1 I ( - BARODA ,SCHOOL 'S CONTRIBUTION TO CON'l'Sf'lPORAnY AR'l' TR8NDS BY RATAN, PARH100
Much is being talked about the Baroda school during Lhe IC:\st , 1'ew years. Some artists from Barod~ have won international fame and it appears that attempts are being lTlc'lde to project p3rticular group and view poin t as the mos t significant or the characteris tic aspect of thls s::hool. To encompass the hall-marks of a regional centre of art activity in a short article is indeed a difficult task. Baroda became a centre of art activi ty from a clean slate wi th the inception of a new Fa,cul ty of Fine Arts under the university system wIth no hangovers of the past practice, be it Indian 'revivalist' or European 'academic realism'. This was since 1950, almost coinciding witb the beginninr"of the post Independence\ period. The present author has been involved with the institution during the last 42 years of its existence, first as a student of painting (1~&-l~9~ as the Head of theDepartmef1t9¥$.1~af) History and Aesthetics (including the Dean of the Facultyj and ,would like . " J l to see its contribution in terms of how the institution evolved itself into a stimulating worksho~ for creative artists. In that venture many teachers and artists from different,parts of India have pl~yed their role from generatIon ,to r,eneration. The institution , . especially its master's degree courses in divers.e specializations not only marle it into a higher institute of learning in the parlance of the university, but also as a community of artists working together regularly, even often lnter~cting ' with each other. It has been no mean achievement of. this ins tl tution tha tit has been able to sustain its primary a~m of serving RS a stimulating centre vf creative art activity fQ~ young men attracted from different parts of India and from diverse back~rol.lnds. Thus · on one hand Baro(l.a represents the cultural landmark from Gujarat and · yet it reflerts the pan-Indian response to' modernity and creative tensions ... of modern India •
In a ci ty which almost had no artists befor~ independence, nOVI has many ac ti ve artis ts ...:ho have been trained in the Faculty but neVL'r taugh t there yet daring to succeed as freelnncer,s, those \-,ho have taught ther'(! for years anci have now retir~d but yet activ(', those who ar~ still t~aching and all those young artists from different parts of India who are doing the master's degree or \"ho have come under scholr.lrship's. It will he unfair at this stage not to consider those also who are indepenctE:'ntl,! workiny, in the city. Of course flome old stalwarts who hr.lvp. left nre also important to be considered, not only ' scores of artist who had spent their crucial formative years her'e and have with that expe rience grown, while having settl '~ rl in Uw.i ;' hOrll2 !":t:1t~s. 1:-1
• like Painting, Sculpture, !pplied Art. and lubsoquently Graphio Art., aa well al Art History and Art Oritioi.m. ....') - ... i - that sense Baroda is not a provincial centre of a region but ha s much larger pnn-InrHan significance, sometl1 tne tha t Shan t1nike tara , - had assumed during the decades before independence. Baroda has given a lie to the notion that the art school experience only stifles creativity and somehow has to be endured by .a young artist, only to be forgotten gradually as a bad nightmere. But the Fine Arts , Faculty permises and what ,r call the 'mitti', (the earth) within these boundry walls,- has worked on the psyche and the minds of the, artists who throng there.) ~o infect them and to motivate th~m. BDroda school is collectively whnt all its active participants have made it at any given time. Baroda has had no rebels, rather everyone ,is a rebel 1n ~is own way. It is in this dialec,t1c manner that all conflicting aV8'nt garde view points functiu .. side by side, irrecond.led to each other yet open to·t~e~¥ ow..... j developing pos~tbilities.
