Sunita Kumar’s India
A letter from MF Husain to Sunita at the time of her Mumbai Show, 2009
SUNITA KUMAR’S India
MALLETT LONDON 2012
Sunita Kumar by Mick Brown
Working in the cool quietude of her home in Calcutta - an oasis of serenity in the midst of the bustle and chaos of that most vibrantly thrilling city - Sunita brings to life the sights and atmosphere of her India: its flora and fauna, its street-scenes and architecture, its spiritual motifs - and the life of the Albanian nun who made India her home - Mother Teresa, Sunita’s friend and inspiration, and the subject of so many of her paintings over the years. If painting is a mirror of temperament, then what we see in these works is a mind at once engaged, amused, meditative and serene. The daughter of the managing-director of an English paint company, Sunita Kumar was born in Lahore in 1942, but the family fled at the time of Partition, when she was five, and she grew up in Calcutta. Although her parents were Sikh, like many middleclass Indians they chose to have their daughter educated at a Catholic school Loreto House. Sunita had always enjoyed art as a child, but it was her close relationship with Mother Teresa that would encourage her to begin painting in earnest. For 35 years, Sunita worked as a volunteer at the Mother House, becoming
Golden Temple 30 x 30 in
Mother Teresa’s confidante, and her official spokesperson, the intermediary between Mother and the world of bureaucracy and officialdom. In turn, Mother, and the various aspects of her life and work became Sunita’s favourite subject. Towards the end of her life, Mother would come regularly to Sunita’s home, to sit on the sofa and talk and appraise her work, encouraging her to paint the various projects of the Missionaries of Charity. ‘She would say: you must paint the Home for the Dying, you must paint the children. And she would sign the pictures - she signed so many which I gave to members of my family - I didn’t want to sell them. And she never made any criticism, not one! She was very kind like that.’ Mother would exert a more subtle influence through her example. What Sunita remembers as ‘her gentleness, the calm of her life’, would impress itself indelibly on Sunita, and find a visual expression in her work. Another significant figure in Sunita’s development as a painter was her close friend, and India’s most famous artist, MF Husain. Fittingly, she remembers, ‘the friendship began with a painting’. Husain
was a great tennis fan, and Sunita’s husband, Naresh Kumar, was a great tennis player - a former captain of India’s Davis Cup team, he played in 20 consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1949 and 1969. One day Sunita and Husain found themselves sitting next to each other at the National championships in Delhi, and struck up a conversation. ‘Vijay Amritraj was playing the Australian Mal Anderson’, Sunita remembers. ‘It was two sets all, and Husain said, if Vijay wins, I give you one of my paintings; and if Mal Anderson wins, you give me one of yours.’ And who won the game? Sunita laughs. ‘Vijay, of course! And I won the painting!’ It was the first in what would become an extensive collection of Husain’s paintings; and the beginning of a deep friendship that lasted until Husain’s death in 2011 at the age of 95. Husain, Sunita says, was unstinting in his advice and his encouragement, and the two artists frequently exhibited together. This new collection of paintings explores a number of familiar themes in Sunita’s paintings, not least the abiding inspiration of Mother Teresa, as well a number of new ones, and mixes a traditional figurative style with an altogether freerer hand. They
display an evolution of her style, a greater spontaneity, stylistic expression, freedom and ease, as if she is less tied to painting what is actually in front of her than to the feelings it inspires. In her landscapes, trees shimmer in blues, oranges and pinks. There are stately studies of Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi and the Raj Bhavan in Calcutta, ghosts of India’s Moghul and British colonial past. Other paintings reflect the growing inspiration of India’s rich spiritual tradition. There are portraits of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, and of Shirdi Sai Baba, the great saint of Southern India. Kali, the goddess of time and change is depicted presiding over the great temple in her name in Calcutta,
Cows 24 x 24 in
while a study of Krishna reflects the story of the battle between Krishna and Indra, the deity of thunder and rain, when Krishna lifted Mount Govardhan and held it up as protection to his people and cattle from the rain. Indra finally accepted defeat and recognized Krishna as supreme. But the abiding spirit of this collection is Mother Teresa. ‘I always come back to her, because of my fondness for her and having been so close to her. She is still very, very special to me.’ Here are myriad reflections of Mother’s work and life; Mother and her nuns are shown as a blur of white robes as they go about their work on behalf of the poor and dispossessed. The train to Darjeeling, on which she was travelling when she first heard God’s instruction to start her Order, is depicted in the blue and white colours which became her symbol. In the Home for the Dying (Nirmal Hriday opposite), flowers blossom as symbols of love in the midst of suffering. There is also the room in the Mother House where she lived and worked - little more than a cell, furnished only with a bed, a wooden desk and a stool, the used tins in which she used to store all her correspondence and papers, arranged along the window-sill. Here is
Sunita Kumar’s India in all its warmth, diversity and vibrancy - its lightness of touch and serenity of spirit. ‘Painting to me is total peace’, Sunita says. ‘That’s the way I
feel when I’m working; I’m enjoying it, I’m happy. And I hope these paintings bring peace and happiness to others.’
Nirmal Hriday 30 x 30 in
Qutub Minar 24 x 24 in
Shirdi Sai Baba 24 x 24 in
‘Just when you thought that the paintings of Sunita Kumar could not be bettered, she produces another exhibition that blows you away. Sunita as always conveys a peace and calm, but her colours are warm and happy. I especially love her animals, and this time am drawn to an Elephant, whereas at the last exhibition it was a very knowing Monkey that stole my heart. Somehow the way she intimates an atmosphere without over-working it is magic for me, and means that you can look for ever with immense pleasure at her work.’ Nina Campbell
Rose 48 x 24 in
Royal Elephant 40 x 30 in
Hutments 30 x 60 in
Blue Trees 30 x 40 in
‘I have known Sunita for over 20 years and have always loved her and her work. She exudes an amazing combination of peace and creativity, in both her life and her work. I love her playful yet deeply spiritual paintings; her bright colours are straight from her home country and, over the years, she has developed many new and different techniques. Sunita’s art transports you to another world of peace, harmony, laughter and love. I am the proud owner of a beautiful painting of Ganesh. He cheers me up and keeps my home and family lucky.’ Jerry Hall
Butterfly 24 x 30 in
Landscape (Blue) 30 x 60 in
‘In the midst of all the technical bravado and dazzle of art events, a painter serene in her presence and subtle in her rendering of images in colour and line, whispers in your ears the mother Teresa’s love for motherless children, the sound of singing birds, plants and the beat of human compassion. That serene and silent painter is Sunita Kumar.’ MF Husain (1915-2011)
Mother’s Room 48 x 24 in
Courtyard 36 x 24 in
Gul Mohur 36 x 30 in
Indian Laburnum 30 x 30 in
Moghul Gali 24 x 24 in
Kali Temple 36 x 24 in
Monkeys 24 x 24 in
Avenue of Trees 36 x 30 in
S U N I TA K U M A R ’ S I n d i a 1st -10th November 2012 Mallett Ely House 37 Dover Street London W1S 4NJ Opening times : Weekdays : 10am-5pm Saturdays : 10am-4pm or by appointment For further information : Katie Pertwee 07939 155 277 katie@katiepertwee.com Gina Hamilton 020 7499 7411 ghamilton@mallettantiques.com www.mallettantiques.com Front cover : Krishna 30 x 30 in Back cover : Tea Gardens 36 x 36 in All paintings are acrylic on canvas
Typeset in Gill and Minion Designed & Printed by Anderson Printing House info@andersonindia.com
MALLETT LONDON • NEW YORK
MALLETT LONDON • NEW YORK