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Ancient tales retold
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Badri Narayan’s drawings are based on Hamsa Jataka tales
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PRISTINE The images are simple, yet insightful
In a long, illustrious and uninterrupted career, Badri Narayan (b.1929 / Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh) has donned many avatars: as painter; as practitioner of graphics and ceramics; as illustrator; asteacher; writer and so on.
Over the years, his works have featured in several prestigious exhibitions including the Asian Artists Exhibition, Tokyo (1957), Art Now in India, New Castle, England and Ghent, Belgium (1966), India Art Today, in Darmstadt, West Germany (1982). He has represented India in the Biennales of Paris (1961), the Biennale of Prints, Tokyo, (1966-67). Winner of Lalit Kala Academy Award (1965) and Padma Shri (1987), he has had solo shows in all major cities of India, as well as in Germany and the USA.
A distinct choice of themes and easily recognisable style of rendering mark this self-taught artist’s prolific output in the last six decades. The senior artist has a large following of admirers and collectors. One of his 1992 works - a 22 inch x 30 inch water colour on paper – titled “The Recounting of the Hamsa Jataka” estimated between Rs. 7 and 8 lakhs was lapped up by a buyer for Rs. 8,74,000 at a Saffronart auction last year. Despite his popularity, the 79-year old artist, now a resident of Bangalore, has maintained a low profile.
“Badri Narayan is one of those artists who achieve distinction despite their natural reticence, their refusal to court the limelight,” wrote well-known art critic, Ranjit Hoskote when the artist turned 75. “For nearly six decades, he has applied himself quietly to a quest for significant images… He is cherished by those who have seen his paintings over the years, read his essays and stories, or participated in his workshops for children. To these votaries, he is variously the perennial storyteller, the kindly sage, the gentle teacher, the maker of auspicious symbols, and the peripatetic gardener of images… For him, painting is neither a didactic medium for the propagation of a gospel; nor yet is it an expressionist project marked by emotive exaggeration. Rather, he treats the painted surface as a visionary space where insight can be gained, and perhaps even revelation.”
Badri Narayan’s exhibition of pen and ink drawings currently on in the city provides a glimpse of his exceptional control of line and composition.
Based on Hamsa Jataka and other tales, each drawing stands out as a leaf from a diary or notebook. Kings, queens, monks, animals, birds and Nature at large, flit into the frames quietly and stay there as if itwas their destined purpose.
There is an unmistakable child-like quality in these images, simple yet insightful. One can hardly find a wrong note or stroke in these drawings which would impress the visitor by their naïve purity.
The exhibition concludes on July 18 at Renaissance Gallerie, Cunningham road. Phone: 22202232.
GIRIDHAR KHASNIS
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