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LIFE may have delivered him many a whammy but internationally acclaimed artist Viren Tanwar has always found the gumption to bounce back. Back in time as a student of the Government College of Art, Chandigarh, when relatives scoffed ¾ "Oh, he paints takhtis" ¾ he proved them wrong by winning accolades. In the intervening period, controversies may have dogged his creative growth but none of it deterred him from emerging on the top. Today, as he is part of prestigious exhibitions like India Awakens Under the Banyan Tree and Aspects of Collecting, ESSL Museum, Vienna, Austria, as his buyers include the rich and famous like UK-based business tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, he shares how the West had woken up to his innate talent several decades ago.
Not only had the collector Chester Herwitz shown keen interest in his works but so also did many other private buyers. Not surprising, his works sold at Sotheby auction in 1995 and are today part of the collection of Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, USA, ESSL Museum, Vienna, Austria. Arts India Gallery, New York, etc. "The West," he asserts, "doesn’t wear blinkers, rather recognises merit for its intrinsic worth." This realisation first dawned upon him during his post graduation course in print making at the Slade School of Art, London, where his teachers dubbed him the "Indian genius". "Training," he believes, "is important for an artist". Thus, the exposure he gained at the Government College of Art, Chandigarh, under the guidance of teachers like R.K. Jain, he feels, truly honed his artistic sensibilities. He owes a debt of gratitude to his school in Hisar as well. He reminisces, "Our headmaster was ahead of the times and not only were we given training in pottery making and other crafts, even back then we knew the difference between Kathak and Bharatnatyam." Of course, he feels that one learns from small things of life as well. He recalls the village aunt, an artist of sorts, who wouldn’t put an extra feather to a peacock figure. Smiles Tanwar, "Imagine, she knew about abstraction and minimalism even without going to an art school." Similarly, he remembers his mother, the woman who supported his decision to pursue arts a profession, with fond affection. Says he, "Not only was she a pillar of strength, she completely understood what I created." Thus, while his father, himself an artist, raised an objection to his nude sculpture, the mother understood the need to sculpt the man in nude. Today, as some of his detractors react to his nude images with indignation, his repartee is, "I am not painting nude figures to titillate or shock viewers. Beneath all our pretences, we all are naked. My imagery is close to life and drawn from life." So, right now as his canvas delves into the man-woman relationship, somewhere the personal suffering is finding an expression. How much of art is personal? "Quite a bit ... and it touches an universal chord for many personal stories are alike" Thus, when he painted a canvas "I am here, was here and will be here," dedicated to his brother who had passed away, Herwitz could immediately sense his personal tragedy even though there was no direct allusion to it. "Art", believes Tanwar, "doesn’t have to be direct nor a knee-jerk response to events." Thus, though the cataclysmic events of the 1984 riots left an indelible impression on his mind, he painted it much later and that too not with negativity but hope. "Life," he reasons, "has to be lived. So, better live it positively." Though currently he is battling with the sickness of his wife, the person who has stood by him through all ups and downs, he is as upbeat as ever. Painting with the same passion, in future his mission is to paint without compromising on anything. "The problem with artists once they begin to sell is that they stop growing for they are comfortable repeating themselves." However, Tanwar, whose
paintings have time and again transformed anew, at times by way of
miniatures and others as larger than life canvases, abhors the thought
of repeating himself. But at the end of the day, Tanwar would like to
tell his stories his way. And, you bet, just as life changes like
quicksilver, so do his stories and images. From headless forms to
acrobats to a man-woman engaged in a game of chopad, to Shah
Rukh Khan making his presence felt in the work, "My Name is
Street, My Home is Street," his tales may be about the common man
and his aspirations but are certainly expressed in an uncommon
expression.
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