The Hindu : Karnataka News : A forgotten painter of yesteryear

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

A forgotten painter of yesteryear

By T.V. Sivanandan

GULBARGA, JUNE 8. Shankar Rao Alandkar, a pioneer in fine arts, is a forgotten man today. He was a teacher in fine arts, and well-known painters such as S.M. Pandit, Vidyabhushan and Kumar Chandrasekhar were his students.

Preparations were not made to celebrate his 99th birthday on May 7. No step has been taken to celebrate his birth centenary. Alandkar, who died in 1971, was instrumental in opening a department of fine arts in the region at Nutan Vidyala School and was its principal for some time.

A student of J.J. School of Arts in Mumbai, Alandkar had to return to Gulbarga without competing his diploma because of problems at home. He, however, completed his diploma when he was 35 and obtained a certificate from the famous school. An ardent follower of Rabindranath Tagore, Alandkar brought out a series, titled "Gurudev in my vision,'' projecting Tagore in different moods. The work is even today considered a masterpiece. Though Alandkar did not visit Shantiniketan, he brought out its ideal settings in his work.

His works on Tagore were prefaced by Sarojini Naidu and won appreciation from Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Vinoba Bhave.

Vinoba Bhave's gift of a copy of the Bhagawad Gita inspired Alandkar to paint 22 sketches on it. They included scenes depicting Kurukshetra. However, he could not realise his dream of bringing out a full series of paintings on the Gita. Described as a "Karmayogi'' by his students and fellow painters, Alandkar's 400 ink sketches, collectively titled "Chiselled poems of India," representing the glory of ancient Indian culture, was one of his most prestigious projects. Unfortunately, nobody came forward to publish it. Even the World Literary Conference of the U.S., which took the work from the painter with a promise to publish it, never published it or returned it. His work "Glorious Asaf Jha'' depicting the life of the Nizam of Hyderabad State, won accolades from the Nizam's family. His life-size portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru, which adorns the Assembly Hall in Hyderabad, and his two series of 120 works on the life of Nehru have won appreciation from many quarters. Alandkar's spray painting of Mahatma Gandhi and his 14 principles are a treat for the eyes.

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