sign in sign up
<<
Home , Beohar Rammanohar Sinha, Kripal Singh Shekhawat

interpreted as the opposite of contemporaneity.” Rather regarding artistic work and its qualification by beauty than being perceived as a binary divide, the two have against a background of rapid industrialization that was been continuously assimilated, adapted and engaged in an expression of the spirit of man. an ongoing process of negotiation.1 This holds true for as well as for some other non-Western countries. Yanagi’s theory of the “Beauty of Irregularity,” a chapter from an unpublished manuscript titled The Book of The articulation of this negotiation in aesthetic language Pots, caused a ripple effect in the world of pottery Mutable: Indian Ceramics has largely revolved around the contribution of a beginning with Bernard Leach and Hamada Shoji. Here number of individuals on whom this essay will focus. Yanagi is at his rhetorical best, linking spiritualism and The transnational context of Japan and India involves craftsmanship. He also discusses Okakura’s Book of Tea in a State of Flux the contributions of Gurcharan Singh of Delhi Blue (1906), in which the Oriental recognition of the beauty Pottery, of Jaipur, and Deborah of irregularity and the imperfect is a product of 1 Smith and Ray Meeker of Golden Bridge Pottery in thinking and describes an aesthetic based upon simple Kristine Michael Pondicherry (now Puducherry). The ties that link these naturalness and reverence, which are then equated to pioneer potters deal with the long shadow cast by the freedom. “Beauty must be associated with freedom— combined influence of Japanese Mingei craft theory and freedom is beauty,” he declared, “as the love of the Western arts and crafts writings on the idealized notion irregular is a sign of the basic quest for freedom.” It is of the craftsman on the formation of the Modernist this beauty with inner implications that is referred to studio pottery movement in India. as shibui, which can be translated as a combination of adjectives such as austere, subdued, restrained, simple Mingei theory, according to Yuko Kikuchi,2 was Yanagi and pure. While explaining the importance of objects Just as clay is in a continuous state of flux between The building of links or bridges between the tropes of Soetsu’s cultural hybridization of craft created by the in the tea ceremony, Yanagi explains that tea taught the unfired and fired state, so also is the eventful vernacular and modern art-cum-design is the pivotal “negotiating of the borders of Orient and Occident… people to look at and handle utilitarian objects more chronology of its aesthetic and technological history. point of the Mutable exhibition, which explored the where Yanagi selected, absorbed, translated and carefully than they had before, and this inspired in Throughout the colonial period, pottery was able to enormous range of cultural practices that deal with Publishingappropriated” arts and crafts theories into the shared them a deeper interest and greater respect for those maintain its economic and local market base due aesthetics, function and sustainability. The aim was to common ground of Japanese indigenous context in objects. Tea formulated criteria for recognizing beauty to the simple production processes and sustainable show the fluid and relative categories of the craft, rather an original manner. These dealt with the principles of through form, colour and design. In the early tea bowls, technology which enabled it to pave the way towards than reinforce limiting and preservationist approaches. beauty, aesthetic theories and modernist ideas which the masters perceived the virtue of poverty in the its regeneration as a distinct modern art form in the The reformist, idealist and spiritualist voices of pottery’s enthusiastically looked to Japonisme as its inspiration.3 world of beauty called shibusa, the humility that may 20th century. A critical part of the nationalist discourse, exponents are largely consonant with the arts and crafts Yanagi explained to a largely Western audience about be described as subdued, austere and restrained. Most along with weaving, pottery played a singular role movements of the 19th century, leading to a persistence the canon of beauty for all Japanese people. tea masters preferred the incomplete; they looked for in the development of Gandhi’s and Tagore’s new of the craft through Oriental or Western aesthetics in the slight scars or irregularities of form. The Oriental, he educational strategies for an independent India through search to create a national identity. The development He and Okakura Kakuzo (aka Tenshin) were some of grandly declared, sought the natural, the irregular and their vision of integrating crafts with skills for life. The of the schools of art and their teaching of ceramic the most important theorists in the Mingei movement the free—where the Occidental sees only disharmony, craftsman’s place in culture, however, was fractured in design, form, function and its ornamentedMapin surface, who also had a great impact on English, Japanese and the Orient sees harmony. He also quoted Kabir, the the post-Independence spurt of industrialization, new often inspired by regional artistic treatment of surface Indian views of pottery as “the beautiful truthfulness Indian mystic poet, in his chapter on the Buddhist idea technologies and modern materials which enabled the as