An Artist in Flux

Born in Bombay in 1933,into a Goan Roman Catholic family,Ribeiro was one of the earliest Indian painters to make a mark in the West,when he settled in London after World War II. Best known for pioneering the use of acrylic paints,he produced a prodigious body of work,painting abstracts and still life,landscapes and figurative images. Now,three years after his death,a memorial exhibition,Restless Ribeiro: An Indian Artist in Britain,at Londons Asia House will celebrate the Indian painter between May 24 and June 29.

But before Ribeiro settled in London,he returned to India,to Bombay,in 1955,where he joined the Life Insurance Corporation of India LIC. He had just started dabbling in poetry,and was hoping to become a poet. His social circle included literary and cultural figures like Adil Jussawalla,Nissim Ezekiel,R Parthasarathy and Ebrahim Alkazi. There were regular poetry reading sessions at the British Council and at Alkazis house,where other poets often dropped by,including Beat poets Allen Ginsberg,Gary Snyder and Peter Orlovsky. At the same time,Ribeiro was painting prolifically,his work drawing attention,despite his amateur status. In 1958,he finally decided to quit his job and take up painting. A solo exhibition came by,at the Bombay Art Society Salon,in 1961,followed by several others in Delhi,Calcutta and Bombay. The experience of the first show never left him. Ezekiel reviewed it in Arts and Events 1961 and remarked how his comparatively high-priced work has found customers with unexpected ease, says Marsha.

Among those who recognised his talent was nuclear physicist Homi Bhaba,founding director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,who recommended him to JRD Tata. The latter commissioned him for a 12 feet mural for Tata Iron and Steel. Both remained steadfast patrons of his work.

His early success bolstered his confidence,but India began to tire out Ribeiro. He moved back to London in 1962 with his young wife Ana. Souza was already an established name there and Ribeiro plunged into the artistic scene,having won a grant from the Congress for Cultural Freedom in Paris. The 60s and 70s were heady days for the young artist he was invited to a group show in Piccadilly Gallery,whose owner Godfrey Pilkington had a reputation for discovering artists of merit,and went on to have solos and group shows across England in prestigious galleries such as Rawinsky,John Whibley and Crane Kalman,Germany and Paris,balancing shows with extensive lectures on Indian art and culture. He organised art events,founded the Indian Artists United Kingdom Group and was one of the most prominent Indian artists of that generation.

What set Ribeiro apart was his versatility. He experimented with both technique and medium and subject matter. I was amazed to discover that Ribeiro had such a wide variety of styles, says Katriana Hazell,curator of the upcoming show. For the exhibition,which charts his career from the late 50s to the late 80s,Hazell has grouped the 70 selected work into the following categories: early expressionist oil townscapes; still life; gentle watercolour landscapes; delicate pen and ink drawings of townscapes; interiors; large abstracts; heads/faceless faces and what Hazell terms as flying landscapes. The first part of the exhibition will showcase Ribeiros early townscapes,painted while the artist still lived in Bombay.

His relationship with Souza,his half-brother from his mothers previous marriage,had always been a crucial influence. Soon after he moved to London,while he worked at his own canvases,he was also working as Souzas studio assistant,often finishing his canvases and leaving them ready for the flamboyant Souza to append his signature. Later,when Souza moved to the US in 1967,they corresponded regularly. They exchanged ideas on painting,writing,philosophy and their successes/disappointments. After Souza left for New York,they would talk on the phone. My father visited Souza in NY in the 70s once and Souza would see him when he came to the UK. Both brothers were similar in temperament,theyd discuss and argue passionately on occasion and at times a typical sibling rivalry would emerge, says Marsha.

But despite the rapport they shared,Ribeiro underplayed their relationship,never mentioning it to those who didnt already know. The similarity between his early landscapes in watercolour and Souzas work ended when his works veered towards abstraction,into a style both softer and distinctive,with elements of graphic art creeping into it. He also experimented greatly with mediums and techniques. He thrived on changing direction with his work. Hed complete one phase,and then move onto the next and each time hed get excited by the results. In my mind,eternally creating was what made him feel grounded. It frustrated him that he couldnt write with the same ease with which he painted, says Marsha. It was the frustration that came with the long wait for oil paints to dry that led him to first experiment with synthetic plastic bases that were being used for commercial paints in the 60s. Apart from a much shorter drying time,these acrylics gave the colours a never-before-lustre that soon broke the initial reluctance among artists. A series of semi-abstract head paintings and works such as Stricken Monk with Cat ONine Tails,which record his shift to the new medium,will also be seen at the exhibition.

For all his innovation,however,Ribeiro never achieved the popularity or acclaim that his work deserved. There were no dedicated galleries promoting his work,despite his vast output,reinforcing a sense of under-representation. In 1986,a retrospective was held at the Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery. His last public showing was in Britain just three months before his death in 2010. He was unconventional through and through and he would get impatient with the mundane and was fiercely critical of any pretence. But his biggest weakness was a self-destructiveness,something he himself recognised. I believe this was borne out of a restlessness and a sense of torment that came through in his art,and the growing frustrations hed had in his career. He was known to be difficult and that was part of the problem. But he also had some bad luck at focal points in his career. I had tried to represent him myself but struggled,much to my frustration. It was only in the last few years that he let me,and we worked closely together on managing his work, says Marsha,who hopes to bring the exhibition to India soon. Ribeiros last exhibition in India was in 1998 at the LTG Gallery in New Delhi. There is so much yet to show. I want India to remember one of its lost artists,someone who I believe did much to further the place of Indian art to where it is today, she says.