It is significant that at the close of the decade of 1950s, the focus of modern art in Baroda was cubism anrt how to grapple with it, which is the key note in Bendre's paintings and 'is also reflected in the sculptural work of Sankho Chaodhury during those years. In painting the notion of abstract structure f.lnd tne juxta pos i ti on 0 f 'planes" as the real i ty o'f the pic torial '..J surface am to genera tc spact.' wi th these meMns, ra thQr thon the perpectival vanishing point, was how Bendre did a series of 'still l1fes' and figural paintings. Sankho Chaudhury cut the stone block (so also the wood block) as if he was moulding a 'plane' into ~ spiral, which he nctually did with metal sheets, exploiting the 'negative' and ~he 'positive' volumes and make the sculptural object as one which need to ~ looked at from all sides. His interest in 'elegance', in a way resembled the linear purity and grace of traditional Indian Sculpture.
Both the cubist planes and elagance enabled one to relate to traditional Indion painting and sculptural, I hel'itage r'Qspectively, and thus also b;gan the quest ot how do you relate to the tradition. This brought a new phase of thinking as to how do you consider your creative work in relation to your heritage as you re~ond to new movements. As we enter into the sixties it. will be observed that 'Abstraction' of all sorts, ranelng from the 'free' to the 'geometric' or 'hard edge', was around the shores of India. This too hao to be responded to. But all alonf, there was the admonition to observe everyday Indian life (called 'daily scene'), something that the latter generation ot Baroda artists have emphatically claioled to be their own. But it had become the routine to go for sketching to bazars, melas, sabzi market nnd the railway station (which even the present auther did in the 1950s). Thus pre- ••• 3 ••
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OCCUlJ.J tions wi th style or pictorial 1anguF.l,fTe went hand in hand with Indian s~bj~ct matter, right through during the 1950s anrt ) 1960s. It was und~r Bendre's advice that the fi~st artistS group was formed by US in 1956, called the Baroda Group of Ar t i s ts) V;'lfh Q., ~vr ~' i1'h'Oll i\eU \"r\ B~ba~)~ th.t. ~~~ '"J-QA.rr, The first generation pupils of Bendre and Sankho Chaudhury used cubism as well as tradltionalsources. Soon to be added was the source of 'abstraction' although some would claim the persuasive ...... , . , .. , influence of 'abstraction' in India due to the 'Two Decades of American Art' Exhibition held in Delhi durine the late 1960s. By around 1960 Bendre had turned to abstraction. Jyoti Bhatt had interestingly combined such sources as Saurashtra embroidary pa tterns and cubism wi tt· meticulous craftsmanship. Al though he showed interest in abstraction, he h~s introduced in painting and in his graphic work, (etchinR and silk screen) popular images as his version of returning to the figurRtlve mode. Shanti Dave started with rural figurative groups in ensentiol1y stylized outline, but was to turn to abstraction by around 1960 when he left Baroda to settle in Delhi. The heavy textured layers of colour spread on the canvas.) sometlmes looking like the aerial view of demarkated fields, .have been his main-stay for many years.
Ratan Parlmoo began a style with his pre-occupations with the 'flat' perspective of miniature paintin~, distribution of pure colour ann bold outlines during late 1950s. This lend him to abstr~ction by 1960 which ;e~alned surlous concern with him for severt'll years, involving the texture, the bursh stroke FInd the colour archestration. He explored the adv:lntages of the wax - enco~stic as binding medium and later prefered the freedom offered by the liquid paints. He too felt the crisis of abstractlon and turned to the figure by 1970 with this difference, that by that time he felt painting to be an expre~sion of a much more h4V~ pri Vi'i te world of obsessions and fears wh icn become thesQurces of his specifically individualistic i~aeery.
K. G. SUbramanyam, another early teacher , hnrt .too toyed with cubism in his work during the late 1950s and also texture, but was always interested in figure drawing, which has played greater role in his work frClm the late 1960s :on\o/ards, after a tr1p 'to the USA. This changed his attitude to colour in particular and the adaptation of cut up imageries arranged in se;1es of boxes wi thin the canva!.,. frame. Perhaps it was wi th his terra cotta reliefs during th~ seventies that his work incorp~rated stirica1 e1emcn ts and socio-po11 tical s1 tuations, which are consistently dep ... -.: ted by him in hiG characteristic manner in numer aUG druwings and pa.iIltines. v
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Not a teacher of painting but of 'Applied Arts', Jeram Patel had been influential during the 1960s as one who indulged in creative drawing as expression of deep unconscious. Based on these he had also dona ..iome li thoeraphs thoup;h %" his 'Painting' activity was much distinct, which did not involve "drawn" or 'pain ted' imagery but was 'burnt' into the ,."ood surface.
