From Cezanne To Ram Kumar: A Journey

I. Art and its value

Mahishasura - Tyeb Mehta

A recent WSJ article described the explosion of interest in Modern Indian art – with a Tyeb Mehta painting (Mahishasura) fetching in excess of $2MM at Sotheby’s in NY. We have personally enjoyed collecting Ram Kumar paintings and have seen their value appreciate astonishingly, tempting me to accept their categorization as Alternative Investments, as indeed the Industry does. (Citigroup has an Art Advisor unit). But that is the market at work. A dusty gathering of supply and demand, antiquity vs fashion and the desire to own.




However despite all the crassness, the market does place a value, create a price on the piece. My intent in this write-up is to explore art for its intrinsic value, describe the paintings and to ruminate on the motive of its creator. I hope you find this write-up enjoyable.

II. Bend in the Road

To show us what is seen – not what is thought to be seen. The vision of the world as it is and a vision of us as we really are. That seems to be the artist’s fountain head. What then, is imagined truth and what is truth? How do we tell the difference? The proof is in the recipient’s shock of recognition, be it a reader, listener or viewer depending on the medium of conveyance. Art stultifies with tradition. Degenerates from inspiration to formula. In the world of paintings the movement from the classical period to impressionism was a turning point. Think of paintings of water lilies by Monet and you can feel the richness of the landscape spring to life.

But then look at the thousands (literally) of impressionist paintings on display in museums throughout the world, and the mind is bound to go, “ I get the technique, but I am beginning to miss the truth – I can see more of Seurat and less of his vision”

Thus another turning point when perhaps the formula of impressionism had to give way.
And who to best illustrate the bridge into to the new world other than Cezanne leading the viewer from the blazingly attractive landscapes of the impressionists, back to exciting us with a vision – through a metamorphosis. To what we now know as modern/abstract art, which in reality included other movements at its time including cubism.

Cezanne

It has been written that Paul Cézanne, who exhibited little in his lifetime and pursued his interests increasingly in artistic isolation, is regarded today as one of the great forerunners of modern painting, both for the way that he evolved of putting down on canvas exactly what his eye saw in nature and for the qualities of pictorial form that he achieved through a unique treatment of space, mass, and color. Cézanne was a contemporary of the impressionists, but he went beyond their interests in the individual brushstroke and the fall of light onto objects, to create, in his words, ``something more solid and durable, like the art of the museums.’’

But as all of us well know, abstract art presents an obvious challenge. Since we are looking for conventional expressions of form – we cannot understand it in the normal sense of the term. If you speak in Hindi and I only understand Malayalam, how are we to communicate?

A cynic might actually say if you speak gibberish and I only understand Malayalam, how are we to communicate?!



III. Vision, not imagination

Kandinsky

The modern artists of that age such as Kandinsky, Chagall, Klee were spiritual in not forcing a description. I would argue that they were as spiritual as those that painted the Madonna on the Rocks. One only needs to see ‘Ascention’ by Kandinsky to note that the divine can be visualized not just by painting figurines or clouds in the sky. The wonder of modern art is not the artist’s imagination. Rather his use of imagination as a tool to communicate the vision he has had. The objective is to convey to us what he sees. This trend is particularly important to keep in mind as we progress from early modern art to latter when form completely separated from the content/idea. When the church or human body are no longer expressed as such, and become dabs of unrecognizable paint on a canvas, what then is the viewer to make of it? I would ague, conventions of expressions cast aside for pure experience.

Sanjay Misra the composer of the lovely disc “Chateau Benares” talks about inspiration. In the dark of the night when lightning strikes, you see the world as it is for a brief second. You hurriedly record what you see. It occurs to me that you need to be awake when the lightning strikes and be ready to ‘see’ when it occurs and then have the talent to record it!

Abstract art in my opinion is expression of such vision. The next time you see a Salvador Dali – rather than say how clever, how imaginative – ask what did Dali see?



IV. A Bridge to India

At about the time impressionism was yielding to abstract art, artists from India were seeking to breathe free from the conventional expressions that went back centuries. And to articulate the truth and a vision of the truth freshly shorn of tradition and conventions. That aspiration over the last 7 decades has yielded some greats including Ram Kumar, SH Raza, MF Hussein, Gaitonde, Hebbar and others.

Benares - Ram Kumar

It is literally thrilling when one sees the Benares series by Ram Kumar. The joy is in seeing a Cezzanesque bridge between impressionism and abstract art. As you journey through Ram Kumar you see the evolution from impressionism to abstract art. According to a critic, Ram Kumar’s Varnasi is a city without hopes; therefore his palette too is fairly muted, and is in keeping with the artist’s deliberately sordid interpretation of the city. Ram Kumar chooses to focus on the urban nightmare that Varanasi city has become. So there are no quaint depiction ghats in his paintings; nor are there the towering spires of the Vishwanath temple. Instead he chooses to depict the seven-kilometre stretch between Varuna and Asi that makes up the holy city of Varanasi. The spires of the holy Vishwanath temple and the presence of its
neighbor, the gyan Vapi mosque are only a shadowy presence. There are illuminated temple doorways hinting at the hallowed garba griha within, and the collapsed temple of Ahalya, that sinks in sideways, as if caught permanently in the vicious circle of human greed.


Ram Kumar’s paintings, it has been said, can be seen as man’s journey towards an increasing alienating urban life. The human condition in such hostile circumstances is the main concern of the painter as seen in his early paintings, which depict the alienated individual within the city. According to a reviewer, the cities in his paintings, specifically Varanasi with its dilapidated, moss covered houses, convey a sense of hopelessness, which engulfs the city dweller. His abstract paintings are characterized by sweeping strokes of paint, which evoke the fear of incipient violence within human habitation.

Each of the modern Indian painters have succeeded in tapping into the vision. A spirit , that upon examination of their painting leaps out at you and you experience a shock of recognition.

The mystery however remains; all forms have been sacrificed. Yet you recognize in their paintings the Indian mind expressing an Indian vision of the truth that makes a quantum leap to Universal themes of love, joy and trance.

V. Summary

A few quick points in my summary. Abstract art can be obtuse and to the cynic so-called artists being willfully obtuse. However, art is more about vision. The observation as with anything in human life is that even great art styles can become formula. And thus there is often a bend in the road when artists break through old conventions to convey their vision. Finally, the bridge to India is fascinating as evidenced by the supreme artistic expressions of greats like Ram Kumar.