During the British colonial rule, the official perspective of Indian art was dismissive, with no regard for the living art and culture of India. Rabindranath Tagore started Santiniketan as a response and this experimental university was devoted to the study, preservation, and regeneration of the Indian culture. His nephew, Abanindranath Tagore, the founder of Bengal School of Art, developed a style of painting based on Indian traditions and it was under the latter’s tutelage that Nandalal Bose (1882-1966) began to create art that embodied Indianness without losing its cosmopolitan flair.
Recently, a small yet significant aspect of Bose’s works went on display at the National GAllery of Modern Art (NGMA), Bengaluru. Titled ‘The Haripura Panel-Nandalal Bose’, the in-house exhibition showcases 77 artworks which the NGMA calls the ‘landmark suite of temperas’.
It took a visit to the magnificent NGMA at the heart of Bengaluru to have a first-hand view of the Haripura panels. For the sake of the exhibition, the gallery has opened a side hall in the front as the entrance in lieu of its regular entry through a long corridor. At the centre of this hall is the copy of the Constitution of India giving a glimpse of the beautifications done by Bose and his student Beohar Rammanohar Sinha. The following halls are where the Haripura panels are displayed.
To understand the panels, here’s a quick dive into Bose’s works which have elevated him as a pioneer of Indian modern art. As a student, he assimilated the foundational concepts of Santiniketan. His early works were influenced by his mentor's style, and he later delved into highly stylised paintings inspired by the Ajanta murals, portraying scenes from the Mahabharata. In 1930, he did a series of linocut illustrations for children’s books by Rabindranath Tagore as well as the iconic linocut of Mahatma Gandhi to commemorate Gandhi’s Dandi March protesting the British taxation on salt. A copy of this linocut is on display at the exhibition.
Because of the popularity of Gandhi’s linocut print, Bose got immense recognition. The two luminaries, who had met at Santiniketan, became great friends and even political collaborators. Bose was commissioned by Gandhi in 1938 to create artworks for Indian National Congress annual session at Haripura, Gujarat. Actually, the brief was to create an entire ‘township’ which was to be free of urban influences. The township had to be built out of local materials with exhibits by local artisans. Gandhi wished that the posters should resonate with the public.
Bose took charge and ensured that the conference gates, welcome arches, and halls were all made of local materials. On display were earthen pots and vessels, tassels of paddy grass hung up as decoration, and cane baskets made by local craftspeople. The pandal was decorated with about 400 paintings of which Bose himself painted about hundred and the rest were copied from these by his associates. For accuracy, he had visited Vithalpura, a village near Haripura, to observe the lives and culture of the local people for a few weeks. He sketched ferociously, capturing the lyrical daily movements in fluid strokes. Throughout his life, Bose maintained the habit of carrying paper and pens, allowing him to sketch whatever caught his eye. In fact, he often referred to sketching as a form of seeing.
The Haripura panels depict in detail landscapes and local people going about their daily chores. Artist and critic Jaya Appaswamy (1918-1984) commended the panels, saying that Bose’s research and enquiry into animal, plant and bird forms showed both analysis and synthesis, a perception of the relationships of parts and their proportions. The renowned artist K G Subramanyam (1924-2016) praised the success of the panels, saying, “With these, almost every Indian came to know Bose. Gandhi openly said that here was a man who could make art out of anything. After giving him the credit for such wizardry, Gandhi made him from that day his mentor on all matters relating to art or design."
Seeing the panels up close is a profound experience. Bose’s mastery is evident in the meticulous deft strokes, the avidity in details, the handling of vibrant earthy colours, and the lyrical forms. The strokes of bold white lines depicting jewellery, the simple swirls of blue with insets of green and orange spots portraying a magnificent peacock, the ripped body of a blacksmith stressed with a few short black strokes, the gentle caress of a mother bathing her child, and the pointed dabs of grey and white to embody the vitality of palash flowers – all of these render the paintings timeless.
The Haripura panels are part of Bose’s eclectic oeuvre that spanned his journey as a polymath artist and teacher (he went on to become the principal of Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan) and fortunately, NGMA has 6800 artworks including paintings, graphic prints, drawings, and sketches in its repository. The gallery has long worked with several national and international curators who have shone a light on Indian modernists and Bose in particular.
The exhibition is on at NGMA Bengaluru till April 28, 2024
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