Perfecting the abstract
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Kumar Gallery displays a mini retrospective of Sohan Qadri, one among the first generation abstract artists of India to flourish abroad. RANA SIDDIQUI reports.
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A work by Sohan Qadri.
IN EARLY 1960s when most abstractionists in India were shying away from this form of modern art as it would keep them starved because of its low commercial value, Sohan Qadri among a very few those days like Gaitonde, G.R. Santosh and Biren De, kept sticking to it. Not only that, he also sustained his way through not only in India but also in Denmark where he was surrounded by veterans in the realm. The main reasons were two; he did not go to abstract for experimental reasons and second, he was initiated into Sufism, yoga, tantra, dance and music when he was barely 14. And when he took a formal training in fine arts from Government College of Art from 1955 to 1960 and also taught art at the post graduate level in Punjab, he could only express his creativity through a formless mode. So there was genuine love for abstract art in him. And that's what made him not only survive but flourish not only in Zurich in Switzerland and Paris but also in Denmark for 40 years. Currently, the artist is a resident of Denmark and is visiting Delhi this week.
Now, this 75-year-old artist from Punjab's Phagwara district is being brought to Delhi audience in a mini retrospective comprising 40 works from 1993 to 2005, by Kumar Gallery. Twelve of these works are very recent. Says the curator, a veteran art scholar Virender Kumar and the owner of the gallery who recognised and exhibited Qadri's works in this gallery at 56 Sundar Nagar for the first time in 1963, "I have seen him growing as an artist. So I kept exhibiting his works for many consecutive years in the early `60s, so some artists thought that abstraction was a trend. So they also started painting abstract but couldn't sustain it. But Qadri remained true to his dedication. He didn't change his style. There is a certain consistency to his works. That's why he has survived abroad too. Many other Indian artists who attempted abstract, especially abroad, sold it in Indian bottles. So they couldn't sustain there and came back to India."
A poet too
Says Sunit Kumar of the gallery, "He is a poet too. But he is a recluse of sorts. Despite living abroad for so many years, he hasn't lost his earthy touch."
Qadri's earlier works show more geometrical designs - square, circle, triangles, etc. - as his own expression of movement in psychic energy. Most of them had shades of black, brown and blue, while his recent works are extremely bright in colour. A reflective of Dante's purgatory, through which a bindu "which might be regarded as his soul, is trying to reach the Ultimate" assumes senior Kumar. In none of his recent works, does this bindu is shown reaching the final point. "It reflects his sadhna, his journey which is still on", he adds.
Currently Qadri runs a spiritual centre in Denmark, conducts intensive courses in meditation and tantras and holds international workshops in aesthetics and metaphysics. He has also established a Gyan Stumbh Stupa at Phagwara for spiritual learning and practice.
Qadri's works are on view till next Wednesday.
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