Art
Celebrating Vamona The artist is known to have had his creative imprint well established across three continents. His contribution to art needs to have a wider acceptance across Goa
NAGUESH RAO SARDESSAI
D
rawing is taking a line for a walk, said Paul Klee. Vamona Ganesh Navelcar does exactly
that. Vamona takes the line for a walk and it is interesting to see the mark that he leaves all over the paper. Sometimes these lines are evocative at other times they are just blobs expressing the language of his soul. The artist has come a long way from the days he surreptitiously painted on the reverse of the calendar to avoid detection. Hailing from the picturesque village of Pomburpa in Bardez, Vamona has traversed a whole lot of nations to enrich himself with the wealth of knowledge and experience. Living legend: I refer to him as the Bhishm Pitamah (grand old man) of Goan Art. Vamona is reticent and sage-like reclusive. Left alone, he would revel in sketching and painting. Understanding the dynamics of the market, working on public relation niceties and applying economic formulas and prudence of the art world, is libelous and unknown to him. A very rare artist who loathes the limelight, he received the tangible push required to venture into the world of art from the legendary businessperson, late Vishwasrao Chowgule and encouragement from Governor-General of Goa, General Paul Bernardo Guedes. “The place where I worked for the first time turned the pages of my life to a bettter 36 | My Goa | July 2021
Vamona Navelcar
future,” says Vamona with nostalgic glee. Cut to Portugal: Here, he graduated from Lisbon’s Escola Superior de Belas Artes and began teaching art. Vamona had a brush with the Portuguese government over the signing of a petition against Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, prior to the liberation of Goa, in the year 1961. This cost him the much needed scholarship due to which he had to rework his plans. Since Mozambique then was a Portuguese colony, Vamona was deputed as a teacher at the Lyceum
there, where he had another round of brush with the fate. The locals at a remote forest at Imala held Vamona hostage, along with some of his teacher colleagues and students. Bold and fearless, Vamona single handedly dealt with the situation and negotiated their release. Vamona’s tryst with destiny seemed to remain unending. He once again found himself at the crossroads with huge chunk of his works – over thousand paintings, prized photographs, entire bunch of certificates and nearly hundred prizes – packed in a baggage lost in transit during his return to Portugal from
