Canvas of the familiar
Archana Shastri

My Brush With Art: An Anthology of Contemporary Indian Art
by Lakshmi Lal. Rupa. Pages 164. Rs 495.

Bereft of historical and chronological trappings, the book provides an unblinkered, refreshing look at the art scenario in the Bombay of the 1980s. Journalistic and cryptic descriptions of paintings done in the "the giant cauldron of bubbling life that is the metropolis city of Mumbai" in the initial chapter gives way to expansive insights into visual experiences accompanied and aided by introspective murmurings of the artists.

In Lal’s own words, "The book is a collection of articles on contemporary Indian art written for The Times of India in the 1980s. It includes an extensive feature written for Taj magazine on artists working in Mumbai and the text written in 1992 for the catalogue of a curated show."

The choice of artists stems from a personal positive response to the works of art, regardless of the artist’s "stature or reputation". Nevertheless, by the writer’s own admission, " the artist was already an old familiar". The 30 artists in Lal’s book belong to the celebrated lot. Arranged in alphabetical order—obviously to pre-empt any presumption about ranking—the artists represent three generations, ranging from the likes of N. S. Bendre, M. F. Husain and J. Swaminathan through Anjolie Ela Menon, Gieve Patel and Gulammohammed Sheikh to Arpana Caur, Jayashree Chakravarty and Rekha Rodwittiya.

Visual experience rooted in continuous exposure and familiarity with the works of art forms the basis of this eloquent, poetic response in words—reflective and nurturing, mediating and meditating. The viewer and the viewed (the writer and the painting), though locked in a transient moment, allow space for thought-provoking transgressions and interventions. While for the uninitiated, verbal renderings and ruminations unfold gently and persuasively the unique vision, processes and preoccupations of an artist; for the connoisseur and the student of art, it triggers, without enforcing, a way of perception and articulation—subtle and sensitive, probing and reflective.

The artist’s participation may authenticate as Prabhakar Barwe does, "A picture that pins you down visually, fixes the gaze, is immediately less, in my eyes"; the artist may ideate aloud as Satish Panchal does on his own work "Inside the square, silence is held by four equal sides."; the artist may confess as Babu Xavier does, "I want to finish as soon as I begin. I feel restless if I wait, which is why I never work in oils, only in water colour and acrylic"; the artist may philosophise as Akbar Padamsee does, "The reason why one starts a painting is because of residual tensions and disturbances, that impossibility of arriving at fulfilment`85 it drives a painter from painting to painting." The various nuances are sensitively captured and provide a window to the trials and travails of the chosen artists.

The last chapter, Journeys Within the Landscapes, sums it all. Bound by the processes undertaken to manifest the internalised into visual expression and experience, the painters "drew upon their only resource—their environment." The juxtaposition of the various distinctive visions that emerge are aptly summed up at the end by Lal through Gerard Manley Hopkin’s quote—‘O the mind, the mind has mountains/No-man fathomed.’

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