Courage on canvas

The contribution of women artists to the growth of Indian modernism stands unchallenged but remains largely unrecognised. A new exhibition by DAG, Mumbai, 'A Place in The Sun: Women Artists from 20th Century India' hopes to remedy this somewhat. The exhibition brings together works by leading women artists in which they have expressed their perspectives and emotions on bias and patriarchy during the time when women were often dissuaded from taking to art.

It is a sea of abstracts, sculptures, and printmaking that make up the carefully curated collection. In the metaphoric narrative, The River Of Dreams, artist Rekha Rodwittiya brings in the making of accord and discord through a visually demarcated colour palette. “As a painter, I have always articulated my views about gender politics in my art all these many years — right from 1980,” she says.

“India is a country so steeped in patriarchy, where both overt and subverted displays of male power are encountered each day in almost all areas and sections of daily life. The River Of Dreams is a work that speaks of the violence, subjugation, and oppression that women face, yet hope continues to bolster their courage, and not allow their spirit to be crushed. Committed forever to nurture life through their amazing capacity to define self-dignity and offer lessons of forgiveness, they remain the possessor of Shakti and find their empowerment unaided. My content is culled from this everyday struggle of women: the lives of ordinary women from both rural and urban existence and the many hidden stories of valour and sacrifice," she says. 

The exhibition covers the span of the 20th century, bringing in 10 women artists, including Madhvi Parekh, Zarina Hashmi, Mrinalini Mukherjee, and Navjot. Their ferocity of emotions chars the creations in different contexts. Using charcoal and aquatint on paper, artist Anupam Sud creates Draupadies Vow — with the innate sexuality of Draupadi pitted against her five husbands. A voluptuous contrast with the heeled modern avatar, with an intriguing play of geometrics in the whorls of her hair, the curve of her bosom, the floating cubes, and prisms. Artist Devyani Krishna celebrates an interplay of emotions in the conical thrusts, and pinnacles in her artwork.

Latika Katt gives voice to the huddled stubs of axed trees, and Mrinalini Mukherjee brings forth the fluid lines of ceramic: natural, gnarled, ribbed, and free-flowing. “My father was a botanist at Doon School, Dehradun,” she shares. “We lived in a bungalow called Chestnut House with a large garden where I would spend all my free time. I loved climbing trees and would sit on their branches for hours at a stretch. During the summers and monsoons, I would collect grass, bird nests, wasp nests, rotten peepal leaves with their veins visible, seeds, curved wood pieces and stones. Most fascinating for me were the structures of the roots of different plants. I loved uncovering the soil to see the structure of the roots. The roots of big trees particularly interested me. I was also interested in cobwebs, their fine lines stretching to great lengths, like tendrils, yet remaining strong. Termites fascinated me most for their teamwork. A banyan tree’s branches reminded me of human forms of limbs. And all these have found their way into my work in different mediums and materials, over different periods, mostly as a series that I return to whenever the urge overcomes me.”

Borrowing a leaf from childhood memories, shunning filters that have dominated the lives of women, and developing their own unique voice through their artworks, the artists have poured their perspectives, emotions, and thoughts into their creations. Nothing is blank, each space breathes. Artist Shobha Broota plays up her fascination for geometrics in her etchings. “I started out with realism, with copying — especially from nature, as I saw a lot of it growing up in Delhi. If you go through an academic process, you must start out with realism anyway. Eventually, however, I started developing an interest in lines and dots as integral forms in themselves. This pushed me towards an appreciation of geometry, which began to influence my work,’ she shares.

For artist Gogi Saroj Pal, the feminine figures in her creations speak volumes. “My grandmother was a schoolteacher in Lahore and engaged herself in social work; my mother was also involved in social welfare work. An environment like this, when you are growing up, allows you to imagine different possibilities for yourself when you are older. This is something that was not always available to women who grew up in households different from mine. My grandmother would encourage me to read all the time and send me to libraries. As an artist, I am concerned that people attach labels to my work without realising that it is the issues that I address through my paintings that are more important: particularly since the issues have not really changed over the years. We still talk of confining women, of punishing people who don’t follow society’s rules. I would be happier if there was some analysis, some understanding, some curiosity even, rather than just acceptance. Curiosity plays an important part in my imagination,” says Gogi.

Says Ashish Anand, CEO and Managing Director, DAG, “The exhibition looks at a handful of trailblazers who, each in her own way, has crafted a unique identity and practice, thereby contributing to the rich dialogue around the diversity in style, medium, material and context of India’s 20th-century art. Each of these women artists has come up in tough circumstances to find a well-deserved place in the sun. Their contribution to Indian modern art has been seminal and their recognition needs to be acknowledged.”

The exhibition is on at DAG, Mumbai, till October 21, 2023.