THERE is art that gushes like an unbridled cataract, overwhelming all in its path. And there’s art that flows like a quiet stream. quenching only the essential thirst of the recipient. Karachi-born artist Nasreen Mohamedi’s art is that quiet stream. Which is perhaps why more than a decade after she succumbed to Parkinson’s Disease, Mohamedi’s work continues to intrigue. ‘‘We decided to have her retrospective as our opening show because she’s an important artist who has been overlooked,’’ says Mortimer Chatterjee, who has curated a show with partner Tara Lal for their new gallery Phillips in Mumbai.But while Mohamedi’s art—from early abstract expressionist (late ‘50s, early ‘70s) to geometric grid and later, minimalist work on paper—is there for all to see, almost everything else in her life was for private viewing. ‘‘Remember Nasreen’s frail limbs, ascetic face and ungendered artist persona. her narcissistic engagement with her body and stigmata she barely cared to hide,’’ writes historian Geeta Kapur. She was no doubt friendly with the gregarious and high-profile Bombay Progressives—Husain in particular, but she developed a closer friendship with VS Gaitonde, the pioneer of minimalist abstraction. And like her reclusive mentor, the 1937-born Mohamedi went on to become a reflective and self-critical painter, with her diary proving to be the only key to her, besides her art. ‘‘It is a most important time in my life. The new image for pure rationalism. Pure intellect which has to be separated from emotion—which I just begin to see now. A state beyond pain and pleasure. Again a difficult task begins,’’ she says in an entry on May 22, 1960. Extracting each work after much agonising, she often rejected canvases which would be given away to brother and artist Altaf to paint over. ‘‘Till date there are Altaf canvases with Nasreen’s work under it,’’ says Chatterjee. The simplicity that characterised her work also permeated her life. ‘‘When Nasreen came over to visit, she would be quite taken aback by the unrestrained display of artefacts and art that Altaf and I had collected,’’ says sister-in-law Navjot, who later discovered that though Mohamedi’s living area was sparse like her paintings, ‘‘Nasreen also collected objects like magnets, shells and rust-ridden bits of iron.’’ However, these objects were all stored away in a cupboard and she would take them out sometimes for a solitary gaze. ‘‘We found some of them after she died,’’ Navjot adds.
