Liberal Pursuits

B

h a s k a r

H

a n d e

LIBERAL PURSUITS Arts and Philosophy

Oilpainting, 2001 85x60cm, oil on canvas

LIBERAL PURSUITS A P rts and

hilosophy

Liberal Pursuits in Arts and Philosophy English Copyright:

Bhaskar Eknath Hande

Address: NL

Pretoriusstraat 131, 2571VD , The Hague

Tel:

0031633782482

Adrress: IND

Vaishwik , S. No. 246/4 Saket Society, D.P.

Road, Aundh, Pune - 411 007

Tel:

020- 27298182, Mobile: 9881532961

E-mail:

bhaskarhande@yahoo.com

bhaskarhande@gmail.com Website: http://www.bhaskarhande.com Video Channel: www.youtube.com/bhaskarhande Book Channel: http://www.scribed.com/bhaskarhande http://www.freado.com/users/books/5045/bhaskar-hande Photography:

Bhaskar Hande, Avinash Thorat, Krishnakant Chavhan

Publisher:

Foundation for Public Art, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Vaishwik Art Environment, Pune. India

Printer:

Swaroop Mudran, 687, Narayan Peth, Pune - 411003.

Design:

BNO Eye Design, Zwijndrecht, The Netherlands

B

h a s k a r

H

a n d e

Arts

and Philosophy

LIBERAL PURSUITS Foundation for Public Art Amsterdam

The author is grateful to following persons for editing text.

Mrs. Jaishree Varad Rao, Mumbai. India.

Mr. Dilip Puroshottam Chitre, Pune. India

Mr. Paul Rafferty, The Hague. The Netherlands

Mr. Jayant Deshpande, Pune India

Mr. Ritske de Koningh, Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

Acknowledgements: Stroom Den Haag, Nehru Centre Mumbai, Cholamanadal Chennai, Stichting Vrij kunst Amsterdam, Mindert warre Hertogenbosch Ashok Art Gallery Amsterdam. Ghandhi Centre The Hague.

Presentation and Exhibition held in

International Social Studies

Kortenaerkade 12

2518 AX The Hague

The Netherlands The Hague

Oilpainting, 2001 85x60cm, oil on canvas.

CONTENT:

Part one 01 Liberal Thoughts

9

02

Generosity of the Poet - Artist

23

03

Revolutionary Magnificence

37

04

Libertarian Composition

55

05

A New Perspective, A Fresh Beginning

67

06

Show Your Hope

73

07 Vari- Palkhisohala

89

08

A Black Substance

99

09

Shades and Shadows in my paintings 115

Part two 10

At the turn of the millennium

131

11 Contemporary Indian Modern Art and Artists in Holland 12 References, Illustrations and Biography

149 180

Part I Study Tour 1979, Gouach 50x70cm, on paper, Dalhousi, HP, India;

Liberal Thoughts

10___________________________________________________

Liberal Thoughts

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How did I start thinking liberal thoughts? I traveled between India and Holland for thirty years and am part of two cultures now. I express the rights of citizens everywhere and use my precious vote to select a public member in Holland. I share my thoughts in Indian universities; yet consider myself a student of the fine arts, working in visual arts.

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.�

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

As my interest in reading and writing developed, I read history of art, as well as the economic, social and financial history of countries round the world. I also read the philosophies of the world and read about the human mind and its development, as described in various philosophical writings, in western and eastern cultures. Wanting to dig deep into Eastern thought, I became a researcher and activist of the human mind. When I read and tried to understand Spinoza, what did I feel?

12____________________________________________________

I questioned myself many times and walked through levels of positive and negative thinking. Why does immigration take place? The idea of finding a land which is promising in every way makes us move around the world. My situation was not complex; I followed my intuitions. Being sensitive by nature, I became a pathfinder of the mind. I needed to observe myself. I started to study myself, following different paths, as opportunities came my way.

Long ago, as a mere five-year-old child stepping into school, I remember entering the classroom holding my sister’s finger tight! As the teacher stared at me, I tried to hide behind her! Initially, my school was under a tree! When the monsoon was over, an animal shed was donated to the school authorities and this became my school! That was the beginning of a new era in India’s villages. The farmers’ children gained access to education. Home at the farm would be at least three kilometers away from the village school.

Since children could not walk long distances, schools were started in the shivar, a part of the village closest to the farm.

Food was provided and the nurseries, anganwadi, took children as young as two and a half years of age.

Local schools in my home state, Maharashtra, are in Marathi medium, which was introduced after the reformation of the Indian states, post-independence. After India became a republic in 1950, the state of Mumbai was divided into Maharashtra and Gujarat. Marathi became the official language of Maharashtra.

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So much has changed in the past fifty years. I studied basic subjects and there was no laboratory or public library.

I had never seen a single watercolor or oil painting! Educational books were only for study; I recall few images, badly printed. The Marathi history of art book contained only a few color plates of paintings.

During my school days in India, mathematics was important but optional in secondary schools. In my final year, we were a group of seventeen students choosing history of art instead of mathematics. Seven subjects were compulsory and the eighth subject was optional. The three languages offered were Marathi, Hindi and English and Sanskrit was optional. I did not choose it. Social sciences, general science, special geography, history of art and general mathematics with geometry were my subjects. History of art and special geography were the subjects where I scored and which helped me pass with a first class. After crossing the threshold, I had to join a university or academy, to study further.

When I got my results, I was already in Mumbai in search of a job. The situation was tough and I was desperate to have an income first and then study.

The academic term began and I found myself without admission in any university, for any course. I was nervous and started accepting jobs that did not interest me. I decided to go back to my village and got a job to develop the water reservoir, dam, near my village. The village was under threat; my very habitat. My first emotional blow came when the vil-

14____________________________________________________ lage and the homes were demolished. I was witness to this and tried to stop it. In later years, I wrote down my memories of these hard times in Marathi verse, which is now in a book.

I left my village forever and came to Mumbai, never to return. I never looked backward. In Mumbai, I followed my intuitions and entered the world of illusions, cinema.

This was a silent dream that was a part of my childhood and teenage. I was nineteen going on twenty; a man entering a fascinating world. I was dreaming of greatness; of becoming someone important! I was attracted to the motion pictures. I would read about the abnormal behavior of legendary greats with fascination. I had to find myself. I read Greek mythology, Egyptian religion, ancient Roman civilization, Mediterranean civilization, pre-Roman Iron Age, Anglo-Saxon history in western prehistoric period. In Asia, prehistoric civilizations are studied in history of art. My favorite subject was Visual Art. My mother tongue is Marathi, which is spoken by about 72 million people in India. When I think of preservation and conservation of ancient cultures, I looked around me, at the culture I belong to. What were the findings? Museums had less evidence but libraries were filled with books with the information I needed on Mohenjodaro, Harappa, Babylon, Sumeria and other civilizations.

In India today, the method of education has changed drastically. Private schools are everywhere. The state of Maharashtra has English, Marathi and semi-English schools.

____________________________________________________15 Information technology has changed total perspectives and new methods of education are being put into practice. It is amusing to recall my days of education. But, I am yet to find places where everyone can freely enjoy viewing original paintings in our villages or even smaller towns, leave alone primary and secondary schools. One cannot find this even in Indian universities. Only academies that provide art education are in possession of paintings, prints, sculptures and other visual works of art. Even cities like Pune, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad do not have public museums for contemporary art.

In contrast, where I live in Holland today, I see every small city has a contemporary collection of art in a museum.

There is high contrast in the visual cultures of my two countries. Economically, the classes are different. But interestingly, both countries have trouble keeping their politics in order!

In literature and fine arts, both have good relations, despite differences. I have attempted to introduce Indian artists in Holland and Dutch artists in India, several times. Projects are still going on, for exchange programs, in India and Europe.

I have been living in Holland since 1983. I have spent many years in Holland, studying visual art, practicing and exhibiting all over Europe. I have met some interesting people; artists, writers, philosophers, professors, poets, gallery owners, collectors and so-called professionals. An interest in poetry and literature helped me learn the language; helped me understand and read the common man’s thoughts. I had

16____________________________________________________ colors and words that shaped my thoughts, interpreting every experience, which I put on paper or canvas. In the 1990s, my love for languages made me translate some Dutch poems and publish them in Marathi periodicals and magazines, which I still continue to do. Deep research led me to discover the similarity of thought and philosophy in Marathi and Dutch literature.

My first studio was in The Hague, at the Prinsegracht 10, where Paard van Troje was situated, a theatre for the youth of the 80s and 90s. I listened to the music of many contemporary bands and prominent pop personalities. As an individual, I developed culturally, in the heart of modern Holland, where so much transformation was taking place.

In 1986, in a small room in the corner of the theatre, my friends Marion sloot and Kor Hendriks started an art gallery and I gladly became a part of that scene. Next to Paard van Troje Theatre, Graphic Werkplaats and Graphic Gallery Inkt were active in print-making. Inkt, the largest association for graphic artists was founded here. I joined them and revived my interest in printing. I had studied applied art in India at Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai, one of the best art schools in Asia, established by Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy Tata, a great visionary. Printing was a subject taught in the school.

I like to paint, especially to work with oils, which is my passion. It is also my habit to pen my thoughts. I routinely read, looked, observed, reacted and activated my passions.

____________________________________________________17 Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Piet Mondriaan and Willem de Kooning are world famous artists. I was so inspired by Rembrandt, when I had started painting huge hoarding of cinema banners in Mumbai. At the Art School in Mumbai, I also studied history of art and tried to understand Van Gogh’s emotions in his paintings. I learnt by studying the works of the best of the European artists. Later, I arrived at the European Dutch Art Academy to study. I have seen original paintings of Piet Mondriaan in Gemeentemuseum and understood the difference between reproductions and originals. I wondered about Abstract Expressionism, as I stood before Willem de Kooning’s canvasses. Since 1983, I have been observing various trends and styles in field of art. Simultaneously, I gained experience as an artist and poet. Now, the time has come for me to put everything together and see the panoramic view of my past; all my liberal pursuits together - painting, sculpture, prints, poetry, writing, translation, curatorial work and philosophical thoughts.

Professionally, I met many prominent Dutch writers

and poets, like Adriaan Morrien, Hans Plomp, Leo Van der Zalm and others. We exchanged thoughts. My first exhibition catalogue contains poems of Adriaan Morriën and introduction text by Robert van Tour. I considered myself the eastern counterpart of a western writer. Leo Van der Zalm and Hans Plomp translated the poems of seventeenth century Marathi poet, Sant Tukaram into Dutch. Ritse de Koningh and I published a book together, of eastern and western concepts. These are contemporary creative writers with whom I have worked.

18____________________________________________________

Spinoza and John Locke are both philosophers, through whom I came to understand Dutch and English society. I spoke Dutch and English in Europe. I read Ethica and found a semblance of my native culture and literature. Liberal thoughts were introduced in India by Sant Dyaneshwar, Namdev, Janabai, Eknath and Tukaram. I have recently written a book in Marathi, translating Spinoza’s Ethica in parts.

This urged me to investigate further on liberal thoughts‌ not only in literature, but also in the visual arts. How did this happen? I first discovered the golden age in Europe. The history of liberal consideration started in the East.

I found Holland an interesting place to study art. Every body, including reporters, asks me why I selected the Netherlands in the first place and how I chose an art academy in Holland. I had decided to study Abstract Expressionism and felt the need to go to a foreign land. Paris, London, New York‌ these were my first options. Language was important, as I had studied in several languages in Mumbai. English was the basic medium; Marathi and Hindi were for communication.

I was trying to understand paintings which were difficult to understand. Since I had decided to study abroad, I asked close friends who were working in the country and abroad. The Indian Design Centre at Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai, opened its library doors to me. I got access to updated catalogues of art academies and design institutes around the world.

I selected five art academies, where I could study and applied to them; in Italy, Canada, Japan, The Netherlands and USA.

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Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten, The Hague was one of them. I received prompt responses from there and an American university. Since I had never heard of The Hague, I gathered information through the Asiatic Library and other sources in Mumbai. I became very enthusiastic to know more about Holland. Soon I received an informal letter from the director of the academy, asking me to send sample work for review. I was overjoyed ! I sent my academic work and it was accepted. I then enrolled for diploma in Monumental Painting and Design, in 1982-83.

Why The Hague?

The question still stands. While studying history of art in my last year in Mumbai, I realized that two of the greatest artists that I have always admired are Dutch: Rembrandt and Vincent Van Gogh. I was immensely attracted to their paintings. I was then greatly interested in portraits and wanted to get perfect likeness to my subjects. That year, I tried portraits in pencil shading and surprised myself by finishing a friend’s color pencils, without his knowledge! I had the satisfaction of doing it and he had a portrait in his book! I was totally enjoying myself. Then, I found a farm that had the right mud for sculptures and started to make three dimensional objects.

The form of Ganesha seemed just right for three-dimension.

I was not alien to the thought that human development

is expressed through the fine arts. I enrolled myself in a 300 year-old art academy in The Hague in1982, but reached there in

20____________________________________________________ January 1983. Later, to my surprise, I found I was the first Indian student to enroll here I was suddenly facing new thoughts, new moods, whilst studying art in Holland. I met art teachers who believed traditional study of painting had changed; anatomy was important to a certain extent only. An artist not skilled at rendering anatomy could use other forms, which could be extended forms of the human figure, as abstract images. I practiced anatomy, while painting, while creating monumental design. I learnt that it was important for the artist to listen to his own voice and keep tracking his mind, his soul.

That’s why The Hague !

But I had other reasons too‌ my financial position was not so good. I had just enough to make both ends meet, but I was determined to achieve my goal. The American university informed me that I would need about $ 4042, equivalent to INR 65000, for one semester. The Dutch academy asked for 600 guilders, which was my entire earnings for a month at the ad agency where I worked in Mumbai. Apart from the emotional liking, there was a huge difference in the costs. Holland was much cheaper to live in.

Interestingly, I had decided not to go to any foreign country where Indian languages were spoken. I do not know why but it was so. I arrived by train at Holland Spoor railway station from Airport Schiphol, entered a tram and asked for a ticket. My accent gave me away and the driver knew instantly that I was an Indian. And he was too! I laughed to think that this was exactly the opposite of what I had in mind! Things just

___________________________________________________ 21 happened in their own way‌ who was I to decide.

I wanted to meet the daughter of a Dutch businessman, who had given me a letter promising to help me on arrival. I did meet her, but could not easily find the hotel for the first time.

I came back to Holland Spoor railway station and began to search for the hotel. My baggage was at the railway hired baggage center, outside the station. I found the hotel and breakfast, close to the railway station, in minus five degrees cold.

Winter was severe and my fingers were frozen. I collected my baggage and checked in. The bed was deep and comfortable and I fell fast asleep instantly!

Next morning, I had a good, warm breakfast of scrambled eggs and bread. Enquiring at the hotel counter, I found that the art academy was just ten minutes away by tram. I dressed quickly and taking the necessary letters, went there by tram, route number ten. It was not the same driver this time!

I had to ask the driver for help with directions and I had to get off near another railway station, Den Haag Central Railway Station. It seemed more open than Holland Spoor and more developed, with open sky, huge garden in front and surrounded by water bodies. I stepped down and started walking in the direction explained by the tram driver. I would keep asking the locals for help and in ten minutes, I was in front of the art academy. I saw a three storey building made of brown baked bricks, longish, beside the water canal. The name on the wall was engraved in metal - Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten, written in Dutch. I had finally arrived!

Varkari, drawing 2009 57x77cm, pencil on paper

Generosity of

Poet - Artist

the

Dutch Parliment, drawing 1996 30x40cm, pencil on paper

24____________________________________________________

Generosity of the Poet - Artist

____________________________________________________25

A fine artist is generosity personified. His expression or impression reveals the outpourings of his soul, but his intention towards society is generous. When does one see this? How does the artist show generosity? When I look at the objects and products of the designer, it is specific; but a fine artist does not produce anything that is not generous. His art is a gift. He presents the emotions of the individual, which is unique and at the same time, universal.

The economics and business of art is quite complex for the artist. During childhood, the mind is pure. Justice is based on witness. Law is written to keep the community intact. Society is bound to law. Religions are founded on commandments.

War is carried out on the basis of strength. Peace is found in treaties. Boundaries have been drawn to proclaim nations.

Prosperity depends on progress. Â An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art.

Critically seen, the artist in common usage in both, everyday speech and academic discourse, is a practitioner in the visual arts only. The artist is a part of the community, society and nation; the individual is a thinker. The artist is born with senses that express a fever of generosity. Any work of the mind may be termed intellectual property, to cash in economy. Â

26____________________________________________________

Some personalities have explored more than one subject, like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe from Germany, Benedict de Spinoza, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, Picasso, Josef Beuys. The others are Sant Namdev, Sant Jnyandeva, Sant Kabir, Sant Tukaram, Ramdas. There were others in India like Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Namdar Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Raja Rammohan Rai and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, who were exceptional human beings with artistic souls. In social reform, their work is considered most practical.

Tukaram is arguably the greatest poet in the Marathi language. His genius partly lies in his ability to transform the external world into its spiritual analog. His stature in Marathi literature is comparable to that of Shakespeare in English or Goethe in German. He could be called the quintessential Marathi poet reflecting the genius of the language as well as its characteristic literary culture. There is no other Marathi writer who has so deeply and widely influenced Marathi literary culture since.

Poetry as a genre is incomplete without Tukaram.

Mahatma Gandhi was inspired by poems of Sant Tukaram. He translated the following:

Je ka ranjale ganjale

Know him to be a true man who takes to his bosom those who are in distress. Know that God resides in the heart of such a one. His heart is saturated with gentleness through and through. He receives as his, only those who are forsaken.

He bestows on his man, servants and maid servants the same affection he shows to his children. Tukaram says: What need

____________________________________________________27 is there to describe him further? He is the very incarnation of divinity.

Jethe jato tethe tu maajha saangaati

Wherever I go, you are my companion. Having taken me by the hand, you move me. I go alone depending solely on you.

You bear my burdens too. If I am likely to say anything foolish, you make it right. You have removed my bashfulness and made me self confident, O Lord. All the people have become my guards, relatives and bosom friends. Tuka says: I now conduct myself without any care. I have attained divine peace within and without.

I started to explore liberal thought in Western history.

Generosity of an artist has been challenged in everyday life.

Economy slowed down in Europe. Currency dropped and the first cut was on culture, to spend lesser than other departments in the government. Social unrest began. Job markets fell and foreign policies boomeranged in Western countries. War began in 2002 against terror. Immigrants suffered and asylum seekers gathered in Europe.

Local politicians argued on race. Internal laws were strengthened. Jails were expanded. Airport security was tightened. War was on and the bodies of soldiers were returning home draped in flags. Terror resulted in hatred, depression and desperation. And the world suffered. There were financial frauds by institutions, corruption in deals, international industrial sabotage, overthrowing of foreign governments. As radical thinkers, we needed to remember human deeds. I wrote about all this, from time to time, since I had started to organize exhi-

28____________________________________________________ bitions, seminars and events.

I have spent about thirty years in this profession. To continue, one needs to have a keen interest in the subject. In the first place, I was inspired by Sant Tukaram and his writings in Marathi, for which the reasons may be more poetic than visual. I read Tukaram and enjoyed the literature and cultural movement of the Varkaris. Rituals and religious ceremonies that I had witnessed in my childhood have influenced my mind.

When I started to live in another culture, my own native culture spread its wings in flight. I understand another culture through literature. I found Spinoza, whose writing fed my intellectual thirst. My pursuit started - to find the existence of God and liberation of the soul. In the writings of Spinoza, I found both.

Tukaram explained the same through his kirtans, by writing, performing and teaching.

Early writers of Tukaram were path-leaders in the Varkari movement. Tukaram was not just a religious follower; he made a huge difference by teaching. His contemporaries were Vedic practitioners, who kept society away from education. A similar situation prevailed in Europe’s Roman Catholic churches.

Spinoza’s situation was similar to Tukaram’s and they both lived in the same period, the 17th century. Tukaram was born in 1608, Spinoza, in 1632. Tukaram disappeared in 1650; Spinoza died in 1677.

