the question: “How do you make the legacy of an artist like K.G. Subramanyan relevant for the next 100 years?” The retrospective, One Hundred Years and Counting: Re-Scripting KG Subramanyan, held at Emami Art, Kolkata—the first such large-scale show to be held since the artist’s death in 2016—sought to re-assess his legacy, and dismantle the generic readings that persisted about him and his work. “I decided to focus on K.G. Subramanyan’s political philosophy by highlighting his pluralist vision, and his belief in conviviality over conflict…,” Adajania mentioned in an interview to Lounge.

Today, a number of thematic exhibitions are picking up specific strands from the artist’s life and times. The Last Decade at Vadehra Art Gallery, curated by R. Siva Kumar, for instance, looks at just how prolific Subramanyan became during the last few years of his life. “When you are young, you want to compete with the world, and want to be at the forefront of all that is happening around you. As you grow old, things change. Writer Milan Kundera once mentioned that when you are old, you are not fighting with your contemporaries but you with the old masters. You want to belong to that legacy,” says Siva Kumar. It was a similar thought that changed Subramanyan’s attitude towards the self and the transitory idea of contemporaneity.

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The curator finds it interesting that age didn’t bring with it a diminishing of observation or expression for the artist. In fact, the three large murals that Subramanyan painted between 2009-12—measuring over 2,000 sq. ft and created while standing on a scaffolding—are evidence of this fact. “His last two murals in Santiniketan, both covering entire buildings and done in a month’s time, underscore this,” mentions the curatorial note. 

The other show, A Forest of Many Suns, also curated by Siva Kumar, features material from the Takshila Art Collection in collaboration with Seagull Calcutta, Ark Foundation for the Arts, DAG, KNMA, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, Piramal Art Foundation, among others. It also includes a selection of archival material by Asia Art Archive in India. The earlier works, featured here, highlight the many ways in which Subramanyan broke tradition and tried to find a style for himself. “If you look at Souza, who is also celebrating his centenary year, he was very certain about taking an extreme form of assertive individualism. This was reflected in a style—visibly modern and expressive. Subramanyan, on the other hand, had been part of the nationalist movement and was close to the Tagorean mission. He was not willing to let go of the social aspect of art in place of an individualistic form,” elaborates Siva Kumar.

In this way, the curator spotlights how artists at this time were working and responding parallelly to the same sociopolitical milieu. Subramanyan, for instance, wanted some distance between the artist and the state. “The other thing he took up seriously was education. He was a prolific mentor, following in the path of his teachers—Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee. He was also associated with the handloom board and craftspersons, and found this yet another way of adding to nation building,” says Siva Kumar. 

‘The Last Decade’ is on at Vadehra Art Gallery till 9 October; and ‘Forests of the Sun’ can be viewed from 5 October to 5 January, at Arthshila