The strong figurative tradition which has empowered the form for centuries in India is transformed by artists in the present to express contemporary reality as well as their inner landscape. The twists and turns of the body, articulated in earlier times by the tribhanga posture with its axial bends,  is now used as a sensor to navigate their exploding internal and surrounding realities. The immediate and powerful impact of the human figure with its mobile visage conveys the conundrum of existence in the country with its immense contrast of the rich and the destitute, the immobilisation of the disinherited and the patriarchal tone and tenor of life which marginalizes the other half.

It has been stated that the embodiment of multiple realities is contained by the form which is the strongest conveyer of many pluralistic situations. The figure with its subtle manifestations and its vivid countenance also retains the possibility of change and growth. It could be said that this strong structural tradition in the country with its overarching legacy of the past is empowered and reconfigured to convey the turbulent as well as the complex experience of the present. The aura of the body makes the space around it alter and transforms the prevailing situation.

This is true not only of epic heroes but ordinary people as well. We see how the will of the common man subjugated colonial rule to the manifestation of Independence in the past. In a country surrounded by more than a billion people, how can art not be figurative, as the artist M.F. Husain famously said? Hence, the art of the body is our forte and the immense richness of resources which co-exist in the present are summoned by the artists to create multiple and complex forms. The infinite potential of the human body to alter the existing situation is bought out in this show with bold and forthright configurations.

As we know, the international scene saw the 1940s and 50s as the emergence of the figure, notably in the works of the London-based artists Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon. In their raw, unsettling exposure of the human form in all its writhing agony, there was a revelation of the brutal oppression it had undergone. This was also initiated by the post-war legacy of a new humanism and a focus on the subjection of man’s tyranny of man. In India, the aftermath of Independence saw the Moderns with their strong figurative tradition like F.N. Souza and M.F. Husain and across the continent artists like K.G. Subramanyan in Santiniketan and later Baroda. The artists blazed a trail and created the text for modernism as well as for the articulation of an indigenous reality.

Multiplicity, hybridization and localization followed with artists like Sudhir Patwardhan in Mumbai, Jogen Chowdhury in Kolkata and T. Vaikuntam in the South.   

Man on the Street

An artist like Sudhir Patwardhan, for instance, has presaged the common man and his struggle for survival against great odds in the city, mainly Mumbai, where he resides. As an activist in his student days in Pune and later as a radiologist, Patwardhan brings to his paintings an empathic bond with the men and women on the street and their struggle for survival. In this mode and with bold, confident strokes, he draws attention to the strength and resilience of the human being even amidst immense fragility. While the outline remains self-assured and resilient, such as in the work Hospital, it enshrouds the vulnerable self of the protagonist where his inner resistance makes it a composition of great determination and strength. The man with his emaciated back revealing his rib cage yet remains an embodiment of power and endurance.

The woman encapsulated by the black covering, which could be one of widowhood, has been outlined with similar strong strokes in another work Icon even as her eyes glimmer with pain and despair. The women in his works, it must be noted, are known for their bold shoulder to shoulder existence with men on the street and equal participants in their daily struggle for survival. Hence, they emit powerful emotions in their dual combination of strength and anguish. The artist’s forms create the ground map for existence in the unfolding of tumultuous times.

For the artist Rameshwar Broota, based in Delhi, there is a consistent preoccupation with the human situation often with the added axiom of the difficulties of their existence. The artist’s early work of gaunt and labouring men on the streets was a result of his observations of workers struggling around him. This situation he felt was created by an overfed and corrupt class of people who exploited their nefarious condition. Broota’s work in the seventies consisted of the depiction of the indolent and the rich often satirized by him in the form of overfed gorillas albeit politicians satisfying their voracious appetites. In the present exhibition his Barking Shadows has silhouettes of tall, lanky dark forms reduced to a state of utter emaciation where their lengthened forms amplify their condition. Their desolate figures convey a penurious situation emphasized by their linear demarcation. The work Untitled, on the other hand, juxtaposes light and shadows to create a dappled surface where the central panel emphasizes elongated shadows creating an undefined and universal awareness of life. This was followed by the artist in the eighties with stark human figures frontally confronting the viewer to emphasize their existence. The later magnified ear, hand or other parts of the body in his works were symbolic of the microcosmic effulgence of the sea of humanity.

The sinuous lines in the works of the Santiniketan and Kolkata-based artist Jogen Chowdhury creates men and women in languorous dream-like forms which encapsulate a hard-edged determination. The unbroken line, in one fell stroke creates the unflinching figure which seem both fragile and yet unwavering. The artist’s works invite the viewer to enter the reverie of the  figure preoccupied with a world of dream and fantasy such as in the work Woman Relaxing where the languorous pose of the form is counterpoised by strength and firmness.  We see in these works that while the women remain bold and revealing, their agile beings create a narrative of feminine strength geared to selfhood. In his work Still Womb the feminine form contains within it the still born infant replete with both her nurturing and exorcising aspect. The cross-hatching contained within borders create nuanced shades of emotions of these figures, also marking them out as full-bodied and an epitome of both humour and strength.