At the same time, John Locke was born in England and later traveled to Holland to meet Spinoza. He introduced liberal thought in Imperialist Britain. The Civil War in Britain ended in a glorious revolution, in 1688. Later, in the 18th century, Liberal-

____________________________________________________29 ism was introduced when the United States of America was formed. It was grounded in the offices of American presidents like Theodore Roosevelt (1901- 1109), Franklin Roosevelt (1933 – 1945), John F. Kennedy (1961- 1963), Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-1069). More campaigns were introduced in the 20th century.

John F. Kennedy defined a liberal as follows: Someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people, their health, housing, school, job, civil rights and liberties; someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a ‘Liberal’, then I am proud to say I am a ‘Liberal.’

In the 21st century, Liberal Democratic parties of Holland and UK came into power in majority. In Holland, the Liberal party has delivered the leader; hence, the ideas of Spinoza and John Locke have reached the common man. Australia, Canada and New Zealand had already adapted the thoughts of both philosophers in their Constitutions.

I follow the passage of my thoughts and give them visual form. Each painting shows the experience of that period.

I came to know of Liberal teachings in a wider spectrum when I confronted these masters, socially, economically and culturally, in the first decade of the 21st century. My thirst for knowledge grew and I found that society had changed its attitude towards foreigners in Europe and India. Central governing bodies had a mixed attitude, compromising their own positions. Going

30____________________________________________________ through change in government in the first decade of the 21st century in Holland, Italy, Belgium rendered turmoil in Europe.

The last decade of the 20th century in India introduced liberal policies. 21st century liberals of this millennium not only share government, but lead the nation, as in Holland. The UK shares government with Conservative parties. For the first time, liberals are democrats who form the ruling party. I followed the European liberal concepts and found the most interesting changes in society. Culture is changing under a liberal generation. Large cities in Europe have more immigrant candidates elected in city or town governing bodies. Statistics show comparative progress in immigrants’ situation in education, which reflects in art and culture.

In India, too, most cities share the same situation as European main cities. Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Patna are developing on a large scale, rapidly. Workers, even educated job seekers, have immigrated to these cities. Europe is saturated from the immigrant’s point of view. Thinking in terms of the artist, painter, sculptor, print-maker, poet and writer, comparative studies of art and literature compels me to keep society informed, periodically. Is this not generosity? At the turning point of history, I met people whose views were radical, but useful, for generations ahead.

According to Spinoza, any meaningful freedom which humans may genuinely have is contentious. He claims that there is a kind of freedom which is arrived at through adequate knowledge of God, or what is the same, the universe. But in

____________________________________________________31 the end of part two of The Ethics, he explicitly rejects the traditional notion of free will.

Spinoza claims:

In the mind, there is no absolute or free will. But the mind is determined to will this or that, by a cause which is also determined by another and this again by another and so on, to infinity.

After all, what the artist, poet or creative person takes with him after he dies is the same as the common man, which is - nothing. Â But what he leaves behind is his productions in thought and verse, all valuable property transformed into wealth for society and the nation. There are so many examples and many have been forgotten in the course of time.

Spinoza and Tukaram are examples that I have experienced deeply, going through their work as part of my daily routine. I read extensively and visited galleries, museums, artists’ studios; talked to many artists and professionals, exchanging thoughts. This gives me directions for new thinking fields. I always came back and stayed again on the standpoint where I had started the journey, in pursuit of the liberation of my soul. The universal identity is unique and has been tested many times; my thoughts had not stretched that far yet. I understood what existed in the Ethica and Tukaramachi Gatha.

Each time I read, both brought me to the center-point of Liberation and asked me where I wanted to go. I was able to see both, stand still and wonder. In the same age, such similar thoughts‌I cannot explain this. So I took action through draw-

32____________________________________________________ ing, painting, writing; whatever was possible at the moment.

Sometimes, it was not possible to do anything and my thoughts vanished in sleep.

Nescience is another thought at the back of my mind.

Actually, it seems to be everywhere in the universe, but our eyes are incapable of seeing that far. Expanding its elements would bring the human nearer to the universe. But a visionary can travel within his mind in the darkness of knowledge. He explores the mind and presents his thoughts to society; some accept and others oppose. Truth can be tested by deeds, sense expressions, heart of the subject, scientific sources. Attributes of truth is found in poetry. In Nescience, the truth of darkness is found in the absence of light. Human beings carry the darkness of the universe in their minds. Because of knowledge, it disappears, but part of the legacy is in his attitude. Man determines the form of the subject, whether positive or negative and philosophers note the attitudes of a human being.

The body of the universe is believed to be black or dark. Self contained energy makes light sources in the universe, which are the shining stars. In our minds, instinct makes the human a star. In education and science, not to have knowledge means darkness. We generously write down our thoughts, innovate ideas, evaluate thoughts again and again, following the main concept. Man established religion, then separated from the concept, forming sects and subsidiary paths. Everything is equal but we still make the same mistakes, as is evident in history, prehistory, antiquity. The reason is our senses develop with the kind of symptoms that affect contemporary minds.

____________________________________________________33 Our genetic evolution is not considered a revolution. Active thought generates society and the whole nation, as in American liberal thought, introduced to the world by Theodore Roosevelt’s New Nationalism, Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society.

The early liberal thinker, John Locke, is often credited with founding Liberalism as a distinct philosophical tradition.

Locke argued that each man has a natural right to life, liberty and property and according to social contract, governments must not violate these rights. Liberals opposed traditional conservatism and sought to replace absolutism in government with Democracy and/or Republicanism and the rule of Law.

Does the thinker need a reason to think? Things that happen around him are not always pleasant, natural or logical.

This may be documented in commandments, constitutions, religious books and so on. Thought flourishes on social backgrounds. Humans communicate to exchange thoughts. When the human mind experiences a change of interest, conflict takes place. Man’s mind is constantly seeking change. The mind is a flow of rhythmic, peaceful thoughts; the behavior of an angry man is complex. Any complex situation, background, platform is like a battlefield, where one jumps in to create an event. It may turn into a disastrous dispute and trying to solve all the complexities, time runs out. Everyone will try to find solutions and probably the one who is influenced by great thinkers would have the last say.

My paintings are a blend of inspiration gathered from

34____________________________________________________ various sources. Both cultures have great impact on my art, which is unique because it developed universally. I find that interesting. Hence, both cultures are important to me and freedom of expression is more valuable to me than authoritative views. Culture is defined by a collection of ideas that widen social thought. It may have happened now‌ or in the historic past. But the individual mind develops without the boundary of nation or culture and this has a greater impact on self expression. This helps man find new routes of thinking. I have been underlined as a creative artist, using multi-media for various forms of expression. What have I mainly connected with? It is Nature which Baruch Spinoza has described and the human mind, which Sant Tukaram has explained. Diversity is a neverending process for self expression.

In many paintings, I have blended the images of the East with those of the West. The reason is to bridge the occidental and oriental sensibilities. Actually, in the world of Art, there is no East - West. Today, what our eyes see is the Eastern influence on the West and vice versa. In the West, local development is accrued in Art. The images we see in Picasso’s art are local subjects. I feel a major difference in Indian Art, as compared to contemporary Western art. Basically, I am the last corner of the square, where I meet and reflect upon myself. I completed the square 30 years ago, after completing my academic education in Applied Arts in Mumbai. I then landed in Holland to learn painting and to pursue my artistic endeavors, by adhering to the Dutch way of observing and understanding European Art in the Dutch Academy.

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In 2006, I had invited artists who were 25 year younger than I and also college mates, who were witness to my formative years as an artist in India. For me, the world has changed drastically, due to circumstance; but the speed of change is geared for flight! In the field of Art, technology has developed a new sky-space called cyberspace. Innovators helped mankind work in a better environment. Moving offices provided dramatic theatre space. One could feel as comfortable as if at home, in one’s own living room. Sound and visual were brought together, to create another planet of neighbors. “The computer unit is yours, buddy and the internet connections are the strings of your guitar or sitar!” You can Google Aladdin’s lamp to enter Ali Baba’s cave !

Skyscrapers mushroom in clouds and metros run underneath cities, where the foundation of monuments was laid centuries ago. New towns emerged in the corners of prosperous mega cities, in a short time. The speed of the Concorde proved disastrous. But is Man satisfied? No. He will not stop traveling even under dangerous circumstances.

The artist himself is the fruit of evolving culture and his art is the fragrance of his creative input. Critically, the melted, static objects that Salvador Dali has shown in his surrealistic images speak volumes. It is a process of societal transformation. What happens when common man travels to tourist destinations and an artist travels to his willing destination? The eye of an artist is different from that of the common man.

There is the need to see a new world and seek inspiration, which is common to both. The outcome of the journey is selfeducation to both and a great contribution to society.

Photo 2009, Pilgrimage to Pandharpur. Dive Ghat

Revolutionary magnificence as seen by the sensitive mind

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Revolutionary magnificence as seen by the sensitive mind

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A Revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time. Aristotle thus described two types of political revolution: 1. Complete change from one constitution to another 2. Modification of an existing constitution

The glorious Revolution of England and the North American Civil War happened during the same period; the most significant period for the beginning of Liberal Thought.

The French and Russian Revolutions happened in violence.

Most authoritative heads had been publicly persecuted.

Economy was in depression and governments did not evoke confidence in public mind. So what were the thoughts of the common man?

The common man suffered emotionally and economically and a fever of anger rose against the situation. His confusion led to mob anger, with the mobs taking action. Decision-making was influenced by action‌ not the other way round. With every act, man was confident of change; but when he lost, he became frustrated with his own unthinking actions. It affected the emotional, sensitive and creative man differently. Man has to think first; his actions then become an outcome of his thoughts.

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Many artists made paintings before and after a revolution. These proved to be lessons in history for the common man, who would search for hidden meaning, perhaps suggestion of a time period. There was so much to learn from the paintings and sculptures of each period… as I looked at paintings of the French Revolution at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, I shut myself in my thoughts and instinctively found a message for the artist.

Every phase of the revolution ushers change… expression of emotions was on high alert. Language would get rough and the poet desperately sought new words of expression. The artist sought new shades of color for an intelligent portrayal of emotion. Performers put forth their best.

The dancer transformed like an acrobat in battlefield. The musician wrote songs on bravery. Hope was on high alert and with hope grew fear. A persecution complex led every man to believe he was surrounded by the enemy; making him see the enemy even amongst friends and relatives, too confused to act as a thinking citizen. The citizen was victimized by the constitution, rebels and traitors. The press and the media were under surveillance. During the revolution, reality is tangible and can be seen in actuality, through the photographer’s images, despite suffering bullet wounds.

I saw visual evidences of revolutions in the form of prints, which today appear through the electronic media. I have been through the gloom, a soul that has actually wit-

____________________________________________________41 nessed the troubled event. I had written a poem in 1989, on the protest in China’s Tinanmen Square. The trees then were in blossom. The blossoming tree always reminds me of that protest.

I documented a pilgrimage from Dehu-Alandi to Pandharpur in 2008. I realized something extraordinary had happened on the Deccan plateau which was to make history.

I explained this phenomenon in my book ‘325 years DehuAlandi to Pandharpur Palkhisohala.’ It was a pilgrimage of twenty days, when I discovered so much it made me mark those pages in history and nudge one to rethink about one’s life.

So much change had happened in Maharashtra several times in history; sometimes when laws were violated, sometimes when kingdoms were overthrown with violence.

But here in Pandharpur, I saw revolution and military transformation by messengers of peace of the 18th century. The fact remains that the Varkaris today are like soldiers holding flags for peace, not for violence. When I see this, I ask myself if it is the air of the Deccan Plateau that has brought about this change, this revolution. At the top of the plateau is the sky; the bottom of the plateau lies under the ocean.

Does this result in a universe of peace?

Peace and violence are the essence of human emotion and behavior. Revolution and evolution are the work of man, who heals his mind with art, but grieves and weeps

42____________________________________________________ when forced into a difficult situation. It forces him to act in rage, when his mind has been taken over by his sentiments.

In a revolution, man behaves differently, independently; his actions are not in the hands of his commander. The thinker or the artist must have observed this. Classic examples are when rape takes place in war or when the worthy get killed.

Religious practices may have caused families to disagree and go separate ways. Human cleansing could have taken place.

There must have been so much negativity.

Arguably, Picasso’s most famous work is his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica, during the Spanish Civil War. Guernica, this large canvas embodies for many the inhumanity, brutality and hopelessness of war. Asked to explain its symbolism, Picasso said, “It isn’t up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words! The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them.”

Through this two dimensional painting, Picasso expressed concern for his motherland, when Guernica was bombarded in the Spanish Civil War. Picasso was interviewed for his expression of sentiment in this painting and his views were published in various periodicals. He told the public directly to interpret the painting; the viewer should figure out what is going on in the artist’s mind. The artist guides the emotions of the common man, anonymously. The artist’s sensitivity makes him a master documentarian of wartime plea.

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Social equality came into being during the French revolution. During the Russian revolutions, social injustice and inequality were discussed that brought about social change. Thus there was a lot of mental disturbance and many people immigrated to Europe and became famous personalities. They survived despite circumstance and their paintings and books guide today’s new victims of revolutions and wars, giving them hope to survive in tough times. Many visual artists show the way to emotional cheer. They share their thoughts and discuss amongst themselves about the many revolutions that the continent of Europe has had. I see my life and try to understand it from that viewpoint.

I have been living in The Hague since 1983 and am aware of the many changes that have taken place in the past thirty years, socially, economically, artistically. The Netherlands was the most liberal European state since its golden age. Spinoza wrote his masterpiece, Ethica and introduced radical, liberal thinking. The Peace Palace, often called the seat of international law, is in The Hague. It houses the International Court of Justice, which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations.

I remember the Yugoslavia Tribunal which took place in The Hague and Slobodan Milosevic, President of former Yugoslavia. His trial began at The Hague on 12th February 2002, with Milosevic defending himself. He did not recognize the Tribunal but participated in the proceedings with the idea of presenting the Serbian view of the truth. The charges for

44____________________________________________________ which he was indicted were genocide, complicity in genocide, deportation, murder, persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, inhumane acts, forcible transfer, extermination, imprisonment, torture; willful killing; unlawful confinement; willfully causing great suffering; unlawful deportation or transfer, extensive destruction and appropriation of property unjustified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, cruelty, plunder of public or private property, attacks on civilians, destruction or willful damage done to historic monuments and institutions dedicated to education or religion. Milosevic was indicted in May 1999 during the Kosovo War by the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes against humanity in Kosovo.

I had witnessed the entire proceedings and learnt how laws act after war.

The other side of the story 80 questions foundation put together in Show Your Hope Project in Holland. In 2006, I became a promoter of exhibitions, traveling to Asia, especially India. 18 exhibitions were held in various cities; the message was Show Your Hope against war in Balkan, Iraq and later on, in Afghanistan. Moral values were discussed at the time of the fifth election, in the first decade of the 21st century in Holland. Five elections took place within eleven years. Many foreigners took asylum and moved to another country through The Netherlands and Belgium. In 2012, it took more than six months to form the government. Those were tense times, but not ignited by the fire of a revolution.

People were able to think and talk things over; things could

____________________________________________________45 be marginalized. At the artistic front, many art academies and design schools were established in the Netherlands and many students passed out of the academies. There were not enough jobs for even the professionals. Artists were criticized even for their efforts in art conservation and preservation. Museums are to attract visitors from all over the world and this is one of the positive points of Dutch culture.

Economically, the Euro was introduced in 2001, when Gulden was at half its value. As I think of those days of Gulden exchange, I travel through time and some memories flow through. The currency of a country is the medium of economy for the exchange of goods. But a change of currency was for me, an experience in the country becoming liberal. In 1992, European states came together under the Maastricht Treaty. I enthusiastically made a souvenir bag of coins, a symbol for Unity, like Santa Clous’s bag of gifts!

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990 brought about big changes in Europe.

It was the fall of Communism - Socialism of the Lenin era.

Statues of Lenin were moved from public squares in East European countries. There was constant media coverage of incidents in the last quarter of the 20th century. Everything was sensational and became the height of expression. Every sensitive mind reacted on issues and incidents and most artists felt that social transformation was taking place; the signs and symbols were being moved from the streets.

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In India, such incidents occurred when the British Raj ended and India and Pakistan became independent nations.

Lahore in the north, Mumbai in the south and Calcutta in the east had lots of statues removed from streets and dumped.

When I came to live in Byculla, Mumbai, opposite the Victoria Gardens and Museum, I would spend many happy hours there, studying and sketching. Around the Museum building in the open area there were a lot of marble statues, some in good condition. I was astonished at the story of these statues, which were not even useful to students of art schools.

National fervor renders a person blind and in his rage, he becomes capable of burning, destroying everything of the past in art and science. Marble statues remain in good condition for years, yet they are not in any public collection. I think they are made in the interest of politically motivated regimes, to show domination of wealth and power. After a fall of political power, culture always gets plundered. It inspires other minds with new values that are sometimes undermined.

Another incident of this kind happened in the Indian

state of Uttar Pradesh, where recently, Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party ordered many sculptures of herself to be made and kept in public places. What happened after her party was defeated in the 2012 elections? History repeated itself and the statues were removed and dumped by the new government. In a democracy, it is not a fair practice to make statues and keep them in public open places. Why can’t the parties just keep them in their offices? Culture develops manually, not mechanically. The best ideas survive under any

____________________________________________________47 circumstance. One of the Indian states received an order from the Supreme Court not to place statues in public places and I admire the decision taken. Authorities should develop museums in the interest of the common man and preserve important and valuable objects for future generations.

In the history of revolutions, I find the source for thinkers to gather their views. Leaders of both sides act in anger. Commoners as well as generals suffer under the political leaders. Conspiracies lead to confusion and a suffering generation tries to find a way out of trauma. Revolutions provide the writer with themes, for maybe a drama or opera.

They provide the artist with ideas for a mural, the actor with an opportunity to air his voice. The dancer may find a new theme for choreography. A philharmonic orchestra may find a new chorus. Epic songs and hymns get written. The saga of revolution will always be in the minds of men causing changes around the globe.

In modern history, a very different kind of revolution took place in India, which transformed military men to participate in 800 kilometers long peace marches every year.

Without a break, this march to Pandharpur has been happening for 327 years. One can see a combination of philosophy and culture in this march, which began in 1685. I make an attempt to mark these years in Europe, India and North America, searching for incidents, events, revolutions and wars. Today, information technology brings news to our living room. Then, it was just not possible to hear or know anything

48____________________________________________________ for thousands of miles. To receive any real news, it could take many months and the rest would be only gossip!

In North America from 1685 until 1688, a French colony, Fort Saint Louis, existed near what is now Inez, Texas. Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, a French explorer credited with claiming Louisiana and the Mississippi River Basin for France, intended to found a colony at the mouth of the river. But inaccurate maps and navigational errors caused his ships to anchor instead at 400 miles (650 km) west, off the coast of Texas, near Matagorda Bay.

In England, The Monmouth Rebellion was an attempt to overthrow James II who had become the King of England, Scotland and Ireland upon the death of his elder brother Charles II in 1685. James II was a Roman Catholic and some Protestants under his rule opposed his kingship. James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of Charles II, claimed to be the rightful heir to the throne and attempted to displace James II. Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis and for the following few weeks, his growing army of nonconformists, artisans and farm workers fought a series of skirmishes with local militias and regular soldiers. The rebellion ended with the defeat of Monmouth’s forces at the Battle of Sedgemoor and Monmouth was executed for treason. Many of his supporters were executed or transported in the Bloody Assizes of Judge Jeffreys.

In Europe, The Nine Years’ War (1688 - 97) was a major

____________________________________________________49 war of the late 17th century fought between King Louis XIV of France and a European-wide coalition, the Grand Alliance, led by the Anglo-Dutch King William III, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, King Charles II of Spain, Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and the major and minor princes of the Holy Roman Empire. The Nine Years’ War was fought primarily on mainland Europe and its surrounding waters, but it also encompassed a theatre in Ireland and in Scotland, where William III and James II struggled for control of the British Isles and a campaign (King William’s War) between French and English settlers and their Indian allies in colonial North America. The war was the second of Louis XIV’s three major wars.