in Jaipur Blue Pottery, architectural reliefs or Ajanta of the domestic handmade crafts.” Yanagi was first a of beauty. displacement of the potters’ traditional functional role Cave leads one to understand that, eventually, pupil and then friend of D. T. Suzuki, who made a form in rural society. The marginalization of potters in urban pottery need not be seen as a© sub-genre of fine art or of Buddhism known to the West. His aesthetic was Okakura Kakuzo’s grand narrative in the Ideals of the areas to the outskirts of the city, shrinking urban and only rooted in traditional forms and concepts. Rather, that of “the seeing eye,” an epithet that Bernard Leach East (1903) begins with his statement “Asia is One,” but rural markets, and restricted access to clay sites and it has developed into a form of contemporary personal also used for him as he was never a craftsman but an his discourse rests on the triangulation of three mighty fuel due to property development and changing land expression which engages its audience on its own aesthete. Yanagi’s position in Japan is comparable to that Asian civilizations—India, China and Japan. His trip usage are some of the issues that they have faced and terms with a characteristic language. As curator Apinan of England’s John Ruskin and William Morris.4 Through to India in 1901–02 was facilitated by Sister Nivedita, continue to face. Poshysnanda has written, “Tradition should not be his book The Unknown Craftsman, he proposed a theory Swami Vivekananda and .5 His

16 | Mutable: Ceramic and Clay Art in India Since 1947 Mutable: Indian Ceramics in a State of Flux | 17 artistic pedagogy also rests on a triangle—tradition, artists but also, in turn, were influenced by the new Rabindranath Tagore. However, while making use of at the School of Art in Jaipur’s Kishanpol Bazaar.8 His nature and originality; these interact interestingly in his “wash style” initiated in Bengal; this exchange gave Morris’s terms, Coomaraswamy departed from him as own training—first at the Lucknow School of Art and Asian triangle in which Japan is positioned at the apex contemporary Japanese art an Indian touch.6 Kampo he considered colonialism a far more important factor in later with at Santiniketan, from where embodying its artistic heritage, India is represented by Arai, a painter of the Nihon Bijutsuin, came to Calcutta artistic production than class relations. he graduated as a painter in 1947, and his subsequent the synthesis of the Vedas and the Chinese by Confucius in 1916 on Rabindranath Tagore’s invitation. He visited exposure in Japan to Oriental techniques—led and communist ethics. At a lecture delivered at the Calcutta and Santiniketan and travelled around India However, in a country with a strong artisanal base, him to develop a new reference point in aesthetics and World Trade Fair in St Louis in 1904, Okakura affirmed from 1916 to 1918. dealing with revivalism in traditional forms was what in creating a market for the local craft. Kripal Singh that, “we feel ourselves to be the sole guardians of the Kripal Singh Shekhawat achieved with his teaching used the pottery surface as his canvas, mingling all his art inheritance of Asia.” And then again, “Japanese art Yokoyama Taikan was a student of Okakura and was and practice of Jaipur Blue Pottery in a systematic sensitivity from Santiniketan, the Ajanta and Bagh Caves stands alone in the world” and reveals its tensions of greatly influenced by his thoughts. He was an important gurukul system in both his personal home studio and and his Japanese Nihonga techniques to create a new solitude and exclusivity from the rest of Asia which had leader in the Nihonga or “Japanese traditional” school hybrid canon of decorative underglaze painting. a colonial history. Okakura was deeply impressed by the of modern Japanese art. He was extremely influential in Under the instruction of Nandalal Bose, Kripal Singh and revivalist national movement for culture and arts, going the evolution of the Nihonga technique, having departed the artist worked on the on with the Tagores in 1902. On returning to Japan, from the tradition of line drawing. His style was called handcrafted and painted Preamble to the Constitution he sent two distinguished artists of the Nihonga style, “Mourou-tai” (blurred style). His trip to India, made of India in 1949. The illustrations and the decorative Yokoyama Taikan and Hishida Shunso to Calcutta (now jointly with Hishida, inspired some of Yokoyama’s most borders are quintessentially of the Santiniketan or Kala Kolkata), where they met and exchanged opinions and important work and also was immensely important for Bhavana style and were greatly inspired by the cave artistic views with Rabindranath and Abanindranath the evolution of Indian Modernism. The visits to Calcutta paintings of Ajanta and Bagh. At the beginning of each Tagore. The relationship was enhanced further by by a series of Japanese artists from 1902 onwards, part of the Constitution, Nandalal Bose depicted a phase Rabindranath’s five visits (1916, 1917, 1924, and twice in resulted in a pivotal exchange both of techniques and or scene from India’s national experience and history. 