Satish Gujral: The early years
Known as an artist who painted, sculpted, executed large murals, and collaborated on architectural projects, Satish Gujral (1925-2020) was affectionately referred to as India’s Michael Angelo. Born in Jhelum, which was a part of pre-partition Punjab, he was one of the four children of lawyer Avtar Narain and Pushpa Gujral.
Not only was Gujral talented, but the strength and endurance with which he met life’s vicissitudes were admirable. Back in the 1930s, when he was a young boy, Gujral suffered from a freak swimming accident that impaired his hearing and mobility. Consequently, he was refused admission to many schools for being hearing impaired.
However, Gujral never gave up. Besides reading the Urdu poets, he sat down and drew lyrical pictures of birds, the trees, and his surroundings, which finally got him admission into Mayo School of Arts in Lahore in 1939. In 1944 he moved to Mumbai, then called Bombay, where he enrolled at the Sir JJ School of Arts. In 1952, he won a scholarship to study at Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City where he was apprenticed to the internationally-renowned artists Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros—all of this happened due to his indomitable spirit.
When Gujral passed away from illness on 26th March 2020, at the age of 94, the nation was in deep mourning. This is because Gujral’s presence was something that people hoped would last even longer and he still remains a source of inspiration for many. In his lifetime, Gujral has achieved several important landmarks in his career, from his international exhibitions in New York and Berlin and his famed public murals to his work with architecture. The Belgian government conferred upon him the ‘Order of the Crown’ for designing the Belgian Embassy in New Delhi and he was honored with the Padma Vibhushan, in 1999.
Besides the vast body of work that Gujral has left behind as a legacy, it is often the Partition series and the works after his apprenticeship in Mexico that have captured the attention of many art critics and historians; hence these works are considered key in Gujral’s artistic oeuvre
The works characterized by the pain of Partition, which he lived through, brings to the fore his empathy for the human condition, that was blemished by what he referred to as ‘man’s cruelty to man’. It involved a series of very powerful works with ‘whirlwind sweeps’, that captured the sight of women fleeing and an overall sense of despair. His powerful depiction of the tragedy has withstood the test of time, as he captured the mourning and pain of the brutalized Punjabi Migrant.
One of these works, handpicked by Feroze Gujral, art philanthropist, and co-director of the Gujral Foundation, is a Self Portrait, painted by her father-in-law whom she spent a fair amount of time discussing art. “Self Portrait has always been my favorite. Post partition was a very significant period of his work. This was a painting that he painted for himself, it embodied his self-reflection,” says Gujral. “This work is very raw and inward-looking. One can see the angst and anxiety in it which is engulfed by the loss and death that he experienced. I love the brush strokes that he used here, there is a focal point in the center with his strong gaze, colors on sides, and a graphical element at the bottom. The first time I saw this work, it truly touched me and made a strong lasting impression. I feel it was his most important work,” she concludes.
Also considered important are the works that followed his sojourn to Mexico since it brought a socialist approach to Gujral’s murals and paintings. While many of his contemporaries sought out Paris, Gujral preferred the charged atmosphere of Mexico. One may trace back the energy that characterized these works to the influences of Rivera and Siqueiros, though arguably Gujral brought indigenous qualities of India to his murals and paintings of that era. They possess tensile energy, deft strokes, an earthy palette with forms that convey the angularity of his architectural projects.
While the documentation of these murals is scarce, whatever one may glimpse of them indicates a fearless approach to the union of art and architecture, with a sense of theatricality thrown in for good measure. His earlier architectural projects were designed during the Nehruvian period of the 1950s to 1970s and later the famed Ambedkar Memorial dedicated his work to Dalit leader Bhimrao Ambedkar.
In his autobiography, A Brush With Life (1997) Gujral acknowledged those who supported him most through the difficult journey of life, his father, his brother Inder (Prime Minister IK Gujral), and his wife Kiran, as it was these three who constantly urged him not to lose contact with the world and his work. While the artist may have left us, the works remain eternal for generations to come.
Text by Georgina Maddox
Images Credit: The Gujral Foundation and Shovan Gandhi
Find out more about the artists and Gallery:
http://www.artnet.com/artists/david-alfaro-siqueiros/