In India, Bombay Presidency, the East India Company’s headquarters moved from Surat to Bombay in 1687. The Portuguese owned land on the west coast of India that was a contract with the Maratha rulers. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb himself headed South in 1681. With his entire imperial court, administration and an army of about 500,000 soldiers, he proceeded to conquer the Maratha Empire, along with the sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda. During the eight years that followed, King Sambhaji led the Marathas, never losing a battle or fort to Aurangzeb, who almost lost the campaign but for an event in early 1689. Sambhaji called his commanders for a strategic meeting at Sangameshwar, to decide on the final onslaught on the Mughal forces. In a meticulously planned operation, Ganoji Shirke and Aurangzeb’s commander, Mukarrab Khan attacked Sangameshwar, when Sambhaji was accompanied by a few men. Sambhaji was

50____________________________________________________ ambushed and captured by Mughal troops and he along with his advisor, Kavi Kalash were taken to Bahadurgad, where they were executed for rebellion against the Empire.

In relation to the above events in North America, England, Holland and India, the Palkhisohala was started by an individual. Sant Tukaram’s younger son Narayan Maharaj had decided to take the paduka, footwear of Tukaram and Dyaneshwar to Pandharpur in groups, dindi, chanting abhangs.

This was a difficult era on the political scene. King Shivaji had passed away in 1680 and his son Sambhaji was on the throne. The Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, had descended on the Deccan plateau, to fight the newly created Maratha kingdom which challenged the mighty Mughal Empire. Sambhaji, Shivaji’s son was at war with the Mughals, the English and the Portuguese. Narayan Maharaj was a moneylender by profession, who became a soldier in the Maratha army.

Dehu is situated on the banks of the Indrayani River. Tukaram disappeared in 1650. Narayan Maharaj was born about four to five months after Tukaram’s disappearance. Those were not peaceful times. His idea to start a peaceful march to Pandharpur was an adventurous one, especially under foreign rule.

Aurangzeb intended to demolish the Maratha kingdom. The peace march was to be held from Dehu –Alandi in Pune district to Pandharpur. This was under Maratha rule and Pandharpur was inside the Adilshahi of Bijapur, the dynasty that ruled the Sultanate of Bijapur, west of the Deccan. The Bijapur sultanate was absorbed into the Mughal Empire on

____________________________________________________51 12th September 1686, after its conquest by Aurangzeb. This area around Pandharpur was especially sensitive lying on the border of the Maratha kingdom and the Adilshahi of Bijapur.

River Bhima was called Chandrabhaga in Pandharpur and this river and Nira geographically form the dividing line between the two kingdoms. At the time Palkhisohala started, the two kingdoms were at war. But devotional activities and intelligence activities were going on simultaneously. People supported the Maratha army. The route for the march was through Adilshahi territory and today, this route has not changed. The Alandi route was changed by Dyaneshwar’s followers who were also military heads. The form of Palkhisohala is a format of military march. The structure of administration is, likewise, the same. Mughals, Marathas, the British Raj and now the Republic of India... Palkhisohala has been recognised by each administration. Its march of soldiers of the soul, soldiers of the land, soldiers of devotion, soldiers of peace, is a positivity of humanity, formed in good faith.

This march influenced all modern Indian philosophers, political leaders, thinkers like Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, economist Namdar G. K. Gokhale, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Ambedkar, Bramho Samaj members, British Justice Ranade etc.

Today, many western universities send researchers to find the message delivered by this march. The number of people participating in this march has already passed several hundred thousands, coming from the western and southern states of India.

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The second revolution took place in 1930, against the British Raj. Mahatma Gandhi led the Satyagraha, his Dandi March. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, he said. He believed in resistance without violence, non violence against the mighty power of the British Empire. He succeeded with the help of the concept of the Varkari movement and a thousand-year-old tradition of Buddha, Mahavir, sufis and Varkari like Namdeo, Dnyaneshwar, Kabir, Nanak, Eknath, Tukaram, Bulleh Shah, Narsi Mehta etc.

The examples of the past provide the present with the strength and the solutions. War is not a solution to a problem; it is only a link to another conflict. As Gandhiji said, “It has always been easier to destroy than to create.” and “There are many causes that I am prepared to die for, but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.”

How do I conclude with words, my memories of India, Holland, Europe, of the past thirty years? Words are gone with the wind. The wind liberates the sensitive mind.

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Dandi March photo 1930

Silver Screen with Gandhiji, oil on canvas, size 30x45cm, 2006

Libertarian Composition in the period of Socialism

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Libertarian Composition in the period of Socialism

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The nation was in turmoil. Mahatma Gandhi introduced revolutionary thoughts which shaped the nation. India was under the British Raj. Gandhi had studied Law in London and practiced it in South Africa. In his experience, he found fundamental wrongs in society, as well as unsuitable practices in the name of justice and public law and order. There was no such thing as ‘a humanitarian platform.’

His thinking made him quit South Africa. His arrival in British India was welcomed by G. K. Gokhale and other leaders. The Indian Congress party was founded in 1885.

Gandhi’s entry on the large political platform in India ushered in a difficult time for the British Imperial government, for law and order, leadership, tax collection and so on. Europe was under the shadow of the Russian Revolution. The First World War had just begun. Germany was dominating all of Europe.

Russia was going through major social and political changes.

Followers of Karl Marx had formed the flying balloon of the Communist party and had started to rule the Soviet Union of Russia.

The British Empire was challenged by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930, by way of his Dandi March and his movement of Satyagraha, the Call for Truth. Resistance began not with violence, but by breaking the law. It was the beginning

58____________________________________________________ of an economic setback in the collection of taxes. The Dandi March was an idea that reinforced the rights of the citizen, the native of the land. Broadly speaking, it’s the idea of using nature’s resources; making salt that is man’s greatest need.

Collectors used it for trade, governing bodies used it as a tax gain product and made a profit to mobilize strength. That is the power of the empire and the benefit went to higher places in power. This had to be opposed. The idea of a common stand against the mighty power changed the total view of the nation.

Where does one find such generosity in a thinker?

Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of Satyagraha. Its effect on history is enormous and future generations will never forget this impact. Gandhi’s teachings on Satyagraha and the Dandi March had significant influence on American civil rights activist, Martin Luther King and his fight for civil rights for blacks and other minority groups in the 1960s.

A turnaround theory in revolution shows violence in

action. Contrastingly, Satyagraha does not provoke violence but invites dialogue, to find difference in working systems.

Change in the system can take place slowly but effectively, without violence and human loss. Our thoughts effect change and growth in society. Examples can be drawn from the history of religion, political, economical, social and cultural.

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The thinking of Karl Marx introduced new thought that came to be called Marxism later in Europe and around the globe. Gandhi had formed liberal socialism and the Indian constitution was written under the influence of his thoughts, plus ancient Indian schools of thought and philosophy and the modern constitution of the United States of America.

Gandhi believed in the Truth. Satyamev Jayate. Truth always triumphs. His ideas have been implemented lawfully in some institutions. Times have changed with all the conflict, innovations in technology, economical structures, human resource administration etc.

I need not study all this but I do feel the need to express myself and to find reason through expression. I started drawing, painting, writing and this process goes on and on in my life. I compare the thoughts of the philosophers of the East and the West. This is out of interest and not for the sake of study.

My pursuit is of liberal thoughts. I find both, the fine arts and philosophy, very satisfying. Literature is always there to serve. During difficult times, I find both Tukaram and Spinoza accompanying me, guiding me with their thoughts.

The history of man shows liberal, conservative, central, abstract and creative thinking. In the 19th century and onwards, right and left thoughts modified society. In democracy, one enjoys the right to vote and to have an opinion; to effect change, socially and economically. The observations of

60____________________________________________________ an artist or poet effectively show change in culture. Colors and line, genre and isms tell the story of the artist and poet.

When I was studying in primary school, the influence of Gandhi’s thoughts was everywhere. As I grow older, it is still effective, in a broader perspective. I was born in the Kshatriya Maratha caste. My father was the head of the village and I had an uncle in the Congress movement. When I came to Mumbai, my surname ‘Patil’ was common, but Hande was rare. Socially, I had the attitude of a villager but I had the need to know. I had not even thought of my profession. Gandhi’s thoughts were not so easy to find in Mumbai, during my academic years. Tukaram accompanied me to Bombay, which is now Mumbai. But in areas of Bombay, like Byculla, Lalbagh and Parel, I visited offices of the Communist party, Marxist party, offices of the unions for textile mills. I saw photos of Karl Marx, Lenin, Mao and other leaders and I was surprised, since I did not know them then. The socialist outlook was greater in India of the 1980s. Nehru’s socialism overpowered 40 years of Indian politics. National sentiment grew in India, as the nations of the West grew more prosperous in the late 20th century. Communists spread their wings on Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

In 1983, British director, Richard Attenborough made a movie on Gandhi with financial help from the Government of India. The whole world was able to watch Gandhi’s liberal thoughts and actions. When the film was in the making,

____________________________________________________61 shooting was going on in India and I was thinking of studying abroad. When the movie was released, I watched it in The Hague. I even know some of the actors personally and I was impressed. Like Tukaram accompanied me to Mumbai, Gandhi accompanied me to Europe. Since then, I am of the belief that it is easy to avoid the ‘Gandhi Topi’ but to throw Gandhi out of one’s head is impossible in this life. I was born in a capitalist family, voted for the socialist and thought of liberal consequences. Now I am nothing but an artist and poet by profession, amongst the poorest of the poor by income and richest of the rich in thought. But the words of those thinkers keep me saying, “Be generous in thoughts, words and expression. There may be many impressions of conservative phenomena. Isms may come and go and leave a stamp on Time, influencing the mind. Keep Truth in the front; Liberty unbound.”

Logically, I do not think any more of the concept of God. I am convinced with the explanations given by Tukaram and Spinoza. But what about property and livelihood? It is a paradox, expanding the logic of living. Liberal compositions take place in daily life. By religion, I was born a Hindu and an active devotee. Now I am a devotee of ideas, but not purely an atheist. I devote time to thoughts and concepts.

In the social structure, production needs capital and the hands of labor. One needs to have value of labor in exchange for livelihood. A capital composer needs to sell his

62____________________________________________________ product to profit, to invest in maintenance. He needs to find another market and he enters the field of social awareness.

The complexity of the market makes him find out what’s going on around him. Technology now enters the scene and strategy takes direction. People suffer when there is a shortage of products.

In the theatre of Parliamentary assemblies and councils, Communists and Socialists come together to become green. Conservatives meet orthodocs, in some extend Extremist too to form a block. Religious parties stand behind the Conservatives. Opposition and the ruling party form the government. It appears that the nation has survived. Anything can happen while men keep talking to each other.

The followers of Leo Tolstoy, Karl Marx and Mahatma Gandhi understood their writings and converted those ideas politically, implementing it their own way. The process becomes complicated because of the power of the chair, control of military power and the will of a generation that changes the course of administration. Thought is in philosophy and creative existence, which practically generates energy, which is used for stimulating ideas in a working system of government. The nation moves ahead smoothly. Other nations move in another direction of the wind that carries change. So foreign policies affect decision-making of the government.

Some artists and poets may take those examples as their inspiration and wonder what kind of generation this is in con-

____________________________________________________63 temporary society. I express my gratitude.

Why has Gandhi in his thoughts mentioned Tukaram

and Narsi Mehta? What were his thoughts? New generations of thinkers and creative personalities have been divided on their views on Gandhi and Vaishnava saints. But here fields of work have been extremely wide and the speed of development is fast. In socially moral transformation, more experts are needed; there are only a few. In the finance sector, authorities misuse government budgets for individual gain.

The judiciary system is based on evidence and witness. The human mind needs to evaluate through sessions of positive behavior. In society, it is imperative to have examples to rise with and to follow. The instinct of a person may follow a notion of creative endurance. Practicality of thought develops stability in a generation. Eagerness of will creates hurdles and changes in the course of a revolution. Need for change tries to strengthen the string of communication. The human mind is attracted to the concept of change. Unwillingness of the ruler to change is definitely opposed by the public. In front of the human mind stands Liberty. Liberty for all.

Personal and common thoughts release the humid atmosphere of apprehension in peoples’ mind. At public meetings, social concerns are discussed. Meetings in public and meetings behind doors give rise to paradoxical situations for ruler and demonstrator. Thoughts against ruling power shift to transmute action of arrest either in jail or house arrest. In

64____________________________________________________ the court of justice, words are captive and possessive. Order is under law. Law is evaluated thoughts of the constitution.

Thoughts against thoughts find self-realisation in radical thinking in the history of mankind.

There will be a stand of Narsi Mehta, of Namdev, Tukaram, Spinoza, John locke and others. Some are waiting to lead in today’s world. We have to wait and watch who makes History. Vaishnav jana is a bhajan written in the 15th century by the poet Narsinh Mehta in Gujarati. It was part of Gandhi’s daily prayer. It speaks of the life and ideals of a Vaishnav jana (follower of Vishnu or Krishna). The meaning is as follows:

One who is Vaishnav, devotee of Vishnu, keeps following his karma instinctively, knows the pain of others, does good to others, especially to those ones who are in misery, does not let pride enter his mind.

A Vaishnav tolerates and praises the entire world does not speak ill of anyone keeps his/her words, actions and thoughts pure.

O Vaishnav, your mother is blessed.

____________________________________________________65 A Vaishnav sees everything equally, rejects greed and avarice considers someone else’s wife / daughter as his mother.

The tongue may get tired, but will never speak lies.

Does not even touch someone else’s property, a Vaishnav does not succumb to worldly attachments and has devoted himself to staunch detachment of worldly pleasures.

Who has been addicted to the elixir of Rama Naama and for whom all the religious sites are in the mind.

Who has no greed and deceit.

Who has renounced lust of all types and anger.

The poet Narsi would like to see such a person by whose virtue the entire family gets salvation.

Drawings 1990, Mix Media, Size 21X30CM

A

New Perspective, A Fresh Beginning

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A New Perspective, A Fresh Beginning

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400 years ago, painting flourished in Holland and Dutch art made a lasting impact on the art history of the world. Since then, art has a special place in the social life of the Netherlands. It is a country of many museums and collections and a haven to artists from the world over. Until as recently as around 1990, with its liberal policies, the Netherlands welcomed immigrants from its former colonies in South East Asia and the Caribbean as well as from other countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the whole of Europe became unstable again and new waves of asylum seekers and refugees arrived in Holland. Added to these were immigrants from Arab/Muslim countries. The situation has become much more complicated since the advent of the EEC. As an artist living and working in Holland since 1980, I have participated in art movements that have a serious purpose beyond merely producing artworks to make money and work according to art market trends. I became a Dutch citizen in the 1990s and initiated several projects that would enlarge the world-view of younger artists. For instance, I brought some of them to India on an exchange programme and took some younger artists to Holland. I have studios in both the countries.

Art is, in essence, a form of human communication.

Paintings and sculptures speak to their audiences, and when

70____________________________________________________ they begin to understand the language of art, audiences participate in an ongoing art dialogue.

80 Questions around the World: Show Your Hope is an ambitious project that aims at making both artists and their audiences aware that they share a world and its problems and hopes. While talking to artists of different backgrounds and nationalities about this project, I needed to clarify many points that audiences of this travelling art show should also know.

First, what exactly do we mean by hope? Is it an individual hope or is it the expression of the hope of a community?

Is it a hope for the whole world? Is it a hope for greater mutual trust and co-operation among human beings across the planet?

Hope gives us the tenacity to survive both as individuals and communities. In our world there are not only endangered species but also endangered languages, cultures, minority communities, folk traditions, art forms and a whole host of threatened entities one can think of.

Our travelling exhibition consists of hundreds of individual works done by artists on panels of identical style. Their painting styles, techniques, and vary. However, each artist makes a statement about her/his work through a title or a small narration. In the past four years we have made a large number of presentations and the public response to the visuals has been amazing. Seeing so many artistic points of view simultaneously on such a grand scale does make the audience understand to role of the artist in the human community as well as

____________________________________________________71 the value of art in the evolution of human civilization.

During the last century there were two world wars and several regional ones across the world. There were genocides, mass-killings, for racial, communal, religious, or tribal reasons.

Millions of people were killed and displaced. The map of the world changed. New nations were born as some old ones died.

But human conflict has continued into the 21st century. Every nation’s military expenditure rises while the poor still starve, get sick, and die. This is a man-made situation and we can get out of it only when we come together and share our stories, our visions, our feelings, and our desire to survive and see a world at peace.

This show is not addressed to art critics and journalists but directly to the general public. Art critics and journalists are welcome to view and analyze it in their own way. Our approach is open and democratic. We understand that artists are individual and that individuality is a value in itself in any democratic society. Our motive is not the promotion and sale of artworks in the show. We are trying to show that there can be an alternative platform of art. There is a gap between the free market and free self-expression. We would like the perception of art taken to a higher level than buying and selling commodities.

Ultimately, we hope that all the works comprising this show will become the property of a single museum somewhere in the world. Meanwhile, for now, our caravan continues to move on with hope.

Photocollage of participants Show Your Hope

Show Your Hope

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Show Your Hope

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There are many questions in the world than we think of. For this travelling show we have chosen only eighty. The exhibition we propose to take to as many countries as possible consists of works---all of a uniform size of panels of 25 cm by 35 cm---in which artists face questions confronting the contemporary world and affirm their faith in our common human future by expressing their faith through their painting. It is like an idea of creating a think-tank of artists and initiating a dialogue among them and art lovers who come to see these diverse expressions of hope.

I am not the initiator of this concept and movement.

That credit goes to Martin Voorbij, a former rock musician and now the founder of the project The 80 Questions Around the World, a non-profit body volunteering to promote art with a humanistic purpose.

Martin Voorbij called on me in 2004. He came to deliver a 25 cm x 36 cm blank panel. I was then in Rotterdam. When Martin arrived, I was in a cyber cafe, standing behind the counter. Martin was not sure if I was the artist he had come to see.

However, after a hesitant introduction we started talking and discussed his project. Martin’s concept struck a sympathetic

76____________________________________________________ chord in me because I was an artist of Indian origin who had lived in the Netherlands since 1980 and though I was by then a Dutch citizen, I had experienced displacement and a sense of exile at many levels in what many other expatriate artists living in European countries.

The European scene had begun to change profoundly since 2001 when the European Economic Community started dissolving its internal borders and making it possible to travel freely within the EEC. I was a member of that society in the throes of sometimes traumatic and often confusing change.

The introduction of a common European currency, the Euro, may have been a rational and a systematic transition towards unity for the economists and the financial experts who designed it; but it was chaos and disaster for common people everywhere. It engaged intellectuals in vicious and acrimonius debate about the consequences of having a common currency and the dissolution of border check posts. As it blocked up all unaccounted cash reserves of individuals---their black money as we would call it in India----there was panic. Pensioners found their savings gobbled up by currency conversion rates for their old national currency with the Euro. As far as the art market in Europe was concerned the currency change just brought it to a standstill. Revaluation of collections and art assets as well the work of new artists in terms of the Euro posed many problems.

When the foundations of any society shift, most of the people seek safety and refuge in religious orthodoxy and political conservatism. Racial prejudice against immigrants comes

____________________________________________________77 to the fore. Immigrants feel insecure and seek to return for psychological comfort to their native cultural or religious roots.

Europe was not yet cosmopolitan and liberal enough to accomodate what it considered alien. It was entering a period of deep social and cultural unrest as well as political uncertainty.

Nobody could tell what lay in the future.

It was at such a time that I visited the Boymans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, a repository of the best works of medieval Dutch and Flemish masters, to see a special exhibition of the works of Hieronymous Bosch ( 1450-1516). I was struck to find in Bosch’s painting a metaphor for impending and traumatic change, chaos and uncertainty. The gathering clouds in Bosch’s work, shaped by the invisible force of wind, pronounce thunder and foretell of a deluge. Now, as I was seeing the products of Bosch’s vision in 2001, I saw in it images of tumultous change in Europe once again, across time. It made a deep impression on me. I discussed this exhibition with a poetwriter friend---who had also visited it. One of my friends who saw the exhibition was translating into Hindi Harry Mulisch’s Dutch novel De Aanslag. The point is: art connects different times and different places; it reflects historical transitions in its own timeless language and universal metaphor. Bosch’s work spoke with those of us who saw that exhibition in Rotterdam as though he were our contemporary.

Yugoslavia, Poland, Russia, and the Scandinavian countries were on the periphery of the EEC. The European Union’s proposed move to bring all the countries inside its own pe-

78____________________________________________________ riphery and just outside it under one umberella raised doubts, misgivings, and suspicions both inside and outside.

