The Kabaka (King) of Uganda, the courtyards of old palaces, the kite-sellers of Saurashtra, a nubile young woman, fast asleep.For a synoptic account of Madhav Satwalekar's work, these examples should be enough. Because the main themes of the former director of Art, Maharashtra state, are: landscapes, people, people and more people. And even after five decades of painting, Satwalekar continues to render fresh strokes of the same images. His latest exhibition at Sans Tache gallery, proves that point.This love for the land and people came quite naturally to Satwalekar - inspired and honed by his father, Pandit S D Satwalekar. His first instructor, Panditji was not just a painter. He was also a Sanskrit scholar, whose political writings didn't quite suit the British government. When the patronage of the Raja of Aundh came his way, he left Lahore for the small but progressive state in southern Maharashtra.It was here that Satwalekar's career got direction. A post-graduate from the J J School of Art, he won its prestigious Mayo medal in 1935. He also received scholarships to the Florence Academy, in Italy, to the Slade School in London and finally, to the Academic Grand Chamiers, in Paris. With a backing like that, the young artist never faced the insecurities his contemporaries were grappling with. "I was never insecure, perhaps because I was never unsuccessful in my life," he acknowledges.The West might have given him confidence but it did not tarnish his brush. When he returned to India, just before World War II broke out, his mind was drawn to rural idyll and the human figure, over and over again. "Nothing matches the form of women, especially those from Saurashtra. They have a gait, to which a close parallel is only that of a tree's," explains Satwalekar. So, be it paintings inspired by Goa, Sikkim, Saurashtra or an obscure nation in the Dark Continent; a fish market, a farm, a fair or a shop, women dominate his paintings. A close rival to her are landscapes - trees and flowers, in particular. "Your paintings have a lot to do with the background you've been brought up in," Satwalekar explains. An opinion that is in keeping with his belief that all art should be born out of conviction.That's why he has stayed away from abstract art. Simply because his mind could never accept the non-figurative - what he calls, "a complete distortion of form. I could never appreciate Picasso. What joy can one get by painting an eye on the forehead".Abstract artists however label Satwalekar as an orthodox painter. To that allegation, Satwalekar has a simple, straightforward retort, "Art can either be good or bad, not academic or modern." That there are few takers for his style of painting today, does not bother Satwalekar though. He says, "Will people classify music as academic, that is classical, and as modern, which is filmi? For people, filmi music is cheap and classical music sweet. They want the latter to stay. It should be the same for paintings too." Abstract art, according to Satwalekar, can at best be a modern style not modern art. But he does not dismiss abstract paintings as pop art, he just maintains that popular trend forces young artists to often paint what they are not convinced of."I paint for myself," he says. At 82, Satwalekar has the right to do just that.