1929) to Japan. These encounters brought into contact motifs and important early Bengal Modernists such as The artwork and illustrations (22 in all), rendered largely left a remarkable group of intellectuals and artists of Japan Abanindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose, who shared in the miniature style, represent vignettes from the fig. 1.1 Kripal Singh and Bengal. They not only influenced Indian modern a pan-Asian approach in their quest to establish an different periods of Indian history, including Mohenjo Shekhawat, Flower study, indigenous style of art free of Western influence by Daro in the Indus Valley, the Vedic period, the Maurya watercolour on paper made 7 during study in Japan, exploring Japanese ink-wash techniques. Publishing and Gupta empires, the Mughal era to the fight for c. 1920s, mixed media on Independence and national freedom. Ajanta was to cardboard, h 10.2 x w 9.0 inches At the turn of the 20th century, the critical debate on (approx. 26 x 23 cm). Collection: Delhi Art Gallery, Indian art and craft revolved around the perception (Image © Delhi Art Gallery, of the “traditional.” For Ananda Coomaraswamy, the New Delhi) first Indian art historian who reworked the Western parameters of understanding Indian art, the word facing page “tradition” was a description of cultures founded on left an understanding of the spiritual nature of man and fig. 1.2 Kripal Singh Shekhawat, Lotus painted his world as a microcosm. For him, “traditional” and tall vase, ceramic, h 14 inches “modern” were two polarities. In his writings, India (approx. 36 cm). Collection of Mapin was the epitome of a traditional civilization and his the maker (Image © Kristine Michael, New Delhi) tone is characterized by a nostalgia for the nearly-lost traditional life of India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), right which were undergoing radical© change because of fig. 1.3 Kripal Singh Shekhawat, Lotus design colonialism, modernity, technology, industrialism and on large plate, ceramic, the adoption of the Western lifestyle. He developed approximately dia. 12 inches his politics through his aesthetics and helped apply (approx.30 cm). Collection of the maker (Image © Kristine the ideas of William Morris’s powerful critique of Michael, New Delhi) anti-Victorian industrialization with his other mentor,

18 | Mutable: Ceramic and Clay Art in India Since 1947 Mutable: Indian Ceramics in a State of Flux | 19 remain one of Kripal’s favourite sources of inspiration and , chose to work on Gurcharan Singh was the first Indian in the Mingei, Gurcharan visited Korea and China to study and for his pottery paintings. the revival of Jaipur Blue Pottery by heading an art Euro-American and Theosophist circles in Tokyo understand their aesthetics and started a pottery school financed by the All India Handicrafts Board, (Figure 1.4). He absorbed their ideas and, on his return collection to take back with him to India, based on In 1951, he was awarded a fellowship for a three-year a government organization, for the development of to India in the early 20th century, set out on a lifelong Yanagi and Leach’s advice. In a letter to Bernard Leach diploma to study traditional Oriental painting and crafts.9 He spent a few months with Gurcharan Singh mission to realize them in his practice through the in 1920 from Korea, Gurcharan says: decoration at the University of Fine Art, Tokyo. On his in New Delhi and forged his own techniques based on Delhi Blue Pottery Trust. He was supported in this by I came here to stay for a week, three weeks have way to Japan, he travelled through Burma, Malaya, the old Persian style of blue-and-white painted kashi his friendship with Bernard Leach, who formulated the already passed and yet I don’t want to leave this Singapore and Hong Kong where he did many sketches ware or faience. He learnt all the secrets of the nearly idealized standard of a spiritual and holistic approach to place.... How shall I tear myself from these? Coreans of daily life. His years in Japan left him with an insight extinct art as it had been perfected in Jaipur in the pottery and expounded what was meant by the beauty resemble so much Indians in dress, customs and act into the works and techniques of Japanese Nihonga 19th century, made many changes to make it a modern of naturalness, simplicity and Oriental style through his that I have begun to love it next to my motherland. artists such as Tanaka Saiho (noted for his flower and practice and thereby re-established an entire tradition. workshop philosophy (Figure 1.5).11 I have made some collections of the old pottery and bird paintings), Maeda Seison (a member of the Kojikai He painted in the Ajanta fresco and miniature painting other old things which I would very much like you to artistic group), and Kawabata Ryushi (who specialized in style on his pottery. Motifs such as the lotus or iris The seat of the British imperial government was see. I wish to tell you so many things just as a child large-scale public ). flower and stem in delicate copper blue with cobalt moved from Calcutta to New Delhi after World War would tell his adventures to his older brother.14 outlines and shades of pink became vibrant stylistic I, and a new capital was quickly built. E. B. Havell He returned to Jaipur in 1954, and under the patronage statements (Figures 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3)—showcasing and Coomaraswamy led a verbal attack on the The following year, in another letter, Gurcharan thanks 10 of Maharani of the Jaipur royal family different facets of Indian visual culture. English