As a participant in art exhibitions in many European states, when I came back to the Netherlands I felt that multicultural activities had received a setback. The very word multicultural had become anathema to many. It evoked only negative meanings associated with unwanted immigrants, many of them illegal, spoiling Europe.

However, these were effects of globalization as I understood it. It created a system of apparently free trade cleverly manipulated by a few countries to economically benefit themselves. What global trade we have today is lop-sided. Lower income groups in all countries are pushed down closer to mere survival level. When Northern European countries import fruit and vegetables from India, Africa, South East Asia, or the Carribean countries the airway charges paid are more than the actual cost of the goods themselves. The airlines benefit from this trade but the consumer at the other end finds the goods expensive and unaffordable.

The air transportation rates charged by Arab countries’ airlines are low as compared to the rates of European airlines.

So the end-price of the goods also varies accordingly. You find Dutch flowers in five star hotels and shopping malls in Tokyo, New York, and other big cities around the world, but fruits and vegetables from India, Africa, South East Asia and the Car-

____________________________________________________79 ribean are seldom found there.

Airlines that fly goods from countries across the world are converging on the basis of mutual gain. They control and manipulate airway charges in such a way that goods from poorer countries are flown at higher rates so that they cost more to import. That is my impression. I travel across continents and look at these things from a common man’s point of view. I am a citizen of two civilizations and I have only the common man’s interest at heart, on either side.

The Balkan war was designed to open more markets for the European Union. At present, its effects stretch to Turkey, and eventually this ongoing process of globalization is supposed to capitalize the world economy in such a way that money goes to where it comes from and not to where it is needed and is in short supply. It will only turn the world into an investors’ paradise; common people will not jet-set across the world. They will stay confined to their native places and their rapidly fading cultural memory and rich traditions of self-expression.

Who will benefit by such economic globalisation that has no human or cultural component? Only mega-corporates operating across national frontiers? Or is there another form of globalization, more humane and conscientious, that artists will express their faith in? On one side, there is an increasing concentration of wealth and power; on the other, there is only a

80____________________________________________________ hope in a future for mankind spread all over the planet in small ‘local’ places, but where ‘the local’ has deep cultural traditions, unique expression, struggling to survive economic, political, and even military onslaught after onslaught.

I have been travelling through both Europe and India.

Both the European continent and the Indian subcontinent are rich in cultural diversity and heritage. They enjoy wealth and resources. They have a deep history and have experienced periods of war and peace, destruction and construction, and the mindset to continue not only to survive but also to reach higher levels of civilization.

I am a product of both these civilizations. I moved from my native India to Europe at a relatively young age as an advanced student of art. I stayed on in Europe to gain day-to-day experience of the life around me for more than a quarter of a century or about one half of my life so far. For me, multicultural activities were born in India. Then I went to Europe as communism was collapsing, socialism was on the wane though it rose in Latin America in the form of new governments. Then Thatcher’s Great Britain and Reagan’s United States boosted capitalism to new heights only to give rise to the monster of terrorism as a response to their game plans that are continued by their successors.

The whole world has come to believe in the paradoxes of war and peace. Since the end of the last world war, we have

____________________________________________________81 the United Nations Organization working towards a mutually responsible international community and pledged to universal acceptance of human rights. However, we still need an Amnesty International to bring to light violations of human rights in almost every member country of the U.N. We face man-made environmental disasters that include the present danger signals of global warming. The Greenpeace movement tries to save us from ecocidal activities of governments, corporates, and at times ill-educated people themselves. We have the International Red Cross protecting the lives or serving medical aid to victims of war and genocide in different parts of the world.

Although there are organizations and movements to protect human beings and human values, their very need tells us the other side of the story that the world as a whole is still insensitive to human values and issues. There is no final solution in sight for human strife.

History gives only examples of and not answers for the problems human beings create for themselves. The present time is like a soldier fighting at the front beyond which may lie future peace for which generations may have to wait indefinitely. In this situation, what do common people expect to happen?

80 Questions is an attempt to show the artists’ hope to the world.

Since 9-11, the Netherlands have been disturbed. Western Europe has a hardened attitude towards foreigners and asylum seekers. The atmosphere is vitiated by fear and suspi

82____________________________________________________ cion. Political ideologies and their ideals are once again on test.

Communism has collapsed but socialism still survives and is looking for new and relevant ways to express itself politically.

As history shows us, religions and ideologies do not die even when they seem to have become obsolete. They are revived in new forms because the concerns and issues they embody need to be further tested by time.

Even other continents are facing crises in their isms and ideologies, beliefs and world-views based on them. Communism may have collapsed in Europe but it still lives in its Chinese form in China. Gandhism may seem to have disappeared in India but is likely spring up again as long as people realize their need to find non-violent forms of resistance to oppressive and ruthless regimes. Ambedkarism is still looking for constitutional and democratic weapons to fight the evils of caste. India, however, has been integrated by merging into its union some 500 kingdoms. It has a constitutional democracy that has kept its secular democratic character alive in the face of religious fanaticism, communalism, casteism, and domestic terrorism and attempts at subversion of the system from within. This survival is remarkable and offers some hope for the future.

Why do people have to seek asylum in other countries?

It is obvious that there is a gap between what the constitutions of some countries promise their people and what the people actually get. I have not been an asylum seeker. I became a legal citizen of the Netherlands because it has histori-

____________________________________________________83 cally been one of the cradles of classical oil painting in Europe and in the world. For me it is the country that produced those great masters of light:---Frans Hals, Rembrandt, and Vermeer.

I came to know the truth that the art of oil painting originated in the Bruges (now Belgium) after my discussions with experts for the last twenty-five years. reading about and looking at art masterpieces. I gathered in Den Haag that oil painting started in the low-level, sea-side village of Scheveningen. I came to study art at Den Haag (The Hague ) from a village near Pune via the city of Mumbai. This was a great distance geographically and even greater culturally. Here I saw the work of the early modern painters, the expressionist Vincent van Gogh, and the abstract minimalist Piet Mondrian. The Dutch heritage in painting is indeed very rich.

In the recent period, that is to say in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s constructivism has developed to a vey high level in Holland. It has evolved as the next step in minimalism.

The spiritualism reflected in the paintings of Malevich, Kandinsky, and Rothko has inspired contemporary Dutch architecture. Much of Holland was destroyed by the Nazis during the Second World War. The golden age of Dutch painting was the 17th century. But even the earlier part of the 20th century was a peak period for modern art. During the Second World War, Rotterdam was all but completely razed. It has been rebuilt since. In late 20th and early 21st century Dutch architecture, we see new artistic horizons. Dutch architects are now

84____________________________________________________ creating a new art form by placing artworks prominently in public spaces. This gives artistic expression a central place in public awareness and their overall perspective to and view of art is enriched.

However, art promoters and producers of art do not care for heightening the interest of the general public in art. They are solely guided by the market forces and their commercial interests. In the long run, this may destroy all the rich resources that feed art and people’s interest in it. Artists will work like factories feeding art promoters conglomerates. Investors will replace genuine art lovers and collectors. Art will be confined to shallow appreciation by elite buyers who will display it in their homes and the corporate offices they occupy to impress visitors or customers. This will deprive art of its serious purpose, its moral and aesthetic drive, and push it towards decline and decay in a wider social sense. Globalization has created this scenario. It is upto serious artists and art lovers to resist this new decadence.

In the project 80 Questions Around the World: Show Your Hope we are trying to take about 700 to 800 works of art through India and China among other countries. Around this show, we hope to organize music concerts and cultural shows as well. We hope that it will find a sympathetic resonance among the audiences we encounter. Martin Voorbij has already driven truck through war-scarred regions and conflict-riven countries. He is arriving through Iran and Pakistan to India to

____________________________________________________85 Show Our Collective Hope in the Future of Mankind.

80 Questions Around the World: Show Your Hope does not offer any final solution or set of solutions to heal all of humanity’s ills. It starts with the present world’s disorder that raises disturbing questions and offers an image each offered by different artists from different parts of the world to show their hope. It aims at raising awareness levels among its audience.

As a travelling exhibition it hopes to touch audiences wherever

it travels, provoke them, fire their imagination, and kindle their

hope.

Photo of ringen in Palkhisohala 2012

Photo of ringen in Palkhisohala 2012

VARI:

Palkhisohala

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Vari: Palkhisohala

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I made up my mind to walk with the Palkhisohala (pilgrimage to Pandharpur) quite some time ago: in 1991, when I started to make sketches based on Tukaram’s Gatha (corpus of verses or abhangas). It was always an attractive subject for me.

An artist-painter’s profession consumes a great deal of time. I had the urge to join this pilgrimage many a time, but couldn’t find the time for it. Also, 700 years had passed since Jnandev took his samadhi, and so in 2008, the 400th anniversary of Tukaram’s birth, I was doubly inspired to participate in the Palkhisohala. I participated not just as a person but decided to make something creative happen. I was inspired to document something about our glorious past for future generations. In my earlier books, I’d already written that adequate notice has not been taken of the names of individual painters, sculptors and craftsmen.

I first travelled for two months throughout India. It was a project called ‘Show Your Hope’, a travelling exhibition that went from Holland to India. Artists from 86 countries participated in it. I made the journey in a truck, passing through Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Pakistan. My responsibility was to organize the exhibitions in India. I held them in Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Nasik, Pune, Goa and Banga-

92____________________________________________________ lore. The exhibition ended on June 18, 2008. After that I was in a relaxed mood, so I started a new project and immediately decided to document the Dehu-Pandharpur Palkhisohala 2008.

I think the 400th birth anniversary occasion had such a strong impact on me that I decided to document it. Instead of just talking I prefer to set an example. What we actually produce is the only evidence we have in the practice of art. Mere theorizing is of no use. The evidence has to be captured when the event takes place.

I asked other artists to do sketches with me for the Palkhisohala. I distributed sketch books to the artists. We started on the day of the Palkhi Prasthan in Dehu Sansthan. In the past I’d show up for such events held in Dehu.

So far this was not new to me, but making sketches challenged me. Only five artists were present at the time. Just making a start was enough. Each artist made 10 sketches on the first day.—The result was not satisfactory but the artists were excited about the experience. Sitting in public and sketching was not a big deal for me. I’ve been doing sketches since my art academy days. My thoughts kept churning in my brain, as I wanted to document the Palkhisohala with a different approach.

The word Vari comes from Vaar, which means seven days. Seven days come again and again, and so does the Vari

____________________________________________________93 come year after year. People need something that is in tune with their spiritual life. The Palkhisohala gives a large number of people a platform. The Palkhisohala may have a tradition that goes back 323 years, but the number of people travelling and participating has increased significantly. The number of Deendis has also increased.

The Palkhisohala was started by Narayanmaharaj, the son of Sant Tukaram, in 1685. Narayanmaharaj was in his thirties, quite a mature age to make a decision. He made the trek from Dehu to Pandharpur via Alandi on foot; he was convinced that this journey, carrying Tukaram’s and Jnandev’s symbolic footwear every year, was a family obligation. He introduced a whole new concept to the devotional in society. However, in the Varkari Sampraday some authorities don’t pay much heed to this approach. Was Narayanmaharaj the founder of the Palkhisohala, or had the family of Tukaram already initiated the Vari? The double moniker “Jnanoba-Tukaram” was coined by Narayanmaharaj. But pilgrims went to Pandharpur even during Tukaram’s lifetime. His poems or abhangas contain ample evidence of that. Today’s Palkhisohala is conducted according to Narayanmaharaj because his principal motive was to carry Jnandev’s and Tukaram’s padukas (the impressions of footprints in a mould).

An artist marching with a Deendi is a totally new experience for people. My fellow artists travelled only as far as Pune—I carried on further. It was a complete change in my

94____________________________________________________ lifestyle as I lived in luxury in Europe for a long time. Even in India I lived comfortably. But in the Palkhisohala I decided to adjust to its usual ways. I had a rough experience of life 25 years back, so why should this be any different? I was quite relaxed after a turbulent period of four years. I had decided to settle in Pune after living in Holland for 25 years. That might have been one of the reasons I was prepared for the pilgrimage. I often wondered why. I never traveled in Maharashtra’s interior. I was born in Umbraj, a village in Pune District. During the first 17 years of my life I’d never ventured beyond my Tehshil area. Ever since I was a student in Mumbai I’ve travelled frequently to North India, but seldom inside Maharashtra.

I decided to join the pilgrimage and see what experience I could gain. I visited places where Tukaram’s padukas took a rest, i.e., where the Palkhi stays overnight. I made sketches in charcoal, pencil and pen, and also took photographs.

In Baramati I met other artists who were studying in rural art schools. They welcomed me with enthusiasm. Actually, student artists come in direct confrontation with this subject, as opposed to the classical figures they’re exposed to in school. To my mind the Palkhisohala is like an academy for all branches of fine art: dance, drama, music, literature, drawing, painting. One’s eyes and mind should be open to everything.

All art academies and universities keep their eyes closed to such events and blindly follow traditional English art education.

Professionally, everyone admits their influence but academics seldom pay any attention to them. I came to this event rather

____________________________________________________95 late but it was never out of sight for me. Otherwise, the project ‘Your form is my Creation’ would never have taken place. I have received two State awards. The first one was for work inspired

by Tukaram’s verse. Unwittingly, I heeded my inner soul and became familiar with the living academy that the Palkhisohala represents, thanks to the entire bhakti tradition.

One meaning of peace refers to the inner peace, a piece within us: a state of mind, body and mostly soul. People that experience inner peace say that the feeling doesn’t depend on time, place, people or any external object or situation, proclaiming that an individual may experience inner peace even in the midst of war. One of the oldest writings on this subject is the Bhagvad Gita, an important part of India’s Vedic scriptures.

Bhakti is one of the outcomes of this process. War and peace can predict certain aspects of human behavior. It may affect the daily life of the common man or society as a whole. The Vari or pilgrimage is one event that involves a large number of people in peaceful procession. Devotion is one of the states of mind, a feeling or emotion, that brings together an entire society.

Walking keeps one’s mind fresh and the body fit. In city life everyone is under some pressure or other. It’s hard for people to recognize the pressure they are under. Walking is one way to keep the body in condition. Medicines would hardly keep one’s health in order but walking can work wonders for your heart and lungs. Travelling long distances changes people’s environment, and thus induces new thoughts.

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Tourism is travel for recreational or leisure purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who “travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes.� Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. Thinking of global activities in the context of the Palkhisohala and its Vari, I arrived at the point where inner satisfaction played a higher role in the life of ordinary people.

Sketching is to the artist as gesture is to a dancer, words to a poet and notes to a singer. They are all manifestations of expression in the creative world. It might be capturing a moment in a photograph, but beyond these expressions it’s the rhythms of the body that get transformed into a realm where ecstasy flows inside out. An artist draws a line that puts shade and shadow beside an energetic flash. Realistic drawings show the artistic nature of the Vari, so I decided to experiment after having practiced abstract expression for so long. But still, they end up as abstract forms. What I had lithographed in 1992 reappeared in Pandharpur while I was drawing the Pradakshina (circling). The peripheral procession of the Deendi represents the Palkhisohalas.

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Photo of ringen in Palkhisohala 2012

Digital Print, 70x100cm 2011

A Black Substance

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A Black Substance

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In 2008-09, I was involved in a project called Dehu Palkhisohala. I was drawing, taking photographs, meeting new people, documenting events in the visual form and trying to read people’s minds! I took many photographs as a way of critically observing objects, noting their artistic value and appreciating them. An object draws one’s attention; demands that it be looked at and a subject needs to be dominated over. In visual documentation, one needs to perceive the importance of the image. A monument is an object that symbolizes an era in history and a document shows textual or pictorial evidence of an agreement or treaty. Personal letters and sketches constitute subjective matter that can serve as both, evidence of a crime or incident as well as literature.

Dehu Palkhisohala (Palanquin Procession) has been an event in India, for the past 325 years. For many years, I had been interested in documenting this event in a unique way.

Sant Tukaram’s 400th birth anniversary was in 2008 and I had the opportunity to be in India for this occasion. So I decided to follow Palkhisohala by doing on-the-spot drawings. It was an experience in itself. I invited local artists and art schools that are along the Dehu Palkhisohala route to participate and some of them responded enthusiastically.

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The concept developed in my mind while travelling through Europe and India with the project ‘Show Your Hope.’

What would I do with thousands and thousands of images captured during this journey? As I pondered over the idea of ‘A Black Substance’ I happened to read Western philosophy and my curiosity and interest grew in a wide range of subjects.

Since I have been writing poems, painting, drawing and sculpting, I realized that I have been a very meditative person all my life. Actually, I lived my life ignoring some of the facts and practices involved in modern-day meditation. But I focused on various subjects that have occupied me over the years and imaginatively pursued their development. I found some way of working with images and produced the visuals that reflect the philosophies that I am concerned with.

In discussion with some of my friends in The Netherlands, who are lovers of Indian culture as well as critical writers, I discovered and accepted that the subject of God, Vithoba, has parallels with the concept of ‘Substance’ in Western philosophy. Tukaram has described this in his abhang-s. All his affectionate descriptions of Vithoba are substantive in nature and Dnyaneshwar’s description of a Cosmic Being incorporates the idea of ‘Substance.’ Later, in Western philosophy, Spinoza’s notion of stoicism held that there is only ‘One’ substance.

In the past years, I read more of Spinoza’s philosophy.

His house which is now a monument stands in front of my studio in The Hague. He was a contemporary of Tukaram and

___________________________________________________103 it is a sheer coincidence that I worked on translating Tukaram’s abhang-s in visual terms and arrived at Spinoza’s door! Every day I would look at Spinoza’s statue and reflect on Tukaram’s poetry. Some of my European friends who were writers made fun of this and my Indian friends too, mentioning it in their writing! The lane that runs alongside my studio is where prostitutes ply their trade, in front of Spinoza’s house and statue and right by my studio and gallery! Hence one can hear controversial conversations just around the corner!

Photography is a subject which relates concrete evidence to substance theory. It contains light and dark (black) matter. With increasing light, the darker part changes the identity of the image on the surface. In three-dimensional terms, the identity changes, but properties remain the same. Each angle of approach to the frame of the image changes the property of that space and creates a separate image with its own special form. The negative or positive form of the image again transforms the identity of that image. Changes in hue, contrast and brightness create more images from a single image. The image of Being, Ousia is captured by light and represented on a flat two-dimensional surface. The quality of light is characterized by its intensity falling on an object or simply illuminating a space. That is what identifies an image. Substance or Ousia is the permanent property of an object without which the object no longer remains itself and therefore becomes some other object.

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On this concept, I worked on photographic images to converge with artistic images. Computer software has now made it easy to transform images as one pleases. It may help technically, but artistic judgments are based on one’s own experience. Photography becomes just a routine technique in the practice of art that has provided an enormous amount of visual data. These days, making short art films and editing them makes me visually opulent. I want to find black and white images, simply to stimulate my imagination. Through this exercise, I produced images and in that process, I found Ouisa. I surprised myself in creating them! One always discovers something different in the subtle interplay of light and substance.

I look at the best examples of Abstract Expressionism; the works of the following artists: Malevich, Kandinsky, Josef Beuys, Andy Warhol, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning. In India, I find Husain, Raza, Vasudeo Gaitonde, KCS Paniker, Ramkinker Baij, A. Ramachandran and some of my contemporaries too. I wonder about their creations and try to find their approach to understanding their subjects. Their artworks are forever; witnessing the length and moments of eventuality, the leisure of seasons and the fiddle of Time.

I went through the entire saga of Abstract Expressionism and yet had not touched a fraction of its notions. I researched on it repeatedly until I found the path. I was walk-

___________________________________________________105 ing by the canal, on the way to my studio at The Hague. It was the summer of 2010, cloudy and humid. Slowly, a few drops of rain began to fall and I kept walking. The raindrops were falling very slowly and were reasonably big sized. They fell on the grey stone dividers alongside the canal, turning them dark.

Only where the rain fell, the divider turned black and the rest remained grey. I found visual melody in black and grey on those dividers. Instinctively, I started to take pictures of the dividers with my mobile phone-camera. The dividers were a few centimeters above the ground, not round but octagonal in shape.

