"The Energy of Creation": Satish Gujral's Drawings and Paintings.

Satish Gujral (b. 1925 in Jhelum, West Punjab) is a pioneering figure in contemporary Indian art. After graduating from the Mayo School of Art in Lahore, he further pursued his art education at the J.J. School of Art, Bombay during 1944-47, when he came in contact with the Progressive Artists Group. He disagreed with their European techniques, instead turning to his Indian roots in search of modernism. India's Partition in 1947 greatly impacted his works, which reflected the turbulence of the times.

Gujral is a prolific artist. From a terminal handicap of deafness in early boyhood to the first exhibition in Delhi (1952); from the Partition series to the Mexican phase; from drawings, murals, and collages to sculptures, architecture, and paintings--he is the epitome of strength and diversity.

As Gujral says, "Painting, sculpture and architecture are manifestations of a single aesthetic. They are products of a total environment--a social and cultural system with parallels in literature, music and other arts...." (Sinha et al.).

Gujral's work is unmistakable "for the sheer mobility of line". Evolution and process are both as important to Gujral as end result. Gujral's diverse works are engaged in his childhood, the national movement, social and political history, Indian traditional elements, people, nature, and relationships. They are instantly recognizable as Gujral's creations, though each phase of the artist's work is distinguished by unique, atypical elements. Interestingly, earlier works hint at what is to come. Still, one is left guessing till the works are revealed.

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The 1950s saw Gujral shift away from portraiture to paintings dominated by abstract forms powered by the theme of the Partition. These same cylindrical forms adopted three-dimensionality in his ceramic murals, sculpture, and architecture.

In 1952, Gujral became the first Indian to be given a scholarship to study art in Mexico. During 1952-54, he was apprenticed under David Siqueiros, Jose Clemente Orozco, and Diego Rivera. Crediting his entry into the Mexican world to Octavio Paz, Gujral says that it was in Mexico that he discovered India. This influential phase of his life taught him to work with terracotta, ceramic, granite, and papier-mache. He learnt how to incorporate local cultural influences into his art, at a time when an influx of Western ideas was affecting Indian art. As a result, his art flourished in a panorama of works, from paintings, graphics, sculptures, and murals to architecture and interior designing. The ceramic murals of his Partition phase show Mexican influences. Experimenting in this new medium, Gujral depicted his dexterity as a sculptor, architect, and painter, bringing art to the people.

Intrigued by texture, Gujral's next phase--between 1965 and 1975--was a combination of murals, paintings, and paper collages. A change in his perception of his surroundings became evident in the way he began to omit detail, replacing it with fragmented forms morphing into one another. Gujral first attempted this in his collages that were segmented through bold lines and colour, and not allowing success to stall his experimentation, he further developed the technique in the phases that followed (figure 1).

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From 1970 onwards, metal and burnt wood became the new mediums of fascination for Gujral. Using tantric symbols as his theme, he maintained the thread of the non-representational and abstract. This phase carried on through till 2000, interspersed with paintings.

Granite replaced burnt wood between 1995 and 2000. There was also a change in subject matter, the abstract being taken over by human and animal forms morphing into one another, symbolizing bonds with nature (figure 3).

Since the year 2000, Gujral has divided his time between bronze sculptures and paintings. The bronzes emanate a magical energy that maintains an aesthetic value in the contemporary world, while the paintings have a translucent sheen, with overlapping lines and colours (figure 2). In the painting series of 2003-05, there is a developing trend towards his current phase of conversations with leather. Camels dominate this series, along with the ram, horses, and fluttering birds. His paintings transmogrify into lustrous sculptures, and sculptures into enchanting paintings. Viewing the works as a prelude to the next phase one cannot help but draw similarities in subject matter. However, in this earlier series there is not a trace of leather, only a suggestion of its presence as one sees the rider guiding the horse with imaginary reins. The current series is incomplete without leather.