The women baring themselves in a liturgy of cavorting, sensuous movements and markedly self-assured, create a vocabulary of equality and confidence. As the art historian R.Siva Kumar points out “…In the postures of some figures we feel an animal sentience, in the ripe anatomy of others we savour a fruity succulence. The figures are wrought by a combination of decorative wilfulness and expressive distortion and are imbued with an effusive sensuality. Chowdhury’s art is rich in suggestions; it is to be apprehended without bracketing our fund of knowledge, experience or memories, but also cannot be narrativised without trivialising it, without depleting its sensory particularities.” (1)

The artist T. Vaikuntam, on the other hand, enhances the feminine presence in his works with elaborate, somewhat theatrical costumes drawn from the Telengana region where he grew up. This could also be traced to his childhood memories of male characters enacting the role of women in the village performances which he watched with rapt attention. The voluptuous women draped in primary colours of red and yellow with their vermilion bindis, in their statuesque movement reminiscent of temple friezes, seem to portray lustrous motions of dance while remaining in the same spot. Their voluptuous and abundant forms evoking elemental representations, create in these works an assertion of individuality and a non-acquiescence to male precedence which can be sensed even in their accentuated posteriors. In their acknowledgement of their own strength, their flamboyant costumes sharply express their individuality. The reflection of his milieu in their everyday affairs is transformed  into  theatrical enactments or mosaic- like movements in memory. An unusual seated man in his traditional dhoti and with a halo is delivered to the viewers with a sombre expression. While the seated woman completes the duo.

Limpid Yet Determined

At variance with the patriarchal system, Shanthi Swaroopini based in Hyderabad, brings to her work the sweep of a feminine vision where the woman’s body represents both her strength and her ability to navigate and narrate her own path. In her sculptural practice, she unfolds the limpidness yet determination of existence created by amalgamating the solidity of bronze and the fragility of paper pulp where sometimes the former is overlaid on the latter. In this, there is an attempt to let the material speak of her inner angst, which takes shape of its own accord. In some sculptures, the volume of mass held by the figure denotes the weight which is shouldered by the form in multiple registers. Shanthi has made, in her present series, sculptures of women and also forms where the gender definition remains ambiguous, while the lithe movements express an agility of the body and equally of consciousness of the self’s ability to alter the environment around. The movements and gesticulations become a realization, which seems to place her figures in a substantive position. In her fluid creations which transgress the normative, there is an unexpected conjoining of the material and the fantastic, creating an awareness of unlimited possibilities.

For the Vishakapatnam based artist V. Ramesh, popular paintings have been a source of inspiration and he draws from them to depict themes of love and valour in sweeping brush strokes and bright colours. He states, ‘…Nowadays, these painters seem to have vanished with the advent of digital printing. They approached their craft with seriousness and a keen eye for aesthetics. The way they worked always intrigued me: bold brush strokes, bright colours and heightened emotions. One would also be affected by the emotional intensity portrayed in these hoardings.’ (2) He also felt that these bazar painters had been sidelined with the emphasis being on Ravi Varma but they were equally significant.

‘While Raja Ravi Varma made a significant national impact, inspiring subsequent artists, many calendar painters remained anonymous. I don’t even know the people who painted these images, which I have used for my work. By painting them, I aim to acknowledge, in my own way, these unsung artists who laid the aesthetic framework for middle-class society and shaped our visual culture. (3)

In his later works, he has used a retelling of Bhakti poetry and similar forms for he felt that love between a couple is an intense form of devotion to the divine. In Karaikal Amma we sense the spiritual as well as the earthly domain of the woman cast in her dual aspect. In a palimpsest of images, the bare, skeletal form which overlays the images of women creates a diorama of life and death. The foremost image in an incandescent white against a radiant red is of a skeleton shorn of any excess which seems to forecast the onset of a ravaged time. The human as well as the other worldly domain of the figure resounds with multiple reverberations. The Karaikkal Ammaiyar as we know is one of the most well known of the goddesses of Tamil literature where amongst sixty-three women she was considered an important figure. The historical person is said to have lived during the 5th century AD and was a devotee of Shiva. 

Ramesh has felt that in devotional poetry, even that of men, there is a narration of Bhakti or devotion by casting themselves in the role of the female heroine or naika. According to him ‘The most exquisite poetry one can find in Bhakti poetry is Jayadeva’s Ashtapadi, which has erotic, physical descriptions of love. This love serves as a means for humans to comprehend divine love. Thus, by symbolising the love between a man and a woman, we express our deep devotion towards the divine.’ (4)