Within half a kilometer, I had shot about 20 to 25 pictures. The raindrops were splattering slowly, as if someone was sprinkling water from a few kilometers up in the sky. I was amazed at how the weather had changed in such a short time. When I left the home, it was sunny and I had no umbrella to cover myself.

My studio was one and half kilometers away from my house.

I would normally take the tram because there was restricted space for car-parking around the Centrum.

Summer was always interesting in the Netherlands, with fresh air and bright sunshine. In the evening, yellow lights reflected the life around, captured by many painters in their paintings. I took photographs of raindrops on the stone dividers and walked away to the studio. It was a poetic moment. These small events made my day! Simultaneously, I had been electrified by the light of instinct which made me realize that these images had been captured in a small camera phone. And that they will, someday, be an invitation to another project.

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Spinoza defines ‘Attribute’ as follows: “By Attribute, I understand what the intellect perceives of a substance as constituting its essence.”

From this, it can be seen that attributes are related to substance in some way. It is not clear, however, even from Spinoza’s direct definition, whether

1. Attributes are really the way(s) substance is or

2. Attributes are simply ways to understand substance, but not necessarily the way it really is.

Spinoza thinks that there are an infinite number of attributes, but there are two that he thinks we can know… namely, Thought and its Extension.

My reading and understanding of Spinoza was going on for quite awhile. This rain fell in between, to generate expression in abstract thinking. I found the meaning of Spinoza’s substance; a substance of declarative essence, the visual form of a substance in black on black. It was the most effective inter-disciplinary act. Stone reflects as grey and after rain, it becomes darker. Physically, it is black on black. Yet, I can see the light on it. To recognize black which is black on grey, there has to be the additive - physical light. The particles of light can exhibit different characteristics depending on the speed and the arrangement of the Tejas atoms which seem grey. There is ab-

___________________________________________________107 sence of appearance in white. In white, somewhere the image has disappeared.

I had to find out later. It became the essence of the substance which I was trying to search in images. Light is additive color, created by mixing together the light of two or more different colors. Most images become grey in additive light, because the object is black. Immediate inversion of those images tells the story from the other side. When light saturates, color disappears from the object which becomes as flat as a two-dimensional surface. Without light, we cannot recognize any object.

Here light is a substance. Raindrop is another. Stone is another substance. The nature of substances is different. Stone absorbs the energy of light while containing heat during the transformation of its substance. The raindrop is in transition, from moisture to colorless steam. It is just another form of water. There is, for certain, the existence of non-figurative form, image.

Spinoza says: By substance, I mean that which is in itself and is conceived through itself: in other words, that of which a conception can be formed, independent of any other conception.

In accordance with Spinoza’s above theory, I thought the images I had captured in the camera were images that could have created another concept. So I thought in terms of Nature – rain, objects of the environment that showed the presence of energy, abstraction, wonder. Later, I exposed the images in

108___________________________________________________ term of hues, saturation, threshold, inversion, curves and levels of light to solarize the image. I got results that matched my search of being in substance.

My interest lay in visible matters and invisible moods!

Spinoza stands much closer than any other philosopher in the western world, to explain the abstract image. I have not found any western artist openly accepting Spinoza’s philosophy with abstract imaging. His Ethica was not popular among artists and philosophers and it was banned by the Yahudis itself and Roman Catholic Church.

In 1995, I had sculpted a form of a deity, posing akimbo, a being of black substance, negro, Ousia. Saints like Namdev, Dnyaneshwar, Eknath and Tukaram were found at the riverside of Chandrabhaga. A shepherd dressed in black. The concept is of the eighth century. I suppressed knowledge and alienated other influences like religion, to be able to see pure Ousia. It was like I was just born; a child in Neolithic antiquity, at the very beginning of humanity on earth. I understood the substance of Spinoza; understood all layers now to create new images. I encountered images and substance which came in black only, light without additive presence, though I had created many images under the subtractive method in the past. I did a whole series of silkscreen prints on this theory. Now that I had found light, the opposite material could be anything. Black would represent substance as the image. Actually, black was one of the first colors used by artists in Neolithic cave paintings.

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I put together both, substance in general and black substance, to understand them. One is Nature and the other, the Universe. Indian writers and philosophers believed in this through the ages, especially in the last millennium. In the last decade of the 13th century, Dnyaneshwar created an original work that spoke of his experiences in Yoga and Philosophy. It is considered one of the most important books in Marathi literature. He explained the state of mind, as well as the experience of being in a trance, seeing illusions, image appearances and the basic, clear perception of light and universe. Subsequently, Spinoza’s substance theory became an apparent explanatory definition of God. He proclaimed that Nature is God who does not exist beyond the universe. Tukaram, contemporary of Spinoza, portrayed God in various ways, in Tukaramachi Gatha in India. All his compositions were in black and white, reflecting in his art substantial evidence of God.

I did not know myself until now. Who am I, atheist or devotee? Thirst of knowledge made me aware and I became a traveler in the Arts. I did not find enough time; for literature, philosophy, for being in museums, for meeting the common man who spoke of the myths of being. Poets tell me what could be sensational humour, but is full of agony and joyful eagerness. Painters substantiate the display of emotions. Craftsmen indicate professional secrecy. Their views mould me to believe that the image does exist.

Spinoza’s explanation: “Existence of this kind is conceived as an Eternal Truth, like the Essence of a thing and

110__________________________________________________ therefore cannot be explained by means of continuance or time, though continuance may be conceived without a beginning or end.�

I join the pilgrimages during the month of Ashadi Ekadashi to watch the joyful journey of the Varkaris to Pandharpur. There is no end or beginning for the pilgrims. Every month, each one may separately go to Pandharpur. For centuries without break, this has been going on, continuously, year after year, like Spinoza wrote about Existence in his explanation above.

After meeting the Varkaris, I am convinced that they are not searching for God, but meeting Him in every Vari, pilgrimage.

Vari is the explanation of Spinoza, continuance may be conceived without beginning or end.

Simply from the fact that we conceive that a given object has some point of resemblance with another object, which is want to affect the mind pleasurably or painfully, although the point of resemblance be not the efficient cause of the said emotions, we shall still regard the first-named object with love or hate.

Proof: The point of resemblance was in the object (by hypothesis), when we regarded it with pleasure or pain, thus when the mind is affected by the image thereof, it will straightaway be affected by one or the other emotion and consequently, the thing which we perceive to have the same point of resemblance, will be accidentally a cause of pleasure

___________________________________________________111 or pain. Thus (by the foregoing corollary), although the point in which the two objects resemble one another be not the efficient cause of the emotion, we shall still regard the first-named object with love or hate.

Spinoza’s above proposition and Dnyaneshwar’s pronouncements are the same. The latter’s authority was accepted

by Namdeo, Eknath, Tukaram and other saints. That is why Dnyaneshwar was the first to believe that God resides within us. By stating his existence, singing, praising or remembering Him, one could achieve the state of Moksha. He taught us how to meet the Ultimate in our own lifetime. This same message comes through in Spinoza’s Ethica.

I think, in the future, other artists will find some pleasure in such thoughts. I found a semblance in European Abstract Art. We need to research further to reach a level of pure abstraction. There is a whole universe of images yet to be conquered.

Definitions concerning God 1. By that which is self-caused, I mean that of which the essence involves existence or that of which the nature is only conceivable as existent.

2. A thing is called finite after its kind, when it can be limited by another thing of the same nature.

For instance, a body is called finite because we always conceive another greater body. So also a

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3.

4.

5.

6.

thought is limited by another thought, but a body is not limited by thought nor a thought by body.

By substance, I mean that which is in itself and is conceived through itself: in other words, that of which a conception can be formed, independently of any other conception.

By attribute, I mean that which the intellect perceives as constituting the essence of a substance.

By mode, I mean the modifications of substance or that which exists in and is conceived through something other than itself.

By God, I mean a being absolutely infinite, that is, a substance consisting in infinite attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality.

Explanation: I say absolutely infinite, not infinite after its kind: for, of a thing infinite only after its kind, infinite attributes may be denied; but that which is absolutely infinite, contains in its essence whatever expresses reality and involves no negation.

7.

That thing is called free, which exists solely by the necessity of its own nature, and of which the action is determined by itself alone. On the other hand, that thing is necessary, or rather constrained, which is determined by something external to itself to a fixed and definite method of existence or action.

___________________________________________________113 8.

By eternity, I mean existence itself, in so far as it is conceived necessarily to follow solely from the definition of that which is eternal.

Explanation: Existence of this kind is conceived as an eternal truth, like the essence of a thing, and therefore cannot be explained by means of continuance or time, though continuance may be conceived without a beginning or end.

Axioms 1. Everything which exists, exists either in itself or in something else.

2. That which cannot be conceived through anything else must be conceived through itself.

3. From a given definite cause an effect necessarily follows; and, on the other hand, if no definite cause be granted, it is impossible that an effect can follow.

4. The knowledge of an effect depends on and involves the knowledge of a cause.

5. Things which have nothing in common cannot be understood, the one by means of the other; the conception of one does not involve the conception of the other.

6. A true idea must correspond with the ideate or object.

7. If a thing can be conceived as non-existing, its essence does not involve existence.

Photo Koninlijke AAcademie van Beeldende Kunsten 1984 End Examination the Hague; Insert, painting 2004, oil on canvas, size 100x100cm

Shades and shadows in my paintings

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Shades and shadows in my paintings

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80 Questions around the World – an interview with Martin Voorbij, organizer and representative editor of the project, Show Your Hope in Eindhoven, Holland: “… it is an expression of quantitative and qualitative suggestions, remarks and ideas. There are certain shades of green between black and white. All colors become extra shades between black and white. I hope we can respect all colors and the meaning of things.” This was my simple but clear explanation.

Fields of color are painted as a society. Each color shade represents a community. Combinations of colors chronicle the era. Society is interpreted in color combinations. Color schemes are created as a panoramic view of society, as settlements in the valley or a metropolitan city. One could call it a cityscape or townscape.

To me, Black suggests a strong combination of emerging immigrants asking for domination or trying to conjoin society. Green could represent any Central Asian or North African Islamic community. Green does have many shades and shadows. The earlier sentence may suggest Muslim majorities but my intention is to show some other points. Around the Mediterranean Sea, the transparency of the water is visible; green around the banks of the River Nile, emerald green stones and

118___________________________________________________ waters of the Indian Ocean, blue-green sea and sky that make the horizon green. Green in Indian yogic teaching is color of Prana, life’s breath. The human race is represented. Green symbolizes human groups or community, maybe even an alliance of nations. It is coalition or opposition. It could be an institution or a university, academy or design institute. It could be a couple or group mob, marching military or fighting troops, procession or demonstration, revolt or pilgrimage. I think of a gathering of humanity for religious, social and economic events. I like to ponder on these thoughts.

As an artist, I just cannot stop thinking. The disaster of 9-11 in New York - I thought I was not affected, but I have suffered too, by that incident, socially economically and culturally.

I refused to let it affect me at first, but it kept appearing like a ghost of terror. I can say this was a setback in my life. It has reflected in my work. If one can see it in my work, I would not be surprised. Periods in paintings are visible, periodically. My thoughts are exposed in my visual interpretation of the universe, though the viewer may see it differently.

In Europe, the viewer is mostly well equipped with vision, a capacity to ‘see’ the painting. But in India, I have been asked many times to explain my paintings. Tough job! I have tried to explain. Experts want to ‘see’ in perspective. The common man wants to be guided by the artist himself, most wait for the artist to come. Some want to be guided by experts.

Most people ask what the painting is about, if there is any idea

___________________________________________________119 behind the painting or the sculpture or the image itself… Other artists ask for the price or they discuss technique.

Standing as an artist in one’s exhibition is itself an experience in India. I have created situations like having exhibitions in rural areas, to reach the common man. I have displayed and exposed my work openly, even in inconvenient places. I do not generally meet any paintings expert or critic, but meet those who are admirers of my concept, from whom I learn many things. I get thought-provoking advice from the public. To what result… self satisfaction? No. I become more visually aware.

I study, wonder, feel, understand what visuals mean to men who are ‘educated’ and have ‘knowledge’ of the fine arts.

The first decade of the 21st century brought new media to the world. A large number of people have access to Internet and television which deliver enormous information through visual images. So art is in the process of change and painting is under scrutiny. Sculpture and prints are vanishing from the scene and art galleries are closing their doors from city to city.

It is not a good time for the artist who wants to be an artist and nothing else! Despite questioning himself, he has to make his own decision to continue. No one can advise him. One should not think of the price of the painting. One should concentrate on what one could express on canvas.

Pricing is between the artist and the admirer. One may admire a painting but may not buy. The artist should think in terms of the intensity of his expression and then put a value

120___________________________________________________ on the painting. Pricing of a painting is a really complicated process for the artist, which I have experienced many times.

Paintings could be priced like household commodities, like maybe a designer lamp, television set or an audio unit! To the artist, it is a matter of one’s own emotional involvement. This adds to the value, but the buyer is unaware of all the emotion behind a painting. If the buyer is capable of understanding and valuing the artist’s emotions and sentiments, he would be ready to pay well. Subsequently, the agent gets involved in the sale. So he asks for commission. The price rockets and becomes beyond the reach of the buyer.

A good idea is to sell a painting long after the artist has created it. This way, the emotion is past and the artist becomes free of attachment. From time to time, the artist evaluates his own emotions. The artist’s reputation makes his paintings expensive. Prints, designer items, crafts, ceramics, all these art objects are easy to sell. But painting is quite a process that involves the mind, time, expression, the very soul of the maker, especially large canvasses like murals, which take a lot of energy. These days, sculptures and installations are popular but have more material in the method of making.

Also, the artist’s attitude is important for deciding the price of paintings. After all, it is his decision to sell it or leave it. The market marks the value of the painting and agencies get their profit by selling. Word-of-mouth works in the field of investors, not emotions.

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Art is a valuable asset in the economy of the modern era, especially for international financial institutions. Therefore, auction prices are higher. The upcoming artist cannot start with a high price structure. But through an agency or agent, who receives commission for the sale, he will be able to sell faster.

On the other hand, the artist must keep his creative juices flowing. Few are able to stay on track; they are called ‘living artists.’ It is hard to keep the instinctive creative process parallel to the economic market. I think I would keep on writing on this issue, because of my complicated experiences. I have sold paintings on my own and have also given to agents. I have sold to galleries in London, Brussels and Amsterdam. Much depends on how you create contacts for selling. Museums buy direct from the artist, but sometime, the deal is through agents. In today’s situation, the art expert makes his point.

What is the present situation of Abstract Art?

Once, I went to find old lithographs and etchings in a shop I frequent. On the way, I entered the “Free Academy” and was surprised to meet an old friend who had come from Amsterdam to The Hague, to attend a discussion on today’s condition of abstract painters and painting. Although an exhibition was going on since two months, the response was not enthusiastically high. The discussion took place in a small room without a microphone, with a limited audience.

Having spent many years in Holland, I know the conditions of abstract art and artist. I listened carefully, since I had suf-

122___________________________________________________ fered in the process and wanted to find a way out, like the others. I recognized the fact that there were a few persons present who were past their sixties and it was easy to understand their thoughts. Age matters. The world is changing fast. Time passes much like wind passing through clouds. In the course of the discussion, one thing became clear to me.

A change of medium for expression would be good, like animation, video, ad films, short films and film as big canvas or mural.

Yet, the painters’ corner exists, for film directors, animators , editors in television channels, art directors in film studios, web designers... the profession is wide enough to absorb other disciplines, as in architecture.

Silently, I heard the lecture by a teacher who had taught some thirty years ago at the Royal Academy in The Hague.

He said it was like the violin which was introduced in the 16th century. Today, it has become an instrument for solo programs.

Improvement in variation of metal threads resulted in the improvisation of sound. Late Pt. Ravi Shankar introduced changes in the Sarod, creating the sitar as a solo instrument. One can always depend on the inter-disciplinary processes in Arts, I always say, to create the most abstract forms and to visually produce different creative thoughts.

In the discussion, someone asked a question on the extreme abstract forms of the Russian artist, Malevich, in his

___________________________________________________123 painting ‘A Black Square.’ At once, I knew what was being discussed but chose to remain silent. What was discussed was the visible material aspect of his art. No one pointed out on the religious background.

Malevich’s term Suprematism refers to an art based upon ‘the supremacy of pure artistic feeling’ rather than on visual depiction of objects. Likewise, in Indian philosophy, the incorporeal formless is conceived as a form of nature. As I argued later on substance and its attribute, on Spinoza, my point was well taken, surprisingly.

Spinoza tried to show abstraction to westerners, long ago, but religious factors opposed him and his books were banned. What Malevich has painted in A Black Panel is the center-point of spirituality and meditation. What Spinoza described in Ethica is that without substance, there is no form.

Sant Dyaneshwar remarked that without the sun, the universe is not visible to mankind. Namdev, Eknath and Tukaram believed that one should pronounce the name of the unknown (God) and He will be formed within you; this is very normal, basic and abstract thinking, in terms of form and music within man. The rest is just material to decorate objects.

Kasimir Malevich spoke his thoughts in interviews and books, at the time of his exhibitions. When Malevich created Suprematism in 1913, he was already an established painter in Russia. He turned his back on all of his earlier accomplish-

124___________________________________________________ ments. Suprematism compressed the whole of his paintings into a black square on a white canvas. I felt night within me and it was then that I conceived new art which I called Suprematism. This was expressed by a black square on a white square.

He said, “This square of Suprematism can be compared to symbols of primitive men. It was not their intent to produce ornaments but to express the feeling of rhythm.”

In ‘Suprematism’ (Part II of his book ‘The Non-Objective World’- published in 1927 in Munich, as Bauhaus Book 11), Malevich clearly stated the core concept of Suprematism: Suprematist Composition - White on White (Malevich, 1918), Museum of Modern Art, New York U.S.

In Suprematism, I understand the primacy of pure feeling in creative art. To the Suprematist, the visual phenomena of the objective world are, in themselves, meaningless; the significant thing is feeling, as such, quite apart from the environment in which it is called forth.

He created a Suprematist grammar based on fundamental geometric forms; in particular, the square and the circle. In the Exhibition of 1915, Malevich exhibited his early experiments in Suprematist painting. The centerpiece of his show was The Black Square, placed in what is called the red, beautiful corner in Russian orthodox traditions; the place of the main icon in a house.

The artist needs to find a source for inspiration and if he

___________________________________________________125 lives in a spiritual world, he needs to connect through religion.

Some try to find their own aura. Malevich was one who questioned himself and tried to keep definite concepts within his religious belief. The Orthodox Church has a huge influence on Russian society; so also on Malevich. A symbol of the church is the cross. Malevich’s radical thought produced a square on square.

Basic forms appeared in western painting for the first time. The following paragraph states: Including information from the voyages of Marco Polo, among other discussions on the question of the shape of the Earth, from the origins to the late Antiquity, it has been shown that the Fathers of the Church shared different approaches that paralleled their overall philosophical and theological visions. However, a ‘flattist’ approach was more or less shared by all the Fathers coming from the Syriac area, who were more inclined to follow the letter of the Old Testament.

In the cross used in the Russian Orthodox Church, the top line is said to represent the headboard and the bottom slanted line represents the foot-rest, wrenched loose by Jesus’ writhing in intense agony. It is raised to the left side, because that was the side of the righteous criminal who said to Jesus: “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

This symbolizes the victory of good over evil. The letters IC XC found at the end of the main arm of most Russian orthodox crosses are a Christogram representing the name of Jesus

126___________________________________________________ Christ. The one in Malevich painting is by Eastern Orthodoxy and Early Christianity, also known as the crux immissa quadrata. It has all arms of equal length and not much longer than the width. Often the arms curve wider as they go out. Subsequently, he said in his interviews that there seemed to be a sudden change; from light to darkness like the night.

For painters, spiritual enforcement is important for their views and perspective. Any kind of meditation helps to develop ideas and thought. Malevich tried to demonstrate this and wrote about it, during post-Russian revolution. Changes had been accrued in coming years in Russia, deploying communist regime.

The discussion went further and arrived at the door of ethics and norm, where Spinoza started a crackdown of Christian beliefs and practices in Europe. Liberal thoughts had been introduced but not accepted, though Portuguese and Spanish rulers imposed religious limitations on Jews in their territories.

