BRONZE EDGE

As he walks around the works,touching the gleaming metal,Nandagopalan explains the process behind it. “My sculpture is linear and inspired by the Madras Movement (of the 1960s) that laid a lot of emphasis on line and painting. I have also taken inspiration from our tradition of high-relief sculpture,where the work is frontal and the back of the sculpture is not really meant to be seen. My work confronts the viewer and plays a lot with textures,” he says.

Art theoretician Josef James once described Nandagopalan’s work as the skin that is left when the sculpture has been sucked out. The acrobats,the birds and the monkeys might have been drawn from folk tales but are presented without any comment on politics and the drama of human life. “I try and stay away from talking about politics through my art. A documentary film or a photograph is much more effective in conveying what is political. What I make is pure sculpture. The folk narrative is just a springboard that I use to talk of the mathematics and balance of the work. In that sense,you could liken my work to Carnatic music,” he says.

His journey to this point of surety has been a long one. The Bangalore-born artist began as a painter,the influence of his father heavy on his work. But to quote art critic Ian Findlay Brown,“he found his true voice in sculpture,especially through his media—copper and brass.” His early years were spent at Madras University (1966),drawing realistic life studies. When he reached the College of Arts and Crafts in Madras in 1971 and first bent copper and hammered brass,he knew he had found the medium in which to express himself.

His earlier work was more static than what one sees today and influenced by the Madras Movement,which advocated returning to indigenous art. This group was more low-key when compared to the Bombay Progressives,spearheaded by flamboyant artists like M.F. Husain and F.N. Souza. But in a broad way they belonged to the same school of thought,one that was for a fusion of tradition and modernity. “At Cholamandal,I was able to combine my academic training with my learning of craft. I did not want to submit myself to a sterile Indian version of European art,” he says.

Some may argue that Nandagopalan never got his due. But his career has been studded with achievements. He was a gold medallist at the 4th International Triennale (1970) held in Delhi,then he bagged the National Award of the Lalit Kala Akademi ,(1970). He was an advisory to the National Gallery of Modern Art in 1998 and his work has been collected nationally and internationally. He has had 12 exhibitions and his last solo was held at the Singapore Art Museum for the Bronze Show,in 2006.

Nandagopalan hasn’t missed being in the limelight and is sceptical of Indian art’s growth chart. “In all this hype about the price of art and its global status,what is lost is our own art history. I am not suggesting that we become cloyingly (sic) nostalgic about the past. Instead we need to find those connections between modernity and our rich tradition,” he says.

The Cholamandal Artists’ Village is more than a muse. Nandagopalan has taken on his father’s mantle and gone further. The village now boasts of a new museum,the Cholamandal Centre for Contemporary Art,which opened in January this year. “This initiative came out of our disappointment when the idea to revamp the Madras Museum was shelved. We got together and collected funds from the artist community. This will be the only museum in the world to be built by artists,” he says.

Milestones
Cholamandal Artists’ Village:
Founded in 1965 by painter K.C.S. Paniker,it was a haven for artists and crafts-persons. The self-sustained village,on the outskirts of Chennai,allowed the artist to get away from the burgeoning city and be close to nature. With an open-air theatre,gallery,workshops and quaint tile-roofed cottages,it provided succour to many struggling artists
The Madras Movement:
Those who studied at the Government Collage of Arts and Crafts,Madras,in the 1960s,by definition,did not make a sharp distinction between art and craft. Artists of this school—Paniker,Redappa Naidu,K Ramanujam,J Sultan Ali and later Nandagopalan—combined their strong roots of traditional crafts with their understanding of modernism.