Opinion Remembering sculptor Latika Katt: An inspiring journey of art and resilience

I recall Latika’s father, B N Sharma, as having studied at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU). One of her distant relatives, an artist who had studied at the Lucknow College of Art and was based in Banaras, perhaps remained the main motivation for her to have joined the BHU to study art. It was there that she also met her mentor-husband Balbir Singh Katt, a dynamic sculptor of repute.

When she joined the M S University of Baroda to pursue her Master’s in sculpture in 1973, I was a fresher in my second-year foundation. I have, therefore, been a close witness to her sculptural engagements and the very inception of her series Metamorphosis. This included her earliest metal casting, which she accomplished under Rajnikant Panchal, an eminent metal caster who was part of the faculty, while Mahendra Pandya, the then-head of the sculpture department, motivated her immensely.

Her interest in nature, its diversity, and multiplicity along with experiential potential are amply suggestive and visible in her creative pursuits. Her series of works, Evolution, Deterioration, Fields reflect her deep interest in the organic transformation of form and spirit, palpable and mouldable through her hands and immortalised in the diverse medium and materials that she used as part of her creative expression.

Her father’s deep influence and inspiration as a botanist and French master Auguste Rodin’s sculptural strength, which she immensely admired and openly acknowledged, are amply visible as a continuous thread in her body of work. Her sound understanding and skill in handling representative expression, both in scale and magnitude, bear ample testimony through some of the large sculptural and monumental works she created during her career.

Our paths continued to cross when we both joined the faculty of Fine Arts at the Jamia Millia Islamia University, where she taught sculpture and I was in the painting department, and during my tenure as the director of the National gallery of Modern Art. Her work and personality were a great source of inspiration and influence on young minds, in particular on women artists aspiring to be practitioners of the discipline.

But she soon returned to Banaras to set up her large sculpture studio on the banks of the Ganges as an independent sculptor. This is where she created a large body of her works in diverse mediums with great vigour. Notable is her conceptualisation for the Ministry of Culture, a large and monumental sculptural monument devoted to commemorating the Dandi March. She had been shortlisted and selected from several important sculptors of the country through a national selection process during my tenure as the director. Unfortunately, this project did not materialise, but several other important commissions of similar magnitude and scale were executed by her and are installed all over the country at important public venues.

Latika was a committed and determined soul, tough, resilient and focused, equally talented and accomplished in ensuring the ultimate realisation of her perceptions. A workaholic, her only aspiration in life appeared to be her creative adventures with a commitment that remains unparalleled in our age and time; in particular, as a woman practitioner of a medium that requires great physical effort and dedication.

She went with her boots on, just the way she would have loved to. She was in Jaipur for the unveiling of “The Sculpture Park” at the Jaigarh fort for which she had been invited along with other eminent sculptors. She lived and created on her own terms and parted from the world in her own unassuming fashion. Her sculptural works and her persona will remain in our memories as a motivation — in life and art.

The writer is an artist and former director, National Gallery of Modern Art