Strokes at Midnight

“On the day that India gained independence,the gallery was showing the works of Sushil Sarkar,Jamini Roy,Sailoz Mukherjee,KS Kulkarni and BC Sanyal,” informs Uday Jain,grandson of Ram Chander.

Dhoomimal Gallery had been opened in order to enable artists to exhibit and discuss art. Even as Jawaharlal Nehru dwelt on the challenges before the new nation,the artists gathered at this gallery to brainstorm on developing an Indian identity for art,independent of the European masters.

On the eve of Independence,Arun Vadehra,director of Vadehra Gallery in Delhi,celebrated by visiting an exhibition organised by KH Ara in Matunga,a Mumbai suburb. “The focus of artists of that time was to be radical and reclaim our past without becoming sentimental. They looked towards modernism.

In the images of Ram Kumar and MF Husain,we see a preoccupation with the real India,with the common man in the spotlight,” says Vadehra.

At a time when there were almost no venues for showing modernist art in India,Kekoo Gandhy displayed modernist canvases on the windows of his showroom,Chemould Frames. “Opened in 1941,the showroom became a site for informal solo shows. We held exhibitions by Jamini Roy and Henri Cartier Bresson. Husain’s first solo was held here in 1951. 1947 was also significant for me because I was elected as the Honorary Secretary of the Bombay Art Society,” says Gandhy.

Space wasn’t the only problem. Artist Ram Kumar remembers that “there was no money in art. Imported stationary was available,but it was too expensive”. Back then,he was a student of Sharda Ukil School of Art in Janpath. “I was pursuing masters in economics from St Stephen’s and went for art classes in the evening,” adds Kumar,who later became a member of the Progressive Artists Group,one of the most influential artists group in India,established in 1947.

His co-member in the group,Krishen Khanna,meanwhile,heard Nehru’s “tryst with destiny” speech in Shimla. “I was studying art in Lahore Art School,but had to flee with my family,” he says.

“I listened to Panditji’s speech in awe. All I could bring myself to paint were landscapes. My first political painting came a year later. It was of people reading the newspaper after Gandhiji ‘s death and was exhibited by the Bombay Art Society.”

He has painted several political paintings since. Indian art too has found a language of its own — one that is recognised world over.