Bhupen l'.nakhar in early seventies wa~ hailerl ns a 'Pop' artist (with reference to the American/British pop Art). His sources and inspirations were simil~r ~s the painters of the West, viz. popular imagery propagated through mass madi.a-1n IncUan case the popular calender. This took him to using semi-tr,ad 1tional and semi-realls~lc style of the Nathadvara school of paintings. The apparent 'naiv~tte' of his style has been much. admired • Another of his sources was the 'firka sets' of the Patna artists during the 'Company School', This led him to the typical Indian life that one is familiar with wall Vivan Sundaran has often done paintings, which have political overtone:'" which he would,lUte to be 'seen as such, as with the drawings of Mexican connections ,during the seventies and the recent black and wh i te painting5 referinp; to the American spear headed attack on Ira~. In between he, has done ser~~s of works called 'Journ~ysl and those relating: to Sufdar Hashmi's martyrdom. At times having indirect allegorical meaning, some ofther!) also reveal Vivan's interest in sheer pictorial qualities like brush work, colour orctH~strat, lon and texture. In a seriese. of portr~lts ' of persons connected with personal life, ChI 1, :'JfI1 Sf11 .... " hnd for the fi,',r;t timC' fl1]t~'; the hockgrounrls with 'quotnti nsf as it Vlt1Cl'e, from the Indian lIIeniatures, like houses, trees (J I' fly ing angl2s. Himsel f a poe t, ht:? had ea rl Ler done a numher of pCJintirlC;S with metapLoric:ll transfo,rmntion of lIlan, mountain anrl tree. The interest in cl\J!3ter§ of vi0ws in 1noi:HI miniatures and the metaphorical interprctation of visual imaees are fL!rt fl er developed in the sUhsequent paintings of large size. These Rlso reflect conccrn with contempor8ry disturbine social ev.::nts, even thouf>,h the visual eff · ~ct of su~1I pE\lntinl~S is rel~tively tranquil. • •• 5 ••• " , ' ' -~- ivolTing trom the o~llage prooe •• ~ T1z ••hape ,on .hape, V1nod Shah bat I , ' 1 . ' made 1t at a ta,ke, ott point"tor b.1_ .,oompo.1t1oDl , in, whioh the lanc!toape " .. , . \'r otf around the a!mo.t ab.traoted buman t1sure •• , All the .. three oomponent. are re-int.grated k.eping the .011d1ty to the m1nimum whioh remind ot the Indian quality ot the Raja»tban1 or ~ahar1) m1n1ature pa1nt1ng •• Vinodr81f Patel's place as a Baroda, paint~r, who has b·!en a teacher of pai nti ng from the earl y genera tion of students, is significant. But I shall draw attention to his prints which along wi th his paintingn are essentially b;:)SlHi on figure drawing and draugi1tsmanship. His lino cu~s, lithographs, line engravings and large wat.er colours have wide-ranging repertoire of imagery. There are buxom voluptuons nudes, with exaggerated femininity, floa ti ng wave lll \ , I ," -:j ]I.' Under Sankho Chaudhury's dynamic per~onality ~nd influence as a teacher along with the t~lents of the first generation of his pupils, ~roda has emerged as the creative hub of contemporary Indian sculpture. After Sankho Chaudhary, his worthy successor, l~hendra Pandya, Bpp~r-headed what he calles the post-Henry Moore trenn. During his 40 years long sculpture journey, he has handled stone, marble, bronze, wood, cement, clay and even . !. . portraiture, but has eventually settled on rnarble, ~ven after working extensively with 'assembled' sculpture in wood. Pandya has found his finnl inspira tion in the ' CArved wo?den .' Jharo~ha ' wh i ch he adop ts for the compos 1. tional sche/llEl ot his mar'bles. I This is also partly how he would like to incorporate indigenous elements in his sculpture! forms. Another major 'sculptor has bean Raghav Kanerie, who during the nineteen sixties was one of the first to exploit the potentialities of 'junk' and the welding technique. He has crea ted eloquently fantastic and wild images out of surprisine juxtapositions