Schooled in Art

Since it would have been near impossible to show Baroda’s contribution to Indian art in a single show,they decided to focus on one decade. The decade 1979-1989,one that is believed to include the peak period of the institution. The exhibition is titled “Back to School,Baroda 1979-1989”.

“These 10 years can be bracketed between two benchmark exhibitions,” says Hoskote. The first,“Place for People”,in 1981,showcased the works of artists who had taken to narrative and allegorical art. The second,“Seven Young Indian Sculptors”,held six years later,was the coming together of the artists who later became the Radical Group. “It was a revolutionist idea,” says Hoskote,of the work produced by this group. “They would find new materials to work with and seek new audiences to show their work to,” he adds.

The exhibition,currently on at Tao Art Gallery,Worli,showcases works by 23 leading figures who came out of the university during that decade,including Rekha Rodwittiya,Anita Dube,Pushpamala N,Ravinder Reddy,Jayashree Chakravarty,Surendran Nair,Manisha Parekh and Valsan Kolleri. Some of the participating artists were part of “Place for People”,some were members of the Radical Group. The rest were part of a group of artists who conformed to neither,but drew from narrative art,feminist theory and the Italian transavantgarde movement that was predominant in much of Europe at the time. To represent all of these groups,the works on display are spread over various media.

“MS University was the one that self-consciously produced art criticism,” says Hoskote. “This discourse over several decades shaped the trajectory of Indian art.”

“Back to School,Baroda 1979-1989”,is the first in what will be a trilogy of exhibitions that will look back at the achievements of the three leading art schools in the country — the second being the JJ School of Art,Mumbai,and the third being the Vishwa Bharati University,Santiniketan.