A collection of over 300 artworks by curator Smriti Rajgarhiya-Bhatt explores the female form as perceived by the artists spanning from the pre-Independence to the post-Independence era. By Divya Kaushik
She stands as a portrait of strength, love, pride and devotion. More than the beauty that is marked by her distinctive features and well-sculpted body, it is the emotions depicted through her eyes that make the painting stand out. like this, there are many paintings, photographs and portraits displayed at Swaraj Archive. The exhibition titled Stree presents a broad range of over 300 works that explore the female form as perceived by both male and female artists spanning from the pre-Independence to the post-Independence era. But the differentiating factor here is that the collection is not categorised as per the artists or in the chronological manner, the works are divided in five segments that describe different emotions — harmony, love, pride, devotion and acquiescence.
The collection throws light on the stylistic differences in artists’ expression conveyed by the female form. From Kalighat painters to Arpana Caur, the collection has works by over 100 artists but you would not find the names of these artists alongside the displayed paintings. “This is done on purpose as when you see the work, you first notice the name and then the viewers attach certain values to the painting or they view the artwork with a certain perspective. We did not want that. We wanted people to focus on the emotions highlighted in the paintings. It was a laborious process to select the artworks for the exhibition and when we selected the works we did not have any concept but then we realised that almost 70 per cent of the selected work was based on women.
Happy women, angry women, groups of women — some crying, some smiling and others gazing into oblivion. It is one of the most prominent subjects of Indian art, as the woman has held her place in our culture and history in many forms. We decided to classify the collection as per emotions as in different paintings and portraits, it was emotions, expressed in varied styles, that caught the attention,” says Smriti Rajgarhiya-Bhatt, the curator of the exhibition. Smriti gives an example of a drawing by Nandalal Bose that depicts devotion through a drawing of a Durga in black on a beige sheet.
“You look at the painting and you know that the artist wants to talk about devotion here. Similarly there is a work by B Vithal which shows a silhouette of a lady. The moment you look at it you know it is a deity. So one of the objectives of the exhibition is to highlight the varied styles in which these masters depicted different moods of a woman. There is a word that modern Greeks often use to describe doing something with soul, creativity or love — when you put ‘something of yourself’ into what you’re doing. It is called meraki. Every artist possesses an individual artistic sensibility which, when driven by raw emotion, truly manifests into his creation, affecting the form, composition and its dialogue with the observer,” adds Smriti.
The show provides a visual comparative of the iconography associated with each emotion, showcasing the depth of Indian art from the 1850’s till now. “One would notice that while in the early period the paintings looked more like an exact portrait, during the later years, with the advent of photography, artists began to explore more abstract forms,” says Smriti.