DANCING Lord Ganesha, a flirtatious Lord Krishna or a calm Lord Buddha. They’ve often found their way to an artist’s canvas. But how many gallery hoppers can recollect seeing Guru Nanak—the founder of the Sikh religion—in a painting? Of course, it’s not for this reason that Delhi-based artist Arpana Caur decided to depict Nanak in her forthcoming show, to be held at her own gallery Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, from December 18 till January 15. Neither was her being a Sikh the driving factor. The motivation was her belief in Guru Nanak. ‘‘I consider him the first medieval thinker. These are turbulent times when riots happen at the drop of a hat. An art exhibition won’t change the mindset of people, but the show is meant to celebrate Guru Nanak saheb’s spirit,’’ says Caur, a self-taught artist whose last show was held three years ago on the legend of Sohni Mahiwal. The seed was sown in her mind when she visited Leh-Alchi highway in Ladakh in the ’80s. ‘‘The Army has built a Gurudwara Nanak Lama Saheb. In that region, Guru Nanak is called Lama Nanak. Some monks believe Lord Buddha came back as Guru Nanak,’’ she says. Then emerged Nanak for the first time in her art. The riots of 1984 again took Caur to Nanak. ‘‘I based a body of works on Nanak after my visit to Baghdad in 1986 where he was worshipped as Peer Nanak. But they kept being sold whereas I wanted to collect them for an entire show on him,’’ says the artist who was, in 1995, commissioned for a work by the Hiroshima Museum to mark the 50th anniversary of the nuclear holocaust. She faced the daunting task of not letting her work look like calendar paintings. Thus entered her interpretations: the vibrant Dancing Nanak in Baramaha or Nanak cutting a thread with scissors. ‘‘He was against external rituals, which is why I show him cutting a janeu (sacred thread),’’ she says. The Dancing Nanak emerges from Nanak’s love for nature. The show has not opened yet and the artist has already received hate mail from San Francisco. ‘‘Somebody had shown the slides of this series in the US. This lady wrote to me saying Guru Nanak never danced. You are distorting Sikhism. I wrote back saying your Nanak may not dance but mine does,’’ says the recluse who refuses to network and sells most of her works through art galleries. The show poses one more difficulty—to put forth historical facts correctly. ‘‘I have shown him wearing a kalandari topi (a cap worn by Sufi mendicants). Some may say he always wore a turban but I have old Sikh miniatures in which he is wearing a turban,’’ she says. A collector of miniatures, Caur has been been studying them, too. The influence of Sikh Pahari miniatures is visible in the mountains in her works. ‘‘I even have a miniature which shows Nanak being slapped by his father Kallu,’’ she says. And contrary to the common perception of a plumpish Nanak, Caur’s is thin. ‘‘Somebody who travelled so much couldn’t have been fat and even the miniatures have depicted him like that.’’ But how can a Caur show not feature her trademark plugs and switches in her works? ‘‘A scissor is present in one of the art works. And there’s still some days left for the show. Plugs and switches might make it to my work again. I just can’t do without them,’’ she laughs.
