South Asian Artists at the Académie André Lhote
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South Asian Artists at the Académie André Lhote Simone Wille ABSTRACT While some artistic exchange between India and France can be identified in the first part of the 20th century, this intensified in the postwar era. Most of the South Asian artists going to Paris continued their artistic formation and thus the majority of them attended classes in one of the many independent art schools like l’Académie Julian, l’Académie de la Grande Chaumière, l’Académie An- dré Lhote, l’Atelier de Fernand Léger and Stanley Hayter’s Atelier 17. Since André Lhote’s Académie seemingly had a special attraction, this essay will take a closer look at the South Asian artists who studied with Lhote. Introduction For most South Asian modernist artists heading to Europe for art training, London had – in most cases – been their first destination (Mitter 2001: 206). Amrita Sher- Gil (1913–1941) seems to have been the first artist to break with this tradition when she moved with her family to Paris in 1929, where she was accepted into the studio of Professor Pierre Vaillant at l’Académie de la Grande Chaumière (Amrita Sher-Gil: 156). In 1930, Sher-Gil was accepted into the studio of Lucien Simon as a student at l’École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. While in 1930 Rabindranath Tagore’s (1861–1941) work was shown at the Théatre Pigalle1 – it is very pos- 1 Rabindranath Tagore showed his work in Paris at the Galerie Pigalle in May 1930. Exposition de dessins et aquarelles de Rabindranath-Tagore (1928–1929–1930), Galerie Pigalle, 1930. In July the same year, Rabindranath Tagore also showed his works in Berlin, at Galerie Ferdinand Möller, Schöneberger Ufer 38. Five of the works shown were gifted to the Nationalgalerie, Berlin. The Last Harvest, Rabindranath Tagore – 98 Meisterwerke in Berlin, Pressemitteilung Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Museen Dahlem, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, 2011. 189 Simone Wille sible that Amrita Sher-Gil did not see this exhibition (Mitter 2007: 54).2 Shiavax Chavda (1914–1990), a graduate of Bombay’s Sir Jamsedjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art (J.J. School of Art), went to study at l’Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris in 1937 as did the Bengali sculptor Chinatmoni Kar (1915–2005) in 1938. The greater number of Indian artists going to live, work and train in France and Paris, respectively, increased after World War II and after independence. Appar- ently the first artist to have received a French government scholarship was Nirode Mazumdar (1916–1982) (Paritosh Sen 2007: 230) in 1947.3 Amongst the many artists that headed to Paris in the late 1940s and early 1950s were Francis Newton Souza (1924–2002), Jehangir Sabavala (1922–2011), Ram Kumar (1924–2018), Syed Haider Raza (S.H. Raza) (1922–2016), Akbar Padamsee (1928–), Paritosh Sen (1918–2008), Kattingeri Krishna Hebbar (K.K. Hebbar) (1911–1996), Lax- man Pai (1926–), Shakir Ali (1916–1975), Kaiko Moti (1921–1989), Nasreen Mohamedi (1937–1990), Himmat Shah (1933–), Zarina Hashmi (1937–), and Krishna Reddy (1925–2018).4 While not all of these artists were connected to art schools in Paris,5 many did join one or sometimes even more than one academy or institution. Paris had a good tradition and an established infrastructure offering art education with the necessary studio setting to an increasing number of young and international artists. While the more famous amongst the liberal art academies – founded in the 19th century – l’Académie Ranson, l’Académie de la Grande Chaumière or l’Académie Julian – turned into annexes of the conservative École des beaux- arts, the more sought-after liberal circles, directed and led by renowned artists in 2 Partha Mitter in The Triumph of Modernism. India’s Artists and the Avant-garde 1922–1947, suggests that it may well be possible that Amria Sher-Gil did not see this exhibition. 3 See also http://jnaf.org/artist/nirode-mazumdar/, (29 May 2018) 4 See also Devika Singh, “India-France: Artistic Exchanges,” Marg, Vol. 69/No. 1/2017: 14–21. There are many more artists from South Asia that travelled to Paris after that initial period, the immediate postwar era. An exhibition curated by Samit Das and Sumesh Sharma titled “Punacha Parry” at Villa Vassilieff in Paris, 14 October to 23 December 2017, was able to add a few more names to the list. 5 Akbar Padamsee, for instance, never joined an art school in Paris. Though many of his friends attended classes at one or even more than one academy. Padamsee worked from his hotel room, which he transformed into a studio and simply enjoyed the artistic freedom by which he was surrounded in Paris. From a personal interview with the artist in Mumbai, July 2018. 