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Journalism of Courage
RESHMA PATIL I MUMBAI
IN between bustling from his laboratory to a lecture hall, a theoretical physics professor cannot stop gazing at a Hussain. He tears his gaze away, only to have it fall on an 8216;Apparition on the Beach8217;. He can8217;t help himself, for not a single wall 8212; in tool room, corridor, lounge and office 8212; is without an oil or a watercolour. Still lifes, a spring nude, women with kites, Krishna, fisherwomen, Durga, sunflowers, sea gulls, Christ, mehfil, Allah, a village in Goa, a night queen and lovers live in with particle physics, algorithms and advanced mathematics.
8216;8216;Most TIFR art was picked up when today8217;s masters were upcoming artists. That was Bhabha8217;s genius. Some paintings were bought for Rs 300-400 in the 8217;50s and 8217;60s. Today they are worth lakhs,8217;8217; says a TIFR official. The story goes that Homi J Bhabha, architect of India8217;s atomic energy programme, habitually dropped by at art galleries and exhibitions on opening day, often picking up an oil or watercolour on impulse or chatting up amateur artists.
Atomic Energy in India, 50 years, brought out by the department of atomic energy in 1998, traces Bhabha8217;s interest to his family: 8216;8216;The Bhabha family had cultivated interests in the fine arts 8212; particularly western classical music and painting 8212; that aroused Bhabha8217;s aesthetic sensibilities, and remained as a dominant influence in all the creative work he undertook during his life time.8217;8217;
This master scientist8217;s artistic interests are best shown off in the Bhabha Auditorium, which has 15 of the TIFR8217;s best artworks. K Sridhar, a professor of theoretical physics who8217;s planning to curate an art show, points to his favourite: a 1971 Tyeb characterised by the signature diagnol and bull. 8216;8216;It must be worth Rs 1 crore today,8217;8217; says Sridhar.
8216;Bharat Bhagya Vidhata8217;, one of Hussain8217;s best, takes pride of place across the glass foyer. His depiction of post-independence modern India made it to TIFR in 1963, when Bhabha invited six artists to contend for an ambitious mural in the main building. Number 1 in the collection 8212; a priceless 1952 still life in watercolour by G M Hazarnis 8212; though, hangs in the director8217;s office.
For all the pride in Bhabha8217;s patronage of the Progressive Art Group and the European Renaissance, though, there is still no catalogue recording the history of these oils and watercolours. But perhaps that8217;s why it doesn8217;t surprise when in the tiniest musty corner, the dust is rubbed away to reveal the legend: Sculpture with compliments of Fidel Castro, 1983.