Spinoza’s family and other communities traveled to Amsterdam, getting refuge in Europe, in a place considered cosmopolitan for that age. Spinoza received education in a Latin school and his knowledge extended to the European platform.

Roman Catholics and Protestants denied knowledge of Spinoza’s theories, fearing a threat on theological grounds. The theory of Spinoza is more interesting in terms of finding God in Nature. To understand Malevich, Kandinsky, Mark Rothko

___________________________________________________127 and others, I have reached a conclusion that everyone who carries exceptional views on religion tries to find other beliefs.

Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Piet Mondrian made a deep impression on me and dragged me into the visual world to flame my soul.

I gathered among artists to watch the source of darkness.

Since I am under the sun, my eyes are able to see to a certain extent, in the presence of light. But the whole universe is dark.

The stars shine to keep our minds positive. The brightness of knowledge is deep in the universe. The cosmos is around us with the sunshine of information. To see abstract form, we do not need light; what we need is a wide angle of thinking.

My bewildered soul finds companions, through watching, reading and painting. My soul tries to communicate with othe souls, whose feelings pour onto canvases. Sometimes while working on projects, it happens instinctively. ‘Your Form is My Creation’ is a project inspired by ‘Tukaramachi Gatha.’

In Holland, I reflected and shared my thoughts with writers, poets and artists. I approached galleries to exhibit my work.

My personal interests showed in my work of art. Some commercial adventures had intruded my artistic activities. Once, the organizer of my exhibition asked my colleague in Holland, “Is he the one has done these paintings? He looks like a businessman, more than a painter!” In Holland, people are used to seeing artists appear not very presentable!

Measured Nature, A Black Substance, 20x30cm, 2004

End Examination 1984, Oil on Paper 140x95cm

Part II

Photograph Scheveningen The Hague 2011

At the turn of the millennium

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Development of Contemporary Visual Art at the turn of the millennium

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At the threshold of the union of the 20th and 21st centuries, new mediums had arrived, as I silently observed. There were changes in my private and professional lives too and I was wondering how these changes would affect me. I am a child bound by Time! My time runs out touching history and events of the past. My thoughts transact with epochs and my life becomes a saga. I can say I am a person defined by duration of time.

In my private life, there was change. I was separated from my family. Our property was divided. Being separate from the family has become common in India. I was single. In my professional life, ‘Windows’ was introduced and the artist had a new instrument to draw with. This substitute began to mould the 1990s. As each person has his or her highlights in life, I had mine. I recognized it in Tukaramachi Gatha which was my inspiration.

It was an exploration of Images. I had created so many paintings on canvas paper. It was like I was living in a trance! I lived my day-to-day life in Holland, but was constantly in the past, researching the work of Tukaram through his Abhang-s. Time was passing through me! The electronic world was fast developing.

134___________________________________________________ There were changes in the social structure of Europe and Asia.

Democracy was changing Russia and Eastern Europe.

I was spending all my precious time in painting canvases, discovering abstract thought. How does one capture moments of joy and transform it into an image? Really, it takes years...

How does one understand Abstraction? Is it like painting virtual space? No. One learns more than creating mere explosions of images through actual practice.

On television, one can see more images. The artist’s emotions are involved in the technique and forming of the image. In virtual painting, the idea is stronger than feelings. What is important to the painter is the structure of the canvas as platform for his art. For the visual artist, texture of the structure is not so important. He is not so much a painter of materials but a composer of light, just like the sound composer. This is how the profession extended at the turn of the century. The change was the emergence of the light composer. This led to confusion in many artists and made them vulnerable. A common desirable market was created at the beginning of the 21st century. Today, most of the virtual reality in computer games and animation films is created by ‘artist-taconites.’ Walt Disney’s earlier films have a certain appeal of drawing and color sense. Today, its technical experts are composing light forms most of the time with in-built software. The engineering of light is complex most of the time. What the artist expresses on canvas or paper is the phenomena of existence. Purely working with light as Mark Rothko

___________________________________________________135 did, one can see in a testimony of color, meditative construction of light in the presence of darkness.

In 1997, the Internet, an electronic connection via cable, arrived. Telecommunication was open to the public. Mobile communication was through the mobile phone. Initially, this innovation was used limitedly for military purposes. It has happened time and again, like recognition as artist, in the history of art.

Rembrandt was not accepted as a painter by the Roman Catholic Church. The Italian Renaissance did not accept Rembrandt because Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were multi-talented personalities. Even today, many artists suffer jealousies in the art profession. Artists with qualified degree or diploma in art are not recognized; artists sometimes feel the need to change their profession. Who are we to impose limitations on artists?

In 2000, the millennium year, the British conservative government decided to hallmark the event by building a monumental Millennium Dome, in the eastern docks of London. In European countries, the Euro was flourishing. Borders were thrown open to free travel to all participating EU countries. For me, it was the whole wide horizon opening up! I assumed the whole world had opened doors and windows. East European nationals entered the western countries for work opportunities and landed with good jobs. Asians moved to Britain, Canada, USA and Australia. Many Dutch people immigrated to Canada and Australia too.

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In India, in 1992, the elected government introduced a liberal policy. Hence, many foreign companies started to invest in India. Many events took place, in an exchange of good faith.

Foreigners opened an art gallery in Delhi. From 2002, Indian art started to make profits in auctions in cosmopolitan cities of the western world like London and New York. Big auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s opened offices in India and began to auction art. Indian companies registered auction houses in India and abroad, later in that decade. The need of the market and lucrative investing attracted more sales in art. Many galleries opened in metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Galleries sold paintings at extra high prices, which were not worth their value.

In 2008, the world market collapsed. Auction houses were unable to sell those overvalued properties. This automatically affected the art market. Artists had even invested their money in property in metropolitan cities and they were unable to make further payments. I met many artists affected in a similar vein and discussed with them the result of a pursuit in art.

Behind such activities and pursuits, whose interests are hidden? Living in Europe made me more aware of the western world and India. I have been exposed to many unworthy practices in art by art dealers, art critics, columnists, owners of galleries, directors of museums, art institutions and government bodies for culture and so on. There is no limit or boundary in the pursuit of Art. There is always much freedom in the making of

___________________________________________________137 art. But earning through it may not always be very lucrative.

Artists who show their work in galleries would be selected by museums. When the artist’s show is organized, all paintings would be in the hands of the gallery owners. Dealers would make the deals with the customers. Artists would not have a share in the profit, since the gallery owners pay the artists in advance.

It is like the share market. The painter sells his paintings in the open market and the dealer makes his profit. Paintings could be at the studio of the artist and the dealer would make a deal with customer and receive a commission on the painting. Some art historian may want to make his selections seem important in the market; this would give him a standing in the international market.

The first decade of the 21st century has been a good period for figurative art, because art historians like Rudi Fuchs was interested in figurative art. ‘For the Love of God’ is a sculpture by artist Damien Hirst produced in 2007. It consists of a platinum cast of an 18th century human skull encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds, including a pear-shaped pink diamond located in the forehead that is known as the Skull Star Diamond. The skull’s teeth are original and were purchased by Hirst in London.

The skull is an object of art that dates back to antiquity, reminding people of their mortality. In 2007, Rudi Fuchs observed: “The skull is out of this world, celestial almost. It proclaims victory

138___________________________________________________ over decay. At the same time it represents death as something infinitely more relentless. Compared to the tearful sadness of a vanity scene, the diamond skull is glory itself.” Costing £14 million to produce, the work was placed on its inaugural display at the White Cube Gallery in London in an exhibition called ‘Beyond Belief’, with an asking price of £50 million. This would have been the highest price ever paid for a single work by a living artist.

According to Art Knowledge News, a sale was to be completed at the $100 million asking price. The value of making objects of art was already high. European city councils did not set aside so much for cultural funds for a whole financial year. After seeing For the Love of God, what were the chances of someone changing his views on the world and life and death? The answer would depend on one question: Is the speaker a human being or an art critic?

Rudi Fuchs had introduced Jorg Immendorff in the last decade of the last century in Holland, when he was the director at The Hague. The Gemeentemuseum was not doing so well under his administration, so his contract was not validated. He moved to Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum but was not successful there either. Later in 2007, he made his point on the impact of objective figures with the sculpture, For the Love of God.

The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen had organized the 2001 Exhibition of Hieronymus Bosch in Rotterdam. His independence of expression overthrew his concepts of religious import. Themes like in his paintings have deep impact on society.

People are disillusioned by memories of the periods of death of

___________________________________________________139 humanity. Every magician tries to make people laugh, but Time is Reality of the day. There is so much controversy, but is it worthy of discussion?

Following important things are very funny to make profit out of duplicate or copied ideas. Indian artist Subodh Gupta did an installation in a church in France, which was not relevant.

Anish Kapoor, Indian born English national had executed many ideas all over Europe and received better criticism .

Many European artists have done outstanding paintings on appearance of death, like Josef Beuys, who made his earlier installations on his survival in the Second World War in Russia.

He put his bandage and animal fat together with wood. How did this idea strike him?

On 16 March 1944, Beuys’s plane was shot down on the Crimean Front and crashed close to Znamienko. Its old name is Freiberg. Beuys’s subsequent recounting of the event in 1979 became one of the most controversial aspects of his artistic persona. He claimed to have been rescued from the crash by nomadic Tatar tribesmen, who had wrapped his broken body in animal fat and fed and nursed him back to health. He showed those moments in his works which are in the collection of Dusseldorf Museum of Art. I have visited this Museum several times to understand the meaning of those sculptures.

I have been reflecting on Death to a great extent, I saw

140___________________________________________________ how the western world conceptualized and presented death.

Damien Hirst showed only the superficial aspect of death, without the inner depth. Through his installations, he showed only the visual images of death without the certainty of being.

Death is a major issue in Hinduism, widely discussed but not frequently visualized, since that made people nervous, especially the young.

One can see the demonstrations of the rituals after death, on the banks of the rivers Ganga and Yamuna. At Varanasi one can see how death is ritualized. The philosophy of Shiva states everything about birth and death, symbolized in Indian philosophy as one of the most complex theories. The western world has limited ideas on mortality, which ends at the feet of Jesus Christ. Crucifixion is the most discussed subject in terms of death, as it was human punishment that ended with the death of Christ. Natural death is another aspect, totally, well discussed in all religions. Even the Evangelist Church has mentioned the nature of death, as a circumstance in the circle of nature.

In 1992, my first major exhibition of installations at the Hague presented parts of trees, the death of trees, its transportation around the globe in the form of wood, objects of display and more. The main part was the energy and moral energy fields were discussed. Western critics were interested; but to them, it was not as shocking as bones and skulls. I left it to them to figure out‌

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During this period, I made a sculpture of the deity, the devotee, the dual roles of the yogi and the being. I travelled to Poland to show my creations. I made a series of sculptures that are now in the Vaishwik Art Gallery, Pune in India, where people appreciate the concept of God, in a modern form.

Towards the end of 2008, Hirst exhibited the diamond skull at the historic Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, amidst public controversy. The skull was exhibited next to an exhibition of paintings from the collection of the museum that were selected and curated by Hirst. According to Wim Pijbes, the museum director, there was no controversy amongst the board members. He explained that the exhibition ‘will attract people… and give a new dimension to the image of the Rijksmuseum as well. It boosts our image. Of course, we do the Old Masters, but we are not a ‘yesterday institution’. It is for now.

And Damien Hirst shows this in a very strong way.’ A Belgian journalist in response remarked how the installation of the diamond skull at the Rijks was ‘an intentionally quite controversial project.’

If a controversy is what they wanted, the Rijksmuseum made it a point to show such a controversial object, which is not a piece of art but a valuable diamond barrier. Such objects were made in several Christian religious institutions in Europe and were valuable assets in possession of the Church. Many churches in Russia, Poland, Eastern Europe are examples of this and even the Vatican has a good collection of such objects.

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A friend of mine who is a collector in The Hague had a wooden statue of a monk in his possession, valued for about three hundred thousand Euros. This was stolen from his gallery, which was well protected with bullet-proof double glass. For the Love of God will create future myths and adventures; but for art appreciation, it remains just a well-crafted object, not an authentic piece of sculpture but just a skull. Maybe people will not see this object frequently in museums and galleries, like the Kohinoor diamond. It is a curse of over-abundance and a paradox of possession.

I was comparing both skulls, one made by Damien Hirst, the other by Subodh Gupta, an Indian artist. The first was a valued object and the other, just an installation in an exhibition.

The question arises why the Indian, too, chose to do a skull. The British, too, have made skulls in London. The Dutch art historian, Rudi Fuchs, supported the idea of skulls. Peter Nagy, an American artist and gallery owner, represented the top twenty Indian contemporary artists. Nagy has been referred to as the ‘poster boy of Indian contemporary art.’ Much of the gallery’s signature flavor and stature is born from Nagy. Subodh Gupta has said of Nagy, “He has fresh eyes and has provided a platform for contemporary artists.”

I have studied the rivalry between the English and the French, the nine-year war, thereafter, the French Revolution, religious differences and the cultural over-abundance. What Peter Nagi has profited out of this installation in the church is a very

___________________________________________________143 different issue from an Indian artist using the skull as his theme, when he does not know what it stands for in Western culture and especially in the Christian philosophy of life and death.

Death is the central theme in Hirst’s works and he made more objects on this concept. The rest of Subodh Gupta’s body of work comprises everyday objects that are ubiquitous throughout India, such as the stainlesssteel tiffin boxes used by millions to carry their lunch, as well as pans, milk pails and bicycles. So why he used the skull in that church remains unanswered. The Rijksmuseum raised a controversy and subsequently, went in for renovations, so no shows followed For the Love of God.

Many Indian art columnists became art critics and writers, receiving invitations from abroad for their presence to write articles in newspapers. They were well paid. Foreign trips were organized. Earlier, writers were sent to foreign countries to participate in seminars organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, ICCR, New Delhi. When the art columnist became important in art-selling, their income jumped up and they themselves became art agents. They hired exhibition spaces and held exhibitions. So many galleries and agents mushroomed in the first decade of the 21st century in India. Since 2008, the balloon of art prices has been breached and exact art evaluation has been marginalized.

The fact that Hirst’s work does mirror society is not its strength but its weakness. The reason it is guaranteed to decline

144___________________________________________________ artistically (and financially) is that social modes become outmoded. The only comment that needs to be made of his entire oeuvre: “They’re bright and zany; but there’s fall only it, at the end of the day.” Julian Spalding, British art critic and author of the book ‘Con Art – Why You Should Sell Your Damien Hirst While You Can’ said: “It’s often been proposed, seriously, that Damien Hirst is a greater artist than Michelangelo, because he had the idea for a shark in a tank, whereas Michelangelo didn’t have the idea for his David.” Another comment – “… The emperor has nothing on. When the penny drops that these are not art, it’s all going to collapse. Hirst should not be in the Tate. He is not an artist. What separates Michelangelo from Hirst is that Michelangelo was an artist and Hirst is not.”

I uphold the positive thinking of Spinoza and John Locke.

There is more to life and art than this kind of negative interpretation of daily life. Extreme thinking could bring anyone to any place but liberal thinking develops positivity in the interest of mankind. In Holland, two incidents of jealousy, hate, rivalry in art practices has made a negative impact. Theo Van Gogh was murdered in Amsterdam. There was a bomb blast in the car of the artist, Rob Scholte, who, along with his wife, was victim of car bombing outside his home in Amsterdam. He lost both his legs. “The blast took away my voice,” Scholte remembers. He says he had no specific enemy. In the weeks and months that followed the explosion, Scholte and his wife, at first working independently of the police, began an elaborate, amateurish and obsessive investigation to uncover who had carried out the at-

___________________________________________________145 tack and, more importantly, why. Scholte considered a wide array of potential perpetrators; two fellow artists, an art dealer, an art collector, a real-estate speculator, Japanese organized criminals, the West German secret police, one of his assistants, one of his ex-girlfriend’s ex-boyfriends, a poet and an art critic. Despite careful and thorough examination all of these possibilities, the crime remained unsolved.

In November 2004, Theo van Gogh was murdered. As he cycled through the Linnaeusstraat Amsterdam-Oost/Watergraafsmeer, on the way from home to his office, he passed Mohammed Bouyeri, also on a bike and was taken at gunpoint. While he tried to pull away, he was hit by eight bullets. The then 26-year old defender then stuck a knife in Van Gogh’s body, which was confirmed in an open letter to Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the VVD. Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a member of the Parliament. VVD is the liberal political party in The Netherlands. He then put a knife to his chest.

After the assassination, Bouyeri was on the run, but he was soon overtaken by the police. Bouyeri was found guilty of murder with a terrorist intent and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In India, interesting things appeared in the art scene, like Gandhiji’s messages that became the center of conceptual art.

Some Indian myths were painted by prominent artists, like Yayati and Devyani by Ramchandra. His sketches of the tribals of Rajasthan and Assam were meaningful.

Indian auction houses opened in Mumbai and Delhi. In

146___________________________________________________ Mumbai, Pundole Art Gallery entered the auction arena. Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal was established under liberal thoughts, but later became a controversial. Founder members and government authority bodies disputed its activities. New Delhi is an important place to deal in art. School of Vadodara propagated many artists on a national level. Sir J. J. School of Art generated an entire panorama of Indian artists. The value of those paintings has revived and some development has been made to keep contemporary auction prices stable.

In South India, Chennai has its own school founded by KCS Paniker, founder member of the famous Cholamandal Artists’ Village. 2011 celebrated the birth anniversary of KCS Paniker, a doyen among South Indian painters. At Thiruvananthapuram, the Napier Museum opened a room for KCS Panikar’s collection of work.

India’s first global museum of modern art called the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art (KMOMA) is indeed designed to be the first of its kind in Asia. In fact, Kolkata was the cradle of India’s modern age. And as for art, it was an atelier of the earliest modernist experiments in India.

Bhagawad Gita states:

You have a right to perform your prescribed action, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your action.

Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities and never be associated to not doing your duty.

This has always been in my mind and always will be.

Deity, Sculpture, h234xb40xw120cm 1996

Photo of Gallery Zagwine 1988

Contemporary Indian Modern Art and

Artists in Holland

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Contemporary Indian Modern Art and Artists in Holland

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Holland and India are very different in their perspectives on Art. India has shown a very high standard of development in the fine arts, from age to age, dating from as far back as the Stone Age, prehistoric times, through the Tantra period and 8th to 14th century temple architecture. Sculptures of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religious concepts permeate the Indian subcontinent. Mughal architecture and miniature paintings still astound us, during the 16th through the 18th century. Other examples can be found in Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Ajanta-Ellora, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Khajuraho, Hampi, Konark etc.

Holland, on the other hand, experienced its golden age of the fine arts in the 16th and 17th centuries, producing great masters in the world of painting - Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Vermeer, Van Gogh and Mondrian. The modern history of oil colors started in Scheveningen, the seashore village, now part of The Hague. Holland has been trading with India since the 17th century, starting with textiles and spices. As you turn the pages of History, you will come across various fields of exchange, from tea to spices, textiles to labor and antiquities to arts.

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Indian Contemporary Modern Art in Holland may be said to begin in the 1970s. In 1972, Kolkata-born Anju Chaudhuri (born in 1944) came to Amsterdam to set up a studio, after having earned a degree/diploma in Arts at an institute in London. She lived and worked in Amsterdam until 1978 and then moved to Paris. She had exhibited her works in various galleries in Holland, including Seasons Galleries in The Hague, when I came across her in Paris, where gallerist Els Stroetinga introduced us. The exhibition was rather individual but recognition was sure to come her way in the history of Indian Contemporary Modern Art. One who knows Anju’s work can recognise the fresh weather coming through; it has proved itself in the following years in continental Europe, the Scandinavian countries, India and Great Britain. She also participated in Merging Colours, 16 years later in Holland.

1989

The year 1989 was an eventful year for Indian Contemporary Modern Art. In that year, it may have been a coincidence that three separate exhibitions were held in different locations by various organisations. But today, when history is gathering, I would like to draw attention to the exhibitions held in that year:

1. Inventure - Collection by Inventure B. V. Amsterdam, on November 20th, 1989 in the World Trade Center club Amsterdam

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2. Indian Contemporary Art by Gate Foundation, Amsterdam, in co-operation with Castle Arcen, on November 30th, 1989 through January 15th, 1990

3. Encounter / Ontmoeting, Exposition Forum Gallerie Amsterdam, on December 2nd, 1989 at Forum Galerie Amsterdam Each organiser had published a catalogue. In 1989, Indian Contemporary Art was first introduced in Amsterdam by one of the collectors of Indian Modern Art in Holland, with some notes of experts on Indian Contemporary Art and Economics.