In 2007, Gujral showed eight paintings and 16 drawings at Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai. Exhibiting fascinating dexterity in line and artistic composition, the works reiterated the artist's experimentation with subject. Gujral, known for conjuring up new ideas in each phase of his art, yet again proved his genius in an entirely new theme that still maintained his originality of style.

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Conversing through leather harness and other equestrian equipment Gujral creates an exciting animal-human relationship, weaving together various elements of composition. The segmentation of his works enhances the mysterious aura, while the synthesis of animal and human animation into a composite whole breaks all barriers of civilized separation. His works do not lead the viewer into a specific frame of mind, allowing each their own perspective.

The lyrical rhythm in the reins and harness expresses Gujral's view of leather as the material of the contemporary world. With its flexibility and manoeuvrability, leather enables the artist to create rhythmic lines and symmetric compositions. In the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, Gujral says that leather is not just an equestrian accessory but a substance that defines the spirit of the postcolonial, globalizing world.

Richard Serra, an American minimalist sculptor, experimented with leather about 25 years ago. Serra has long been acclaimed for his innovative works that emphasize the process of fabrication and the characteristics of the various materials he uses. Though Serra's preferred medium is metal, he steered away from it for a short span of time to escape over-familiarity. During this gap, one of the mediums he experimented with was leather. An exhibition held in early 2007 at MOMA, New York, displayed 40 years of Serra's works. Amongst these, was a room full of his leather works where horse reins and shreds of twisted leather erratically hung from the walls. Though the leather appeared arbitrarily strewn about, it expressed an inherent wish for order. If the artist had rearranged the leather, the viewer would not have known the difference.

This need to achieve order in the random is seen clearly in the way Gujral has strewn leather all over his paintings. The viewer would not notice if the artist reversed the flows of intertwining harnesses and reins. The focus remains on the human-animal relationship--strengthened through the leather.

The synergies created through relationships are the basis for all Gujral's drawings and paintings. The pencil drawings on handmade rice paper are the essential key to all his paintings. They emphasize pristine form and outline. Unlike many artists who make rough sketches based on which they paint, Gujral's drawings are executed with swift, strong lines and create a definite outline for his complex paintings. The rounded contours with a hint of shading create symmetry while maintaining a flow.

Gujral abolishes human domination by equalizing tasks, understanding relations, and decoding phrases in his powerful drawings. The drawing in figure 4 translates very literally--the camel being the "ship of the desert". The bag the camel is carrying as his body indicates the sharing of man's burden while mimicking a wind-blown sail. This immediately strikes a harmonious relationship between man and animal. The man's tennis shoes symbolize protection from the desert sand and also add a hint of humour suggesting change in the traditional attire of the camel rider.

The richly coloured paintings, through their deep understanding of emotion and expression, infuse vivacity into their subjects. The fragmenting of figures and segmentation of colour strike a balance on Gujral's specially treated canvases. His self-made acrylic paints are complemented by the rich texture of the canvas, illuminating the painting from within. The use of gold leaf in parts of the paintings gives them a sheen and creates a luminous aura. There is also an underlying element of symbolism and harmony. In one instance (figure 5) Gujral has created a golden girl in harmonious discourse with a ram's head. This very suggestive bond recalls the popular Egyptian belief of the ram being a symbol of fertility. A key dangles from the harness that links ram and girl.

Travelling through the exhibition's fantasy of figures allied with leather, one realized the power of relationships. Also, many viewers felt a synergetic relationship between this fascinating phase of drawings and paintings and the artist's sculptures, an exhibition of which was held simultaneously.

REFERENCES

A Brush with Life--Satish Gujral, An Autobiography, written in collaboration with Khushwant Singh. Viking Penguin India, New Delhi, 1997.

"The Energy of Creation": Satish Gujral's Drawings and Paintings, catalogue of exhibition held at Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai, October 15-27, 2007.

Sinha, Gayatri, Santo Datta, and Gautam Bhatia, Satish Gujral--An Artography. National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), and Lustre Press, Roli Books, New Delhi, 2006.