Dismembered Remains

The Delhi-based artist Anindita Bhattacharya, with a hard-edged gaze at the contemporary situation with its environmental violation of animals and humans, creates a miasma of a dystopic existence in her work The Wound is the Place Where the Light Enters You. Working with abandoned animal X-rays and those of her friends and acquaintances, she overlays these transparent images with drawings and washes to reveal their dismembered remains. The dense shapes enmeshed with each other create a pluralistic smear of defilement. Going beyond self-representation, the forms resound with the waste of human and animal beings created by the destruction of the environment. These, according to her, infect day-to-day life, from identity to food habits, where the resilience of forms also rears its strength. These vast shifts from sheer ornament to insinuations about the sinister edges of a rebounding reality mark a core motif in her work. The infused lightbox in the present exhibition is a conjoining of dismembered parts of the body, which are strung together in a garland of turbulent episodes. Hands, limbs, and other anatomical parts trail behind each other in an incandescent light of discord. The interconnectedness of these, however, creates a sense of introspection on the decay and emergence of life on the planet. According to the artist, “As I weave these imageries together, I question the anthropocentric arrogance that has driven much of our species’ actions, leading to the current Anthropocene epoch marked by unprecedented environmental disruption. The animals, suspended within these X-ray frames, represent the silenced voices of the natural world. They bear witness to the irrevocable damage humans have inflicted upon the environment, yet their presence is also a testament to the resilience and capacity for regeneration that nature possesses.” (5)

For the artist Manjunath Kamath, who spent his formative years in the South, the diverse practices of miniatures, murals, bronze sculptures, and wooden carvings create an amalgamation of images that compose a mélange of innovative forms. The rupturing of the body and its seamless re-formation creates a multiplicity of resonances for the present. The fissures and fractures of the image are significant in his works for the liminal spaces, which dredge up a slew of new profundities. His towering terracotta sculpture Extended Tale consists of conjoined fragments of pieces drawn from different parts of India and from varying periods. The largely episodic sculpture, however, has a simmering meaning, pointing to an interconnectedness of cultures and religions that bears significance for the present. The footprints of time and history, which create erasures in his sculpture, also reflect the layered process that he feels is vital for a unitary aesthetic experience. In another installation, which is part of this show, the artist’s envisioning of the couple lying in a horizontal arrangement is interrupted by a volcanic jolt that tears the man’s body asunder. The deep orange covering over the figures silhouettes their configuration, emphasizing their torsos and limbs. The seeming conjoinedness of the man and woman, however, remains unbroken in a continuity of relational togetherness.

Abyss of Darkness

The veined and fluid body presented by Mithu Sen is often a remnant of violated beings in the abyss of darkness. Made with adroit draughtsmanship and washes of color, these often invite flights of imagination to conceive of a dystopic world. In her works, the complex engineering of the body in its physical, erotic, as well as imaginative form, takes unexpected twists and turns to create valorous new identities. The enhanced self in Unmanifested Nature of Violence 1 and Unmanifested Nature of Violence 2 consists of the figure with its inextricable dark shadow, which resounds with a prescient belief in pluralities of identities. The Santiniketan-trained artist, now based in Delhi, has harnessed her training to create aesthetic compositions that still harbor a sense of desecration. If there is a rupture of the very being, it is represented by the fractured body and its dark echo. The artist’s practice, which includes paintings, installations, as well as performances, instills a questioning of norms of behavior that are replete with retardation. Her work defies social taboos and practices that stupefy tradition, especially around gender roles and marginalization. In Sen’s oeuvre, we see the removal of boundaries and fixed mores, so that unbounded space can create a scope for expansion and growth.

The sculptor and artist Benitha Perciyal, situated in Chennai, has explored the enigma of faith, particularly that of Christianity, in her iconography as well as materials. Her forms, resisting armature, are fragrant with ritual substances such as herbs and oils, which compose incense like cinnamon, lemongrass, and cedar. Eschewing synthetic material, these organic substances are made to endure months of seasoning before the curative process begins. Even the pedestals on which the sculptures stand consist of wood that is weathered over time, withstanding the wear and tear of the years to represent a sense of infinity. The artist exults in the sensuality of memory and transcendence, adding luster and antiquity to her works. In her present work, Perciyal’s sculpted head of a woman reflects the image of an iconized figure, creating an aura around her. Her countenance is one of empathetic humanity, while her stance is an exemplar of universal womanhood. The powerful lions sculpted by her are a forceful, anthropomorphic portrayal of inner strength. The wide-open mouth and heavy eyelids suggest a somnambulistic yet alert state, while their finely chiseled manes are both their forte and their potent power.

The common strain that runs through these varied artworks is the resilience and strength infused in the human form. The consistent tradition of confrontation and change conveyed by the figure, which is propelled through the ages, is once again evident in the works of contemporary artists. They innovate new complexities and along with it an altogether fresh awareness of the surrounding reality. The present exhibition consisting of paintings, watercolours, mixed media, installations and sculptures is a manifestation of these vivid articulations of rapidly changing societal mores.

Yashodhara Dalmia

Notes

1. R.Siva Kumar,  “Jogen Chowdhury”. Center of International Modern Art (CIMA), Year and date not mentioned.
2. Mentioned to Shireen Quadri, Hindustan Times, February 14, 2024
3. V.Ramesh, ibid.
4. V.Ramesh, op cit.
5. Statement made by Anindita Bhattacharya on her present work.