The focus was more on economics than culture. Art was seen as a potential profitable product to trade. It was the first attempt to introduce Indian Modern Art in these circumstances, although the reason was also hidden in Indian liberal policy towards the open market. Art itself is a free form of expression, but once it enters economic terms, it becomes systemized and stabilized by the roots of open trade. The Art market is more fragile than any other existing market. In the market economy, artifacts, antiques and crafts have certain monetary values.

Albert Heijn, President, Inventure BV, stated his meaning in the catalogue of 1989: “India has come to my special attention because I reacted to a challenge put forth by Indiaspecialist Dr. Huub Kuijpers to broaden my views concerning contemporary art, not from a distance but in India itself. The resulting discoveries were not limited to art, but extended into the art of business as well. I am strongly convinced that, in the future, these initiatives will also become financially interesting.�

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The then Indian ambassador V. K. Grover noted the same. “I am very happy that Inventure BV is sponsoring a first-ever exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art outside the museum. This attempt to link trade with business is very novel. Bringing out a catalogue on this occasion is also very appropriate.�

There has never been an exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art organised by any prominent museum in Holland, as well as in Europe. I am unable to present a reason, but by living and practicing in Holland and Europe, I have experienced it. The picture is clearly visible but institutions are not there to expose it. What should I say about the system? Existing organisations are working not only on economical marketing but also religious factors and foundations, which are decisive forces in maintaining the importance of economics, while the protection of local bodies’ self-interest makes a difference. Market movers are standing behind the concept of economic gain and art producers are pouring the rain of environmental concern.

The intention of considering Art as a potential trade product, over the following years, became a serious business for Art dealers in India, as well as in foreign countries.

Discerning collectors started to buy paintings through legal channels in India. People who were interested in culture were already travelling throughout India, during the hippie hangover period of the 80s. Jan Hoet, director of the Museum for Contemporary Art, Gent-Belgium and artistic director of the 9th Documenta in Kassel gave his primary reaction on Con-

___________________________________________________155 temporary Indian Art: “I applaud an exhibition that is concerned with the contemporary art of India because the world is bigger than New York, Paris, Milan, Cologne, Tokyo, Gent or Amsterdam. Authenticity is not confined to big names or large institutions. There is more to the world and it is interesting to become familiar with the larger scope of things. The challenge to the contemporary art of India is greater because the grasp the art world has on the dialogue with this art is less secure than that which it has on the contemporary art of Europe.

Indian art is less-known here and has not yet been reviewed by art critics. What is also lacking is the sometimes reassuring quotation of certain artists on the art market. Altogether, these things make the challenge that much greater.�

Educationist Dr. Huub Kuijpers thinks of Art as economic challenge. He said: When we take a detailed look at the present-day segment of art history, we discover at least four different movements.

1. A movement which seeks connections with the classical past;

2. A movement which seeks connections with the rich traditions of folklore;

3. A movement which seeks connections with European traditions; above all, with artists such as Klee, Picasso and Van Gogh. It is worth noticing that there is a total lack of interest in contemporary American artists;

4. A movement which seeks connections with the art of the colonial period.

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The above mentioned four movements may well give an appropriate picture of Contemporary Indian Art. In general, what you see in the galleries and museums of India optimises the art scene, but there are more movements seeking roots, which are very different in context and are not discussed in the West, like the art movements in the East. The mystic development of Indian art and literature is perhaps the most important and influential era. Since the 13th century, most art development has been influenced by this mystic period.

The stronghold of these movements lies across Central Asia, but most of the important poets, such as Kabir, Gnyandev, Namdev, Tulsidas, Tukaram and Mirabai belong to the Indian subcontinent. Their text resources have been inseparable from visual art through centuries. This mystical movement is not mentioned in the Western world. It is a movement after the Classic Period of 8th to 12th century Hinduism and Buddhism.

The outcome of this period was miniature paintings, Geet Govind and Urdu Koran and Parsi hand-painted books. The Academic period started in the middle of the 19th century in India, along with industrial revolution, the so-called Colonial period.

The real influence of European traditions, however, begins one hundred years later, in the mid-20th century. Tribal traditions have always been an inspiration to Indian art. Tantra is an important chapter in art history. The Yantra is a diagram, form or technique of Tantra that most art historians do not accept as an art form.

The American spiritualist influence has taken over the

___________________________________________________157 movement, alongside Russian Constructivism and has spread around the globe. American art came to India as advertising art or applied art. In academics, Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art started operations in the premises of Sir J. J. School of Art in 1935, in Mumbai. Today, most artists practice in various fields and do not belong to any particular academic style or movement. At the beginning of the 20th century, Communism and Socialism inspired most of the intellectual classes in India. It was visible in art, literature and even rural art. Nevertheless, in every period, traditional themes and styles always influenced contemporary art, under revival art movements.

In this context, critics find a new pulse in the modern art of India. Another important fact is that the artist who studied in India and practiced abroad is also playing a major role in the development of Indian Contemporary Modern Art.

In conclusion, Dr. Huub Kuijpers says, “In general, it can be stated that much of contemporary Indian art recalls the symbolism of classic or folk art, but that these symbols are often out of context, playing an exclusively aesthetic or even ironic role. The irony of today can be seen as an unavoidable reaction to the untouchable holiness of the old symbols, strongly emphasised above all by the Bengal School. The respect for the past is now more critical. The past is experimented with and those elements are brought to light, which suit the processes that occupy a certain individual here and now. The past is no longer a panacea, but only one of the many resources available to the contemporary artist.�

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Gate Foundation

The Gate Foundation in Holland arose on the horizon in 1987, when I was laying foundation stones for my own path there. It was making a register of non-Western artists in Holland and I was asked to send documentation to the foundation, so I came into correspondence with them.

Jeroen Baker, treasurer and business manager for the Gate Foundation said, “The exhibition ‘Indian Contemporary Art’ was designed to introduce Indian Contemporary Art to Europe and especially to the Netherlands. Until now, little attention has been paid to non-western countries, although there are hopeful signs in other directions.” In the introduction, Marie Claire Fakkel and Els van der Plas, Dutch fund director, discover Indian Modern Art through historical notes and informed sources. As I went through the text, I came to know the Western views of Indian Modern Art and in contrast, everything from the West. One has to delve into art history deeply to separate rumors from facts, popular from authentic, copy from original. The blind have ‘seen’ the elephant that they have touched! Thirty years ago, what I studied in art history of Indian Modern Art was quite the opposite. Points of view can be different but facts cannot be changed. Opinions could be accepted on discussion grounds, statements could be philosophical, but a fact is a fact.

Both describe the Bengal School as revival. The Bengal School finds significance in its Indian-ness, in Abstract

___________________________________________________159 Tantric Art, Neo-Tantric Art and sculpture. These descriptions raise complexities in the understanding of period and history.

If anyone knows psycho and cosmo evolution and development, then Abstract Tantra and Neo-Tantra would not be any particular style or school. There is no abstraction in Tantra; that way there would be no Tantra. There is no such thing as South Indian Modern Art. There is just one Indian Art. Each state has a language identity, but not a visual difference. Indeed, there seems to be a difference between big cities and rural villages as environments for art. Then why do city people seek inspiration in Nature, in the countryside? There is inter-dependence.

An art historian always keeps his eyes wide open. There is much to mention in innovative approaches. The artists presented in Indian Contemporary Art Exhibitions were professionals in their field of discipline. Josef James, a south Indian art critic, writes his views as a representative of less than thirty percent of literate, urban society. Art, as a whole, does not seek percentage; its appreciation is always minor in any living society - but not in art history. He wrote about art and society, European spectrum of art and its contemporary possibilities.

Encounter/ Ontmoeting

In that very same year, my paintings were exhibited in Amsterdam on a different platform. The late Dutch poet/ writer/critic Adriaan MorriĂŤn is from the seaside town of IJmuiden, but lived most of his life in the cosmopolitan city of Amsterdam. His gentle and sensitive poems have a breath

160___________________________________________________ that transcends geographical boundaries, becoming almost oriental. Similarly, I am a painter from the distant interiors of India, have lived in Bombay and have established myself as an artist in The Hague for many years. Adriaan and I have worked independently on the book and the art exhibition. It was an encounter of the poet’s work with that of the artist, a ‘meeting’ between poet and painter, the West and the Orient, Holland and India.

The Introduction was written by Rob van Tour, who has travelled many times to India with gallerist Els Stroetinga. He was looking from a different angle at Indian literature and the fine arts, together. Holland, Belgium and Denmark were midstage in the appreciation of COBRA art, but the movement was basically in its mature form. In the 1950s and 1960s, the COBRA group became more active, not only in fine arts, but most painters were doubly talented in their profession, so literature and fine arts went together, hand in hand. Rob van Tour felt changes in the air, in the direction of the wind, so the gallery raised its flag in high sea. He wrote, “A combination which only appears to have the ‘new’ element in common… but there is more. What could that be?”

Merging Colours Seven years later, I organised an exhibition and discussion in co-ordination with the Indian Embassy and India-Holland Association, The Netherlands, in Artimediair Gallery and my studio in The Hague.

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Since I live in Holland, I am able to see things that could have happened on a great scale, but have not. Primarily, the introduction of new subjects of interest is always changing, like in culture, climate, economy, travel etc. The business people like to have their hands on import-export; the young generation wants adventurous travel; the art explorer likes to investigate other cultures, artists like to take inspiration from nature, people etc. The idea was that an artist should live in an environment where cultures meet and colours emerge.

Participants were selected with an idea of understanding each others’ culture and involvement in making art. A French national lives in Holland, Indian national in Paris and in The Hague, Dutch national thinks of Indian philosophy and produces artworks… it was a multi-cultural message through art to Neo-Europe.

In the foreword, Mr. I. P. Khosla, Indian Ambassador, said, “Culture is specific to religion and history; to ancient superstition and modern tradition, even to geography, climate, environment, not to mention language and social habits. And cultural output of which artistic expression is an essential and important part, depends on intuition, almost in a Kantian sense; it is particular; it evolves, as Bhaskar Hande says, within the creative mind of a community.”

Ritske de Koningh, former member of Netherlands India Association, as well as a prominent recogniser of Indian Art and ex-coordinator of CODA, Council of Dutch Artist’s

162___________________________________________________ printer in Utrecht described thus, “The status of artists in the West and East has changed over the centuries. In most countries they have had greater freedom to choose the subjects they please. In India, conceptual art and even absolute music - the form of the work that becomes its subject - are known and practiced. European artists nowadays travel to India, not like in the sixties to dream away in colours and smoke, but to discover new ideas, media and subjects for their artistic productions. East and West have merged more than ever before.

Artists who look at life with sensitivity do not reject the jewelry of their cultural identity.”

My meaning is to understand that West/East is not radical or egoistic, but a looking inside-out to expose inner relations on an equal level. What mysteries lay within Europe and Asia should be exposed, time to time and talked about, side by side.

As I mentioned in the catalogue, “I am facing half the globe; India to Europe is a quarter distance of the earth’s circumference. It might be a radius of art, but culturally, it is a long distance that I am trying to reduce in my everyday life.

The process is going on; so the creativity is in my paintings, sculptures, poems and visuals. Differences can be measured in meters and liters; a scale can be laid from India to Holland.

There are always similarities and differences. Culture has its identity and personality with its original qualities that can be seen as you go deep into it. Living in another culture is a ques-

___________________________________________________163 tion of personal interest, broader views, survival and a free mind; how much one observes and reproduces while practicing art. When you meet people, you exchange thoughts. If you are able to ‘see’ things, you are able to communicate with the soul. We seem to be separated culturally, but Europe and Asia have one astronomical roof – the sky, the sun, the moon and the stars are equally distant. Myths about immigration roots form along with evolutionary roots of our own culture. Hence, culture and art have roots in the East and West.”

Different and Unique What has happened that is different and unique in the art scene in Holland during the last but one decade of the 20th century? In 1983, I came to Holland to study arts. In India, I had done a five years diploma in applied art. In practice, it was a job-oriented course for advertising and publishing houses. My specialization was in visualization and illustration, but I liked to practice the fine arts such as painting and other media. With my academic learning, I decided to further study fine arts in India or abroad. I got admission into The Hague and later found I was the first Indian student in the Royal Academy of Visual Arts, The Hague, in its 350 years of history !

I did not come to Holland on scholarship but through my own finances, choice and interest. The Dutch name of the academy is Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten Den Haag. This academy is the third pioneering academy in Europe, after Italy and Spain. When I arrived, there were

164___________________________________________________ differences of opinion on art education programs. In art, one need more handling of medium than any other fine art profession. All teachers were not professional practitioners. Apart from that, the administrative part of art could never understand the student and the art teacher. Art departments were increased in academies that were under pressure of need for subjects. The experts were less experienced in their subjects.

There were more diploma holders and those who had secured higher art education leaving for the job market, for example, in the field of interior design, monumental design and painting, so also in architecture. Painting and sculpture were free professions to practice. In July, 1984, I obtained an HBO diploma in Monumental Design and Painting, under highly challengeable, argumentative circumstances. That was an experience of a chapter of my life that was so strange… but perhaps this is not an appropriate place to discuss it.

Having a diploma in art does not say anything about anyone; one has to prove his creativity, intellectual capacity and productive, creative output. I was then ready to exhibit. I started to work freely without taking on assignments; under a self-imposed discipline which is totally different from assignments in ad agencies.

By 1986, I was showing an album of paintings to galleries in Amsterdam and in The Hague, while simultaneously studying animation and video in the Free Academy in The Hague. In 1987, I became a member of the Artists Association, Arti et Industrea and had my first group show in Arti et

___________________________________________________165 Industrea Gallery, followed by Gallery BHM in The Hague.

Later, Artimediair became a platform for my activities in Holland. ZelfKunst Foundation was taking form under four Dutch art enthusiasts, who, after a middle age crises, were seeking their way to employment, bringing art closer to the common man. Their idea was to make an art cafĂŠ and have close discussions on art, in the corner of Het Paard, the theatre for pop music for the new generation.

On my way to looking for a photographic solution in a graphic job, I entered Prinsgracht 14 in The Hague where Zelfkunst was situated and left only after having an exchange of thoughts and promises for art awareness in the ZelfKunst Foundation. I was seeking an art management team and contacts of art agents and members of the foundation were in search of artists. Within their organisation, there were no artists but some people wanted to become artists or art managers in the future. Since the day I met them, we exchanged many ideas and completed them on a professional level; activities with Zelfkunst, later Artimediair successfully formed my following years. After changing the name of Zelfkunst to Artimediair, the Foundation extended its activities in the field of art publication. An art magazine was published every month and annually, a graphic calendar was printed along with some catalogues of multi-cultural activities. Outside the gallery, the Foundation started to organise exhibitions on a rent basis, in cafes, commercial and government offices. Since 1991, Artimediair has been organising exhibitions for the North Sea Jazz

166___________________________________________________ Festival in the Congescentrum in The Hague and presenting international art to Dutch artists and music lovers. Hundreds of thousands of people view these exhibitions every year.

While consulting, creating and executing ideas, I have been involved in the process of art history itself, as I have often said in my television and press interviews. The new multicultural society is meeting newcomers, immigrants, asylum seekers and travelers.

In 1987, the first group exhibition of recognition came my way when I was struggling to show my work in public. It was ‘Buiten West’ in Museon The Hague for artists who came from Western countries, but their cultural background was not Western. Museon is the educational wing of The Hague Museum. My first breakthrough solo exhibition was by Galerie Zagwijn in January, 1988. The gallery was known for showing Abstract Art in the Nederlands for over 20 years. The exhibition was visited by many interested art lovers and the general public. Because of this exhibition, I received an invitation from Forum Galerie, Amsterdam. In February, 1989, Forum Galerie presented my paintings along with writer Adriaan Morriën’s six new poems in facsimile edition and exhibition catalogue, with introduction by Rob van Tour. Morriën has a great passion for Oriental poetry. The exhibition was inaugurated by Gerben Hellinga, a theatre personality of Amsterdam. This exhibition was seen as a cultural and literary exchange between two countries, two cultures, on an appropriate creative level, as

___________________________________________________167 well as a new dimension in Indian Contemporary Modern Art, which experts in the West see in terms of innovative modern art.

Two World Accents

The German artist, Otto Camphus visited the Artimediair Gallery in 1990. He found my graphics and paintings different and wanted to show them in Germany. But he was not an art agent or gallery owner. So his interest was more to show emerging modern images to German art lovers, critics and the art world. In that direction, we moved forward to organise something advanced. I went to visit Hagen where Otto Comphus lived in suburban Hohen Limburg, West Germany. In the 1990s, East and West Germany became one nation; I witnessed the difference between the two societies.

I, the outsider was inside. East Germans could not adjust with open society immediately, but contrarily, West Germans were comfortable with Neo Europeans. I spent considerable time inside Germany, knowing its turmoil. While touring with Otto, we decided to have exhibitions under the title ‘Two World Accents.’ We started to work out the possibilities: the first exhibition took place in Evangelish Academy Iserlohn, second in The Hague, followed by Lubeck Museum, Theatre Hohenlimburg in Germany and Forum Gallery, Amsterdam. The attempt was to show the public what is unusual in Europe. In the process, we met many nationals such as Russians, Mexicans and East Europeans, although the experience of showing two world was international.

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Your Form is My Creation

Tukaram, the 17th century Marathi poet and saint of India and his abhangs, devotional songs, became my inspiration; to paint, sculpt and work in graphics and other media. In 1990, I was engaged in publishing my first book of poems in Marathi, while holding an exhibition of paintings, which were based on ten selected poems from the same book entitled ‘Dashak’, decade. When the exhibition was over, I went through sentimental turmoil. There was so much change in my life, in circumstance, division in family, changes in parental property. Emotionally, I was discovering myself. I was reading books on India. A critique on ‘Tukaramachi Gatha’ written by Dilip Chitre made me think about the challenges that awaited me. In Dashak, I had painted an image of the God, Vithoba, which still makes me think innovatively and with emotion. That image I visualized for the following poem.

1985, BEING I whispered into the ears of my resettled situation * “Will you move around with me?”

She said, “Don’t go along without me.

Don’t go away forgetting me.”

I said, “Silly! How will I forget you?

You are my mother in a way I become what I become with you like a fish grows in water.

___________________________________________________169

How can I afford to be confused?

How can I forget you just like this?

The pain I suffered while you witnessed.

My eyes saw you.

You made me from myself, the excuse being you ended the ego of myself.”

I whispered into the ears of my settled situation, “See! Today I can think.”

She says, “Think. Think. Think!

Weave your thread into a rope Throw it up into the sky Stand upon your own forehead.

I am only an excuse.

I am witness of the good and the bad.

You are the one who acts.”

I roared into the ears of my settled situation, “Today I stand tall!”

She says, “If you have become wild with desire, come, lick my body!

I am the black soot that gathers when the flame dies.

170___________________________________________________

When you witnessed the divine light, I was the oil lamp that burned.

You walk in your own place by the moon in your destiny.”

I moaned into the ears of my uncertain situation, “See! Your heat has scorched me!

I have been turned into a black Vithoba.

I have come back after drowning my body in the Chandrabhaga river.

I have no more desires left.”

She says, “Sit down on this brick!

Keep your arms akimbo.

Suffer right here the burns of the flames of worship.”

*The original Marathi word for ‘situation’ is feminine.

My Return to Holland

When I came back to Holland, I started to make sketches on the abhangs. It became part of my daily rituals.

A project was taking shape. I started to learn lithography and make black and white images. I discovered, simultaneously, the images of Vithoba were just right for black and white lithographs. A series of fifteen lithographs became one folder in a

___________________________________________________171 collection of eighteen. In the same tempo, I made hundreds of color sketches on abhangs.