planners of New Delhi urging them to use Leach: fig. 1.5 Vases with painted Indian architects and masons in the construction of You would be glad to know that I have begun to dragon in cobalt blue on white the government buildings for reasons of economy, work under Mr Kenzan, your and Tomi’s teacher, glaze, early 20th century (Image © Anuradha excellence and suitability and as a much-needed the old raku master... I am glad you received my Ravindranath and the Delhi example of state patronage of indigenous industry.12 Blue Pottery, New Delhi) Two important figures were Delhi Potteries owner Ram Singh Kabli and the contractor . The young Gurcharan Singh joined Kabli as an apprentice and Publishingtrainee in 1919. Later that year, he was sponsored to visit Japan to attend a two-year diploma course at the Higher Technical Institute in Tokyo, where he would learn the industrial and commercial side of pottery and tile-making. Here, he met the men who were to be the most formative influences in his life—Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada, Yanagi Soetsu, Kawai Kanjiro and Tomimoto Kenkichi (with whom he kept up a lively correspondence). It was during the visits to Abiko that Gurcharan was drawn into the aesthetics of Japanese Mapin pottery, raku, and the growing Mingei and Theosophist movements. He was a member of the Garakutashu—a club involving Japanese intellectuals, art collectors, international artists and architects such as Antonin © Raymond, who later came to design the Golconde Guest fig. 1.4 Class photographs House at Pondicherry’s Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and of Gurucharan Singh with Kenkichi, who had visited India in 1909–10 on his way other students in Japan, to England to meet Leach. Kenkichi would have another c. 1920 (Image © Anuradha Ravindranath and the Delhi Blue Indian apprentice in 1930—Pi Hariharan, who worked at Pottery, New Delhi) his studio at Ando-mura, Nara.13

20 | Mutable: Ceramic and Clay Art in India Since 1947 Mutable: Indian Ceramics in a State of Flux | 21 letters one from Korea and the other from Japan. Pradesh, where his friends—eminent painters Sobha Please do write me as often as you have time, you Singh and B. C. Sanyal, and theatre personality know it gives me a great pleasure and comfort. Just Norah Richards—had created a haven for artists at now I have received Yanagi’s express letter to see the foothills of the Himalayas. The pottery made him at the station as he is going to Korea on a short from this time was often inspired by the local Kangra visit.… I write all this because I know it will give pottery forms as he encouraged the use of the local you pleasure, moreover when this is all due to your terracotta clay. Gurcharan moved to Andretta with kindness and contacts.15 his son Mansimran and daughter-in-law Mary in 1984 and started the Andretta Pottery and Craft Society— After his return to India, he communicated with Leach an artist colony and community where local potters fig. 1.7 Gurucharan Singh, his unsettled feelings in a moving letter in 1921: were trained in modern shapes and slipware and watercolour of dragon, early 20th century (Image © To me, my country is a revelation now. Japan established it as a regional centre for textile crafts and Anuradha Ravindranath and the educated me to see my own country, feel it and natural dyes (Figure 1.7). Delhi Blue Pottery, New Delhi) read the inner meanings of its past. It was a pleasant shock to see how my vision had changed…. I shall wish you to come some day and put up in that hut and live with me thinking of the days—in Japan…. I have heard from Yanagi, who sent the beautiful handbook of Korean art a few days ago, I have seen its photographs over and over again, at least hundred and fifty times.16

For the next 16 years after his return from Japan, Gurcharan was determined to establish studio pottery Publishingin India. From this time on, he marked his pots with his signature in Urdu. In 1926, the pottery moved to its well-known location on what is now Ring Road in Delhi. It was Leach and Hamada’s adherence to look at the simplicity of forms and glazes in traditional pottery that inspired Gurcharan to take on the copper blue glaze (Figure 1.6) of Islamic ceramics—evidence of which was all around him on tombs such as Jamali Kamali and Chini Ka Rauza in New Delhi and Agra. The Persian blue copper glazed tiles caught the eye of Sir Edward Lutyens fig. 1.6 Gurucharan Singh, Blue Mapin and Herbert Baker who ordered hand-pressed, hand- cups, with saucers, sugar pot painted tiles for Parliament House, Tis Hazari Courts and milk jug 1970s, stoneware, sugar pot: h 4.5 x d 4.5 inches and Kerala House. In 1954, the first exhibition was held (approx. 11 x 11 cm), saucers: in New Delhi of glazed stoneware including urns, vases, dia. 5 inches (approx. 13 cm), © plates and bowls in muted shades of grey, green and milk jug: h 5 x d 4 inches (approx. 13 x 10 cm), cups: h 4 x blue glazes. Gurcharan visited Leach in England for the d 2.5 x dia. 3 inches (approx.10 x first time in 1958; he would later visit again, in 1977. 6 x 8 cm). Collection: Anuradha Ravindranath, New Delhi (Image © Piramal Museum of Art, The following year, Gurcharan was able to purchase ) land at the Artists Community at Andretta in Himachal

22 | Mutable: Ceramic and Clay Art in India Since 1947 Mutable: Indian Ceramics in a State of Flux | 23