The Seagull Foundation for the Arts

Principal Investigator: Anjum Katyal

Nirode Mazumdar (1916-1982) stands at a significant juncture in the history of modern art in India. Trained initially at Abanindranath Tagore's Indian Society of Oriental Art in the Bengal School style, Mazumdar later emerged, rather controversially, as a leading practitioner of a generation of artists in revolt and yet to be understood in their entirety. Principal investigator of the project, Ms. Anjum Katyal, writes that Mazumdar was an integral part of the literary and artistic ferment in the 1940s. While writers rebelled against established icons in literature, in art, the notable Bengal School, came under close scrutiny and question from younger artists. Mazumdar was one of the founder members of the Calcutta Group – a young breakaway band of artists who sought a new sensibility. Essentially urban artists, they were close witness to the 1943 famine and the ravages it brought with it to the city, the years of war that immediately followed, the refugees that flooded in from Burma, the rationing and hardship. It is most likely that these changed circumstances also lent poignancy and force to the search of these younger painters. Mazumdar himself drew serious, if not always supportive, attention in articulating his theoretical position, his practice, or his pursuit of the ‘spiritual’ in the artistic enterprise. He went to France for further studies immediately after the war; Paris and London were to play a big part in his inner journey.

It is, in fact, this aspect of Mazumdar that informs the rationale for the research supported by this grant. His philosophical explorations of the meaning and language of ‘modernity’ in an Indian context continue to be valuable today. The research team was fascinated that Mazumdar sparked controversy and strong reactions among his contemporaries, who were sharply divided by his work — a fact largely due, they feel, to Mazumdar‘s “uncompromising personality and hard-hitting intellectual approach.” That Mazumdar was a person who did things differently cannot be held in doubt. As a student abroad, befriended by the European painters Braque and Mancussi, he explored the techniques of working in oils and later, continued to live and paint in Paris and London. In 1958, back in Paris, despite growing critical acclaim, he destroyed all his early works and decided to return to Calcutta. “The safely canonised ‘greats’ and ‘maestros already have bodies of opinion formed around them,” writes Ms Katyal, “but a respected artist whose name aroused strong reactions and whose work was inaccessible seemed a challenge to address.” Mazumdar’s works, for various reasons, remained inaccessible to the general public. To complicate matters, several years before his untimely demise, he withdrew from the public eye to pursue his art and note down his ideas in comparative solitude. Mazumdar’s works are unknown outside Calcutta, argues Ms. Katyal, and have only been written about by a few critics and art historians. The discourse on Indian ‘modern’ art of that time, she reasons, was essentially confined to Calcutta and Bombay. There has been no opportunity, she argues further, to try and incorporate Mazumdar into the wider social and cultural history of which he was a part.

In the 1980s, Seagull’s research team was privileged to gain the cooperation of the late artist’s spouse and family, view his work and gain access to other material carefully preserved by them. Closely involved in the artist’s life and an invaluable resource and guide, the family has agreed to a non-commercial exhibition of his work, tentatively scheduled between late 1998 and early 1999. Research is expected to be facilitated by Mazumdar’s own theoretical reflections. In addition, Ms. Katyal and her team will study material related to Mazumdar’s art work; conduct intensive interviews with those who knew him and his work. The research is expected to culminate in a major travelling retrospective exhibition showcasing Mazumdar’s oeuvre, accompanied by an in-depth catalogue intended to reintroduce the artist to his time. The Seagull Foundation for the Arts expects some of Mazumdar’s material to lend itself to publication, and plans to make an audio-visual package available to an arts-interested public at a cost.