During the following years, I painted images in various mediums. This took the shape of 25 oil paintings, 24 acrylic paintings, 24 silkscreens, 10 French Konte drawings, 18 black and white acrylic drawings, 12 pastels, 110 gouaches (work on paper), 15 lithographs and other working drawings. All this, I made in Holland and showed this project to art galleries, art critics and interested intellectuals. The late poet/writer, Leo van der Zalm and Hans Plomp have translated Tukaram’s abhangs into the Dutch language. Between 1993 and 1997, I held several exhibitions of Your Form is My Creation in Europe and India. Bhakti Abhyaspeeth Pune introduced this project to Indian viewers. The Nuffic Organisation gave a subsidy for this project, for showing in other countries. HCBK had given a subsidy for the 1995 show in The Hague.

In an introduction, Dilip Chitre wrote: “Bhaskar Hande’s Your Form is My Creation is a visual arts exhibition with a difference. It is the first large-scale effort by a contemporary artist to respond to traditional Marathi Bhakti poetry. These paintings in various media, graphics in different techniques and models of sculptures conceived on an architectural scale are the response of one modern (or should one say postmodern) artist to one of India’s greatest poets, the Marathi mystic, Tukaram. This exhibition is unique on several other counts, too. Hande was born in Umbraj in the Maval region

172___________________________________________________ not far from Dehu where Tukaram was born. Though born four hundred years apart in time, both share the same native universe. Though Hande has been living in Europe for about thirteen years now, his cultural signature has remained the same. He continues to write excellent poetry in Marathi and his paintings are nourished by visual forms that can be traced back to rural Maharashtra. His sense of color, texture and form is distinctly Indian. In this exhibition, his Indian-ness comes out even at the conceptual and thematic level. Yet Hande’s Indian-ness is not ethnicity worn on the sleeve. It is the very substance of his cultural identity in a multi-cultural global community of artists. It is remarkable that he brings the refreshing force of Tukaram’s poetic vision into his paintings and sculptures, giving them a comprehensive cultural context. Any serious evaluation of these works will have to account for their cultural origin.�

The project Your Form is My Creation is now permanently placed in Pune, near Dehu, birthplace of Tukaram, for public showing. A museum of modern art has been proposed, along with other paintings on the work of other mystical masters in Indian history.

Give and Take

Concept became reality, when I organized an exhibition of young, contemporary Dutch artists in India. Since time immemorial, culture has thrived on artistic give and take. Even going as far back as Mohenjodaro or ancient Egypt, we find

___________________________________________________173 artists traveling to other lands to further develop their art.

We find that the artist has always thrown himself into the tumult of new ideas. The entire history of art spans the rise of diverse cultures. Art history is hidden in the nooks and crannies of cultural traditions and during my stay in Holland, I discovered this was true of not only Indian culture but also the culture of other countries. When archaeological investigations uncovered layers beneath layers of the past, it filled the pages of history. As we read those pages, we see before our eyes, like moving pictures, the images of a society, its customs and their transformation into a cultural tradition. These provoke us to think further. We begin to compare, looking for resemblances, contrasts, differences and equivalences and endlessly discuss them. As we go on exploring these at innumerable levels, we recall, at times, the prayers sung in school, the speeches made about the struggle for freedom at elocution competitions, the glorious careers of freedom-fighters, the teachings of saints, stories from history and mythology, schools of philosophy and ideology and so on. At the same time, one sees that in the countries of Europe, there are tourists and students who undertake long journeys in order to see different cultures for themselves. They make efforts to understand other cultures and to extend their own knowledge. They try to study the finer aspects of different cultures.

The present experiment was conceived while exchanging ideas on Indian democracy and fifty years of independent India with contemporary fellow-artists. Out of these discussions emerged some concrete ideas: enabling young artists from

174___________________________________________________ Holland to work in Pune for a period of two months, during which they would interact with young artists there and discuss topics of mutual interest and similarly, to arrange an exhibition of artists from Pune, in Holland. In the last decade of the twentieth century, the work of Indian artists is being regularly exhibited in Europe and cultural exchange is increasingly taking place. There is economic give and take and there is inter-personal give and take. These signs indicate that in the twenty-first century, Europe and India will come even closer.

This has been a significant decade for trade. In terms of cultural exchange, too, progress is being made. We find convincing proof of this looking at the work of contemporary artists.

In this process of artistic give and take, emphasis is on the younger generation because they play a vital role in any such exchange. Most of the artists in this project are in their thirties. Only such artists have been selected who, after completing their academic training in four or five years, have accepted the challenge of an uncertain future and committed themselves to the profession of being artists, painters, sculptors. They have dedicated their life to art. Their selection has been made with care, bearing these points in mind. Artists from India were also selected with the same criteria in mind.

The only exception is Dilip Chitre, who was born before India became independent. He has experienced the full period of fifty years since independence. In his work, poetry as well as painting, all these five decades are fully reflected. Things

___________________________________________________175 that emerge in discussions with him provide guidelines to the new generation and in particular, to the young artist of today.

The rationale of this experiment is that if young artists travel abroad, they are able to see their own culture through the eyes of other people. Even before this happens, as they experience an unfamiliar world, they may face critical incidents, events; the experience they go through moulds them differently. Since the Middle Ages in European History, Holland has had a glorious tradition of painting. India has a rich heritage in all the fine arts. For the last some years, I have been living in Holland myself. I studied European Art for two years and obtained a diploma. Each one of the past 30 years, I have spent four to five months in India. This being my profession, I love to exhibit my work in different countries. I have taken steps in that direction with some definite ideas that have turned into the right decisions for me. Exhibitions had to be planned so that they would not be similar. One must make one’s own experience available to others; introduce one’s culture to younger people. One must unravel one’s own tradition to others. In such a process, one has to constantly swim among currents of changing thought.

Foundation for Indian Artists

1985 and the following years were encouraging for an Indian artist whose works were bought by former Dutch ambassador, Mrs. Eegje Schoo. In her term as ambassador, she had made a collection of Indian contemporary paintings, prints

176___________________________________________________ and work on paper and after finishing her term, took them over to Holland where she put this collection on show in Arnhem Museum. Simultaneously, she opened Schoo’s Gallery in Amsterdam to show the collection and those artists’ recent work, whose paintings were in her collection. The gallery later changed name to Foundation for Indian Artists where prominent Indian contemporary artists have exhibited their works.

Indian artists in Gerit Rietveld Academy of Holland

In1990, academies in the Netherlands started giving scholarships to Indian nationals. This change occurred as part of an exchange program. Since then, Indian artists have been applying to Rijksacademy in Amsterdam, for the artist in residence course. Selected artists/ sculptors, visual artists can stay and work in the academy. Financial support is given to them to develop their creativity as professionals. Ashok Bhadra, Atul Jog, Monali Meher, Sachin Karne and others have taken advantage of this opportunity.

The Hindustani in Dutch culture

As I decided to study abroad, I first thought about the language. I would not be able to use Indian languages and I could not speak English very well. I would have to learn another language, but when I arrived in The Hague and asked the tram-driver my address, he started to speak in Surinami Hindi.

I was really surprised. On my first day at the academy in The Hague, I met Mr. Rashid Jahangir who was in administration.

He came to meet me in the corridor where I would often

___________________________________________________177 stand gazing outside, during my first winter. He gave me the address of Eekta Bhavan, the first cultural centre in Holland for the Hindustani of Surinam. As I came in contact with this centre, I introduced myself as a Bombay artist. In subsequent years, many projects were executed for this centre and in the process of knowing these people, I became one of them and expanded my view of being of Indian origin.

I had started teaching Sanskrit at the first Hindi school in Rammandir at Delftslaan in The Hague. I had designed and produced, for Eekta Bhavan, the first public awareness exhibition of Kijken Naar Elkaar (Looking at Each Other) in 1983. It was inaugurated by a minister of that time. Theatre backdrops were painted in Bombay and brought to Holland in 1984 for Hindustani dramas and theatre. Exhibition stands were designed and fabricated for Stichting for Surinamers, the same year. In 1988, I designed the corporate identity (logo, letterhead etc) for SvS, HIMOS. The 105th year of Remembrance Day of Immigration was celebrated by the distribution of small statues designed by me.

There were more assignments that I executed for the Hindustani community. Simultaneously, the awareness for art was growing in Hindustani people. Some students joined arts academies to study arts. Surender Kisoentewari is one of the first students who submitted end examination script (tutorial) in 1985 on ‘The Interaction between Western and Non-Western Arts.’ In 1989 - 1990, I organised an exhibition

178___________________________________________________ for the Coloured Festival, where I showed some coloured artists, who originally came from Surinam. By the end of the 20th century, many Hindustani students passed examinations in various academies in Holland, but their primary interest always remained the Hindi culture and Indian heritage.

Gem, Den Haag

Since 1992 Indian economy became liberal; many changes accured in various sectors of political, economical and culturally also. In art as I mentioned first attempt in 1989 was recognisable and appropriate attempt. But it took more than 18 years to see Indian Modern art in the Museums of The Netherlands. ones I asked Indian painter Macbull Fida Husian, on request of Mr. Ramlal former Member of Parlment in the Netherlands, for his availablity to have one man show in Holland. Husian told me that I should contact his gallery in Delhi. But he was not interested himself to have an exhibition because of his high age. I could not follow up because of my other programs. In 2009 there was good exhibition of Indian artists in GEM Den Haag. Jitin Kallat, Sudarshan Shetty and Riyas Komu works was exhibited. That was the first large scale attempt to show Indian Contemporary art in Holland.

28 Mar 2009 t/m 21 Jun 2009

In India Contemporary, GEM exposed the work of three leading Indian artists and became the first Dutch museum ever to offer a clear picture of the current state of contemporary Indian art. Jitish Kallat (b. 1975), Riyas Komu (b.

___________________________________________________179 1971) and Sudarshan Shetty (b. 1961) exhibit not only recent installations and paintings, but also works made especially for this exhibition. The three are members of a generation of artists who bridge east and west, looking both to the old and the new world. Their visual idioms draw on western art movements like Surrealism, Pop Art and Social Realism but the intelligent use they make of the best elements of the two different cultures makes their work innovative and refreshing.

Gandhi centre

Government of Republic India has opened new cultural Centre in the Hague, The Netherlands. Mahatma Gandhi was honoured in the Netherlands in a special way through opening of an Indian Cultural Centre named “Gandhi Centre” on the occasion of his birth anniversary on 2nd October 2011.

Gandhi Centre was inaugurated by H.E. Dr. Karan Singh, MP and President of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in the presence of H.E. Mr. Jozias van Aartsen, Hon’ble Mayor of The Hague and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. The opening of the Centre fulfills the long standing aspirations of the 200,000 Indian and Surinami Hindustani community in the Netherlands.

180___________________________________________________ References: Universal Declaration of Human Rights United Nations 1947; Says Tuka 1990, Publisher: Penguin India.Author: Dilip Chitre, Mahatma Gandhi: Translations of Sant Tukaram and Narsi Mehta; Segments of Panninian Grammer Sahitya Academy New Delhi; Ethica Baruch Spinoza English and Dutch version; The Non-Objective World: The Manifesto of Suprematism; Kasimir Malevich Online version: Malevich, Kazimir Severinovich, 1878-1935.

Non-objective world. Chicago, P. Theobald [c1959]; Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution 1789–1799, 2 vol. (1985); Beuys in Caroline Tisdall: Joseph Beuys (Guggenheim, 1979); India Contemporary 2009 published by Uitgeverij d’Jonge Hond); Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965; The Kingdom of God is Witheen you Leo Tolstoy Cassell Publishing, New York; A letter to a Hindu Produced by Chetan Jain, and David Widger; http://slavepianos.org; https://www.rijksmuseum.nl; Britanica Encyclopedia; www.wikipedia.org;

___________________________________________________181 Illustrations:_ 01 Coverpage

Fragment of Oilpainting 2006, 30x45cm, oil on canvas;

02 Back CP

Oilpainting, 2000, 85x60cm, oil on canvas;

03 page 6

Oilpainting, 2001 85x60cm, oil on canvas;

04 Page 8-9

Study Tour 1979, Gouach 50x70cm, on paper, India;

05 Page 22

Varkari, drawing 2009 57x77cm, pencil on paper;

06 Page 23

Dutch Parliment, drawing 1996 30x40cm, pencil on paper;

07 Page 36-37

Photo 2009, Pilgrimage to Pandharpur, Dive Ghat;

08 Page 53

Dandi March photo 1930;

09 Page 54-55

Silver screen with Gandhiji, oil on canvas 2006

10 Page 66-67

Drawings 1990, Mix Media;

11 Page 72-73

Photocollage of participants SYH;

12 Page 86-87

Photo of ringen in Palkhisohala 2008;

13 Page 88-89

Photo of ringen in Palkhisohala 2012 ;

14 Page 97

Photo of ringen in Palkhisohala 2012 ;

15 Page 98-99

Digital Print 100x70cm, 2011 ;

16 Page 114-115 Photo KABK 1984 End Examination the Hague;

Insert painting 2004, 100x100cm oil on canvas;

17 Page 128

Measured Nature, A Black Substance, 20x30cm, 2004;

18 Page 129

End Examination 1984, Oil on Paper 140x95cm;

19 Page 130-131 Photograph Scheveningen The Hague 2011; 20 Page 147

Deity, Sculpture, h234xb40xw120cm 1996 The Hague;

21 Page 148-149 Photo of Gallery Zagwine, the Hague 1988; 22 Page 186-187 Painting, Acrylic on canvas 2010, size 175 cm x 240 cm; 23 Page 188

Drawing on paper 1986, size 90cm x 70cm ;

24 Page 189

AQ ink on Canvas 2011, 160cm x 100cm ;

25 Back cover Fragment of Oilpainting2006, 30x45cm, oil on canvas;

Insert, photo Bhaskar Hande.

182___________________________________________________ BIOGRAPHY: Bhaskar Hande 1957 Born in Umbraj, Dist. Pune, state Maharashtra,India; 1974 Came to Bombay, worked as banner painter in film industry; 1976-81 Studied at Sir J.J.institute of Applied Art Mumbai, India;

obtained G.D.ARTS diploma.in applied art; 1979 Forth prize Maharashtra state competation; 1981 Second prize Maharashtra state competation; 1982 Went to the Netherlands for post graduation; 1982-84 Studied at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts the Hague, NL.

Obtained diploma in Monumental Painting and Design; 1985-87 Studied animation and video at the Free Academy of

Visual Arts the Hague, NL; 1987 Since than working as independent fine artist in

The Nederlands and India.

EXHIBITIONS: One man shows 67 in Europe and India Group shows 125 around world PARTICIPATION IN BIENNALE AND TRIENNALE. 2010 8ème MONDIAL de l’ESTAMPE et de la Gravure originale

Triennale de Chamalières France 9 octobre – 27 novembre 2011 MEDJUNARODNO TRIJENALE GRAFIKE

First International Print Triennale ULUS Belgrado, Serbia; 2013 MOHOR, First Pune Binniale Pune, India.

___________________________________________________183 FACIMILLE 1 Keleido 1990 presented by Forum Gallery in Grand Palais, Paris; 2 Folio 1992, Artimediar Gallery, The Hague; 3 Dashak 1990 (Decade) Marathi 10 illustrated poems Mumbai; 4 10 years in Holland 1983-93, 4 Lithographs, Text in graphicmap

Inkt , The Hague, NL; 5 Wat Bescheidener en stiller is ook goed 1998, 2 silkscreen and

short story Mindert Warre (Ritske de koningh) Utrecht, NL. BOOKS 1989 1 Encounter/Ontmoeting Forum/GTP Amsterdam, NL ;

English/Nederlands Catalogue and poetry, Poet Adriaan MorriĂŤn 1990 2 DASHAK Bapu Nasik, IND Marathi poetry 1995 3 Your form is my creation, Vaishwik Pune,IND Marathi/English

Artbook/catalogue Text Dilip Chitre /Dr.Sadanand More; 1995 4 Budala Gaon Gaon Budala Bapu Nashik,IND Marathi poetry; 1996 5 Merging Colours Warre fine arts English catalogue Artimediar

The Hague, NL; 1996 6 Your Form is My Creation Century Union, The Hague NL

Hindi/English artbook/catalogue; 1997 7 Holland-India Give and take in art 1, Marathi/Nederlands art book/catalogue;

8 Prints by Bhaskar Hande Century union The Hague, NL

English/Nederlands part one; 1999 9 BHASKAR1999 Gallery Blackheath London,UK English artbook/catalogue; 2001 10 Holland-Europe Give and take in art 2 Vaishwik Pune, IND

Marathi / Nederlands artbook/catalogue; 11 Tirast Manera Vaishwik Pune, IND Marathi poetry; 12 Encounter with International artist Stg. IHK The Hague, NL;

184___________________________________________________ 2006 13 Colour Saga Exhibition catalogue Fabs Warsaw, Poland; 2008 14 Show Your Hope Vaishwik/Artimediair The Hague Holland 15 Drawings of Palakhisohala Vaishwik Pune, India.

2009 16 325 years Dehu- Alandi to Pandharpure Palkhisohala

Vaishwik Pune, India; 17 A Black Substance Artimediair The Hague, Holland; 2011 18 Kale Tatva (Marathi) publisher Akshar Manav Pune, India; 2013 19 Liberal Pursuits in Arts and Philosophy English and Dutch

(synopsis) Foundation Public Art Amsterdam, and vaishwik Pune India.

PAINTINGS GRAPHIC AND SCULPTURES IN CORPORATE COLLECTION 01 Motorola Bombay, Mumbai, IND; 02 Motorola Banglore, Banglore, IND; 03 Tangerine Computar, Mumbai, IND; 04 Baan Infotec India Haidrabad, IND ; 05 Cotten Corporation of India, Mumbai, IND; 06 Housing Devlopment and finance Corporation, Mumbai, IND; 07 Uday Joshi and associate Architects, Mumbai, IND; 08 Klaus Berning Architect, Iserlohn, GER; 09 Stichting Fonds voor Bouwnijverheid, Amsterdam, NL; 10 Stichting Surinamse Regionaal Steunpunt, The Hague, NL; 11 Artotheek Den Haag, The Hague, NL; 12 Gemeente Den Haag, The Hague, NL; 13 Artotheek Schiedam, Schiedam, NL; 14 Gemeente Groningen, Groningen, NL; 15 Foundation Buitenband, The Hague, NL; 16 Warre Fine Art, Utrecht, NL;

___________________________________________________185 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

Stichting Lalaroekh, Utrecht, NL; Stichting Federatie Eekta, The Hague, NL; Stichting voor Surinamers, The Hague, NL; Stichting Kunstwerk, Utrecht, NL; Kunstuitleen Vianen, Vianen, NL; Galerie Hoogenbosch, Gorredijk, NL; Galerie Het Dijkstoelhuis, Wageningen, NL ; Inventer, B.V. Amsterdam, NL; Stichting 1940-45, Amsterdam, NL; Hotel Motel Surya, Nashik, IND; Sampression Communication, The Hague, NL; Datamatic Limited, Mumbai, IND; Artotheek Breda, Breda, NL; FAXX Kunstuitleen, Tilburg, NL; Artbank, The Hague, NL; Kunstuitleen Regio Helmond, Helmond, NL; Artotheek 18, Bergen op Zoom & Roosendaal, NL; Kunstuitleen Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, NL; Stichting Organisatie Hindoe Media, Hilversum, NL; Industrial Training Institute, Aundh Pune, IND; Kanbay Software India Pvt. Ltd. Pune, India; Clover Housing Dev. Pvt. Ltd. Pune, India; Metaphore Architects, Pune, India; Blackheath Gallery 1997, till 2007 London, UK; Y. C. Maharashtra Open University, Nasik, IND; Arquiteto Bureau Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Gallery Hogenbosch Gorredijke NL.

Painting, Acrylic on canvas 2010, size 175 cm x 240 cm

Drawing on paper 1986, size 100cm x 70cm

AQ ink on Canvas 2011, 160cm x 100cm

Bhaskar Hande ‘s cultural signature has remained the same.

Apart from his development Hande thinks day to day life, living and working in another country and culture than where he grew up. This process gives

him creative impulses; every year he lives a couple of months in

India, vice versa in Europe. He exhibits in India and in Europe.

The change in surrounding keeps

his thoughts constant in process.

His works represent meditative

fall of his merging colours and changing environments. The

colours become brighter , forms are clear than ever and words are more mysteries.

Foundation for Public Art Amsterdam