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Brushing aside the labels

Renowned artists Rini Dhumal and Aditya Basak speak on their love for arts - and Santiniketan

TOWARDS THE ICON Artists Rini Dhumal and Aditya Basak emphasise the importance of looking at the journey of a celebrity, not merely the image

In the art world, it is well known that she never leaves home without it. In an art camp, hers is the most copious one - for there is seldom a moment when she is not adding to it. This `it' is her first love - her sketch book! She calls it stylised drawing, where she is viewing through her own lens all that is around and yet focusing on that which is special. In the lush green environs of Santiniketan, she fills her first love to the brim and more as her tapering fingers fly over the pages with abandoned ease. It is a familiarity born out of years of practice.

Alka Raghuvanshi brings together Rini Dhumal, the artist who is guru to an entire generation of artists from Baroda - she teaches in the Baroda school of art with Aditya Basak, the doyen from Bengal, who is a `dada' in his own right - lighting the path for many an artist from Bengal as he soars to newer heights with his keen sense of aesthetics, his dark and intense hues beckoning you to explore their depths.

Aditya: No matter what, Santiniketan will remain special for all of us - like a pilgrimage - never mind its haphazard growth.

Rini: Sure! Its energy always beckons me so much that I have even bought a small place here and I come whenever I can. I have some wonderful memories from here. The endless cups of tea under the trees in the Rabindra Bharati, the beautiful alpanas decorating the ground with the scent of the incense mixing with the smell of fresh flowers is so addictive that one wants more and more!

Aditya: Absolutely! Despite working, living and painting in Baroda, it is wonderful that your link with Bengal remains so vibrant.

Rini: Even though I have a different platform, artists under whom I have trained, I have great regard for them for I have seen them evolve. Every place has its own vibrations. The artists from Bengal are sentimental - sometimes overly so! And the Bengal realistic style of painting reflects this mindset. The JJ School in Mumbai veers towards the other extreme of abstracts. Whereas the Baroda style is in between, because it has been influenced by K.G. Subramanyam, Somenath Hore and Krishna Reddy, who have had a huge influence in my life.

Aditya: What about your evolution?

Rini: Art is a huge part of my life. With mediums like television or for that matter cinema - forms that are no different from each other - art is what stands out. With every artist's specific viewpoint the concept is accentuated. But we have lost the sensitivity of lines. I feel a distance from this kind of art. The inward growth and thinking is all important for me. After a point you find that the search is really within. And yet the doyens of issue-based art don't seem to understand this important fact, let alone internalise it!

Aditya: Video filming is also art. The visual medium has so many possibilities. I think the values, the environment, the political situation, the sensibilities are all so different, so it is bound to reflect in the art.

Rini: My students don't want to draw anymore, so influenced they are by the concept of abstracts. How can you see in fine details, without the whole picture? How beautiful or different without the complete canvas?

Aditya: Sure. And yet, time is the main thing for you can't run away from it! Abstraction is the new mantra! But it is like putting the cart before the horse!

Rini: Language is so common. Earlier everyone spoke in their own language, now like rag pickers we pick and choose a whole new language. Which in any case comes with its own baggage of borrowed contexts and meanings. Sometimes I feel I am passé! For there are no elements of risk or mistaken identity.

Aditya: But that is because the reference sources are the same! It is all so pre-planned. There is no vulnerability, and ambiguity is lost. These children don't sketch, for they have a camera, but how a camera sees everything is quite different from perceived reality. Deep impressions of darkness. The violence outside only reflects darkness inside. Yet there is darkness after light and light after darkness. And yet there is neither light nor darkness.

Rini: How about the handling of sensibility? Pendulums are not stagnant. Students or young artists take the image of a celebrated artist and not his or her journey, which is what makes him or her special.

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