of strange rusty surfaces and Ifounrll form3. However" it may , be said in partlcular that Sankho Chaudhary's influence lingers in the exceasive popularity of direct stone carving, althougl1 Nagji Patel and Balbir Katt, ,the two 1II0St noteworthy, have been using stone quite differently. Nagji Paters carvings are noteworthy 1n the manner he sets of~ against each ot b~ r the polished and rough surfaces. The polished portion is stra tegically placed to resemhle the soft (lnd sensuous skin lnvi tlnrr to be touchE.'j. But mIlch inner latent power is 1n the sculptures of Balbir Katt. He · chips off, hews' 1n stone blocks and assembles them in overwhelming sizes. -- ~ ••• 6 •• 6 The subsequen t genera tions of sculptors to emerge from Baroda have been much more free in the ir choice or' rna terials, forms and subject matter. Hailing from different regions of India with their own levels of training, skills and psychological experiences, they have been giving new turn to sculpture ernanatins from Baroda. I would 1 ike to menti on, s tarti ng \d th La tika l'a tt, Dhruva Mistry, Ravinri:a Reddy, Prithpal Singh Ladi, Trupti Patel ;-); ld Pushprnaln. L" ti ka Ka t t ha s done f,eveJ'~l unusual portra i ts in bronze wi th deep tnsight into the 'being' b~hinrl each. Her subsequent sculptural work is so varieri. Dhruva Mistry har-; shown uncanny imagination as well abilities for meticulous 'fin1sh I as in his stark male nudes in f1br-: glas~ wi th revealinp: ana tomical accuracy. The unc~nny ;illlagina tion is conspicuous the way he would combine four instead of two breasts or a female nude c ompres sed wi th in a cubic bloclt, star tl inB ill usi onis tic res ul ts have b~en achieved ~lso by Ravindra R~ddy. He puts his life-size figures in every day dress and paints over the whole sculpture, ranging from skin complexion to garish hues of the garment. The resemblence to ~heaply sexy characters thnt you meet on the road side, suggests the influence of American Pop sculpture. Alarming are also the sculptures of Prithpal Singh Ladi, but the manner he chooses the everyday object and isola tes it is quite drastic. His 'type writer' may also be in metal, even some of its nuts and bolts are modelled illusion istically, yet it '--" does not have its functional mechanism. Si mil a r stnrY.. realism but in terra-cotta agai.n in life size, W 3 :3 fir'::;t attempted by another X~ younr, sculptor during the early nineteen eighties, Trupti Patel, with ''=lll sensiblity and subtlety of mo~elling process. A fUrther sUrprise 1s offereri as these are placed directly on the floor without pedestals. The modelling in clay but of popular level figure-types and even ~n . animals, has . been continued by other .wom3n sculptor, Pushpamala, who worl~s on s11 gh t1y less than 11fe-s ize scale anri p.;i ves a caricature-like quall ty to h~r figurL's, which evol Unfortunately, Baroda in particular and Gujarat in general, has no t p r o vid:d Q."r\y rna, rketing outlets for Lh ..: nrtists. There is no I U !3 I: r I or I consumer I public · in Baroda. Jlclrdl y ;:ll1y C onna i sseurs hi p h?s rle ve l aped in art. There is no art ~allory and no nrchitects ' consortorium for 3 ste ariy flow of \\Iorl{s f"oin,1:! into office complex i~G ••• (7 ••• 7 or residential buildings. Amidst this discouraging atmosphere some of those arti ~ t .J who have roughed it out are the freelancers, Jayant Parikh, painter and muralist, and the young sculptor, Kiri t Pritel" .,-.. ho has also turned to landscape gardening. This is a new avenue for a sculptor to make his livin~. But Kirit ha s in his own way created avant garde sculpture which resemble random things emerging from trenches in archaeological excavations. How e ve r, 1n horizontal floor level arranp;ernents, he carefully places fibre glass heads, bricks etc. to indicate death, decay and 8pochs of time. Women artists who have emerged from B.:'lrodn are Kishori Kaul and Mrinalini Mukherji settled in Delhi; and those worl and im~gery. The woman's angle is gaining prominence in her work. Thus, the pro tec tl ve In') ther, the del icCl te or' hel ple ss infan t juxtaposed amidst hostile for,ces, : have become persistent imageries. The younge r teacher of print making 1n T3aroda, flini Dhumul, also is note worthy rlS 8 nainter. Having been a student of Hayter's . . . • • .