Artists come alive in these pen portraits
Reviewed by Jayanti Roy

Your History Gets in The Way of My Memory. Essays on Indian Artists
By Geeti Sen. Harper Collins. Pages 155. Rs 999

Geeti Sen is an established author of books on Indian art. In this book, her personal experiences of acquaintance with several then obscure but now well-known artists is collated. She claims that having seen these artists from close quarters has provided her with insights into their personality and a deeper understanding of their process of creation of art. She writes about four men and four women artists; Ganesh Pyne, Husain, Anupam Sud, Nilima Sheikh, Manjit Bawa, Raza, Meera Mukherjee and Zarina Hashmi. The time period is 1970 onwards when Indian contemporary art has just started getting recognition at the world stage.

The image of artists in the public eye is often infused with a kind of awe, reverence, myth and magic towards their so-called eccentric and idiosyncratic behaviour. The author does not add or subtract from that stereotype. Leaving them untouched, she only portrays her own reading of each character thus giving the readers adequate freedom to form their own opinion. She also disclaims it clearly that memory is arbitrary, subjective, personal and distinct from history and hence these essays are not evidenced-based pieces of research writing but exploration of her encounters with artists, their desires, conflicts and search for meaning.

The essays are detailed, alternating between comments on the works of these artists, images, poems and quotes invoked in the author’s mind by them and relating all of it to the artists' personal self. These are interspersed with more than hundred facsimiles of letters, paintings, portraits, pictures in home settings of the artists, giving a peep into the internal world of the artists. However, all the essays do not seem to be written with the same intimate tenor by the author. Those on Meera Mukherjee and Ganesh Pyne, seemed to be on a more personal note, while that of Husain and Zarina Hashmi were distant. Maybe it has something to do with the personalities of these artists. While some are open and accessible; others may be more difficult to interpret. The author has been successful in the use of her language, which is suited to the writing of memoirs. Words and passages create vivid pictures and transport the reader to the environment where the artists create art.

The book assumes prior familiarity of the reader about art scenes of India and its diverse personalities. It might be a hindrance to those readers who are exploring the domain of fine arts for the first time.

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