Modernist PRODOSH DAS GUPTA deals with the human form, specifically in terms of insight and intuitive reasoning, says Uma Nair
To be trained at the Madras School of Arts under the eagle eye of Devi Prasad Chaudhury is for the fortune’s favoured few. To be former director and curator of the National Gallery of Modern Art is a designation of envy and art history. To be a sculptor, who had the opportunity to study and sculpt in London as well as Paris, is a lesson in learning and leaning.
Art lovers, sculptors and artists can view at least 23 sculptures by Prodosh Das Gupta at Akar Prakar Contemporary in Delhi. Among the many small sculptures (1947-1991) lie lessons of beauty for modern day artists and sculptors in dealing with the human form, specifically in terms of insight and intuitive reasoning.
Indian modernists
Let us go back to the post-Independence days when Indian artists were seeking fresh insight into idioms that were built on the foundations of British and Western grammar and techniques but were hungry for a new language. Das Gupta began with European echoes. But when we look closely, he slowly pared down dogmas and started creating works that celebrated the simplicity of contours. He harnessed his imagery with a feminine fervour amid a love and passion for what he created.
As an Indian modernist, Das Gupta imbibed a lot of Western styles – classical realism, cubism, primitivism and abstraction. But because of the cultural context of the Indian sub-continent, he began to draw on Indian mythology and history. This is evident in works like Pounding Corn and Surya Mukhi. In Sun Worshippers, he blended his innate spirituality with accents of the modernist Constantin Brancusi, enriching his sculptures with neat contours and minimalism. The Indian art world had not seen the likes of his works.
Influence of European Masters
While there is a lot of Henry Moore, who brought about a humanist tradition in sculpture with his series of reclining nudes, we can also see a Rodinesque resonance in two pieces. But it is the evocative elegance of Egg Bride and Unfolding Spring that are a critic’s delight. In both these works, Das Gupta advocates a certain responsiveness. In Bride, we sense a longing for the shadows in the overlay of the ovoid and its sliced entendre. In Unfolding Spring, it’s the elegance of abandon and the sinuous curves that speak to us about his admiration and reverence for the female figure. He knows very well that a sculptor must balance the will to expose as well as the will to be sensitive while dealing with the feminine form.
When you see the many female forms in this exhibition, they seem tactile and palpable. Their lines are fluid and there is a profound understanding of vulnerability. There is an inherent balance of looking within and without which doesn’t hurt the human sentiment.
Fusion of trends
It is important to ponder over Das Gupta’s own writings to understand his viewpoint and his brilliance as a diarist of art history and sculptural jottings.
“When we look back into our own history of sculptural culture, it becomes quite evident that gradually there has been fusion between the different regional trends, a mixing of the artistic concepts in the formal as well as technical applications t build up the images. The Greco Buddhist fusion was no doubt the starting point in the history of our sculptural manifestations running through the ages. It took time to assimilate the Greek influence into our own indigenous concepts and finally when we see its fulfillment in the stupendous works of sculpture in the Kushan period of Mathura, we realise how a work of art can be developed and enriched with proper understanding and careful handling of the methods and material without surrendering to abject imitation.
“This fusion to my mind has been there throughout the ages and indeed this process is inevitable and most welcome to renovate periodically the indigenous arts to instill into them a fresh breath of life. In this vast world, nothing can remain absolutely pure in its indigenous approach. Mixing and intermixing has always been there from time immemorial. Civilisation today is a variegated phenomenon like the colours of the artist’s palette. It is futile to search for the lily-white purity there.”
Lucid drawings
The drawings on the walls at Akar Prakar talk to us about time and space, memory and mood. Feminine curves align themselves with the space that surrounds them. Das Gupta’s drawings on newspaper are a lesson for students of arts colleges. The equilibrium between a simple interior and an elusive exterior informs his drawings.
A sculptor can be gregarious like Picasso or gently private like Brancusi and this is where the deeper rhythms of Das Gupta’s sensibility lies. The feminine body is there before you, there’s nothing to hide but how you translate the feminine form into a modernist mould will live and speak long after you made it. This is what signifies your stance and temperament as a sculptor. Translating Modernism is about understanding the rudiments of realism and abstraction before settling into the niche of the true modernist.
(The show runs till March 28.)