~')\ "Go 0 , 0 u..,- Studi O 1n Paris, her "'fd::a~llo worKsLhnve !'l pninterly freedom in Qutlln2S, brush wOl'k and textures, in e~.sc..'ntiolly figur'utlve c :.; mpos i tL ons. Nili ma Shi e? kh has be\~n quite active, thou c;h havin f ~ remained in the b;:lcl .. . 8 ... • : 8 : or a general even-ness all over, hide within them a serious concern for certain feminine interests. These concerns are however, more emphatically and in very conspicuous figural arrangements portrayed in Rekha Rodvi ti ya I s paintings. The attitudes of feminine sexuality are in particu lar implicit in her jumbled web-like imagery. The term 'narrative ' painting has been popularized by Bhupen Khakhar and Ghulam Shaikh for th.e style practised by them and taught to younger generations being trained and emerging particularly during the 1980s. They claim their allegiance to Subramanyam as their teacher and the British colonial period company school of painting to ha v e topical significance. But some of us have been working intuitively with this feeling that creative activity can neither be dictated nor predicted. Thus many of us do not like to have lables. 1 Indian Identity 1 and 1 modernism I are complex matters and a kind of 1 neo-revivalism 1 in a modernist grab only appears a simplistic answer. The alternative I prefer is to build upon what has been achieved by Indian artists during our present century by way of assimilation of modern western movements, as well as the amount of introspection generated by it regarding tradition and indegenism. IV Attention must also. be drawn to the Art History and Aesthetics programme of the Faculty of Fine Arts and how it has also proved to be a successful art- educational experiment. These subjects simultaneously introduced since its inception in 1950 for undergraduate Fine Arts courses and since 1955 in the Master IS de'Jree specialisation courses. Though these were given the nomenclature of I theory 1 courses (with sub-headings like 1 Plastic values I of Erupean Art, I Plastic values 1 of Indian Ar~, etc.) but eventually since about 1966, these were properly recognised at art history, art criticism and aesthetics subjects, because the ear!y suspicion of how to distinguish these subjects from Indian Archaelogy was replaced by the clarity of how art History and aesthetics could be integrated in the total teaching programme of creative artists and designers with already established beneficial results supplimenting and complementing the studio training. From then onwards also began a new phase of teaching of these subjects at specialisation level offering Bachelor' s, Master' s and Ph. D degree in Art History and Art Criticism. While M.A. in Art Criticism began in 1955 alongwith post-graduate courses in painting, sculpture, applied arts, but B.A. and M.A. specialisation courses in Art History were introduced since 1970s. The Department as a result of its broad minded and interdisciplinary approach has created the ground to study in depth both Indian Art History as well as European Art History while in the process breaking the barriers between traditional art and modern art. Thus should also be acknowledged thr growth of the Department of Art History & Aesthetics and its role which has recently been recognised by the Uni versity Grants Commission as an advanced centre for teaching and research in these areas.