190 South Asian Artists at the Académie André Lhote the rank of modern trends, were l’Académie Moderne, l’Académie scandinave, l’Académie André Lhote and l’Atelier de Fernand Léger (Maingon 2010: 219).6 André Lhote’s academy (lived 1885–1962) (l’Académie 1925–1962) had spe- cial appeal for an unprecedented number of international students. Due to the accessibility and the good state of its archive it is thus possible to confirm the stay of two South Asian artists, Jehangir Sabavala and Shakir Ali.7 Both artists cor- responded with André Lhote and some of these original letters are in the private archive of André Lhote in Le Raincy (Figs. 1, 2, 3).8 For Ram Kumar there is no confirmation to be found within the archive, yet the artist has himself frequently talked about his time at André Lhote’s academy (Dalmia 2011: 126).9 With Paritosh Sen, on the other hand, it is difficult to verify whether or not he studied with Lhote. There is no trace of him in the archive nor did he seem to have mentioned his possible time at l’Académie André Lhote.10 Some texts also mention that Nirode Mazumdar studied with André Lhote (Hos- kote 2005: 52). While neither Paritosh Sen nor Nirode Mazumdar can be identi- fied as having studied with Lhote, this text will focus on the three artists who can be assigned to the lessons of Lhote. India’s art scene of the 1920s and 1930s was characterised by the rivalry be- tween Bombay and Bengal. Bombay sought to break with the dominance of an ori- entalist art education, practiced with great success in Calcutta since the early 1900s. In this complex atmosphere colonialism increasingly gave rise to art as a nationalist discourse (Mitter 2007: 177–225). By and large, the artistic scene was superim- posed with “the provincial modernism of Britain” (Mitter 2007: 227), infiltrated 6 Claire Maingon addresses the situation between World War I and World War II. While the attraction of both André Lhote’s academy and Fernand Léger’s atelier continued beyond World War II, she does not mention the art schools that were formed in the postwar era. 7 While Shakir Ali’s letters are dated 5 and 24 July 1948, Jehangir Sabavala’s letter is undated. 8 While the letters confirm that both artists studied with André Lhote, it is unclear how long they both stayed with him. The letter written by Jehangir Sabavala is not dated, but stored in the archive in Le Raincy under the year 1948. 9 According to Ram Kumar’s CV he studied with André Lhote between 1949 and 1952. In 1950 he also studied with Fernand Léger. See Mumbai Modern. Progressive Artists’ Group 1947–2013, New Delhi 2013: 494. See also the chronology compiled by Mahesh Chandra in: Ram Kumar. A Retrospective, National Gallery of Modern Art, Jaipur House, New Delhi, 1993, n.p. 10 http://www.artofbengal.com/paritosh.htm. This is one of many websites that mentions that Paritosh Sen studied with André Lhote, accessed 29 May 2018. 191 Simone Wille Fig. 1: Handwritten letter by Jehangir Sabavala, signed: J.A. Sabavala, © Archives André Lhote © ADAGP. 192 South Asian Artists at the Académie André Lhote Fig. 2: Typewritten letter by Shakir Ali, dated 5 July 1948, © Archives André Lhote © ADAGP. 193 Simone Wille Fig. 3: Handwritten letter by Shakir Ali, dated 24 July 1948, © Archives André Lhote © ADAGP. 194 South Asian Artists at the Académie André Lhote into the curricula of the colonial art schools that were set up all over the Indian subcontinent since the second half of the 19th century. A radical break from this came in the later 1940s, after the partition of South Asia when artists began to rebel against British academicism and increasingly had opportunities to travel abroad and came into contact with artists and mediators from other parts of the world.11 Shakir Ali Shakir Ali took his first art classes in Delhi at the studio of the Ukil brothers. Their teaching reflected a late Bengal style (Wille 2015: 17).12 In 1938 he joined the J.J. School of Art in Bombay. He remained with the school for seven years – “the first six as a student and the last year as a fellow” (Marek 1967: 112).13 Shakir Ali left pre-partition Bombay and entered the University College London, Slade School of Fine Art in January of the year 1947, during the second term of the academic year 1946–47. He remained with the university until 1949 and graduated with a diploma in Fine Art – painting, drawing and design. According to the two letters that Shakir Ali wrote to André Lhote (Figs. 1, 2), both from London, he was ac- cepted by Lhote to attend his summer courses in the countryside in 1948, in Mir- mande in the Drôme region and in Gordes in the Vaucluse region.14 By 1948 Lhote had successfully established his field academies in the southern region of France where he spent the summers touring and teaching classes between the three plac- es.