Indian Art Exhibition in Soviet Russia

Amrita Bazar Patrika, July 1953

by Shibdas Banerji

During the last year’s Soviet Art Exhibition in India, an Indian artist eulogizing the Soviet art blabbed to one of the Soviet artists then visiting the country, “Oh, your art is such a great thing, such beauty, so inspiring, so life-giving”. Pausing for a moment perhaps to feel the music of his words, he continued, “But I am ashamed of ours.”

“Hush”, the artist from Moscow replied, “don’t say that; we have great regard for Indian art and we have drawn much inspiration from it”.

That the academic art of Soviet Russia has had some inspiration from the Indian counterpart has been said before, but a stupendous opportunity has now come to India to show her art in their originals to the people of Russia. A five-man artist delegation headed by Baroda Ukil, the energetic General Secretary of the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi, with a collection of Indian paintings, about 400 in number, the biggest collection so far sent abroad, is about to open an Indian Art Exhibition in Moscow by the end of this July.

After the Moscow show, the Exhibition moves to Kiev and Leningrad, and then to Warsaw in Poland. The exhibition has programmes also in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

This is the first exhibition in Russia of its kind from a non-Communist country and as such it has a great significance in the world of art as well as of politics.

A Unique Show

The Exhibition represents most of the schools of painting in the country and all the popular media – oil, tempera, water, graphic – are to be viewed here. All the Masters have been included but it is a pity that none of their major work could be spared to be shown abroad.

Abanindranath Tagore is being represented with his “Nur Jehan”, Jamini Roy with “Three Women”, Gagonendranath Tagore with “Temple Door”, Rabindranath Tagore with “Speed”, Sarada Ukil with “Kaikeyi and Manthara”, Atul Bose with “Poet Tagore”, and Amrita Sher-Gil with her self portrait.

Amrita Sher-Gil has another painting in the show which is on a loan from the Ministry of Education. This painting is called “Haldi Grinders” which creates an immediate emotional impact on the onlooker.

Amongst the contemporaries, Sailoz Mukherjea (Summer Well), Sudhir Khastagir (A Dancing Devadashi), Asit Kumar Haldar (A Hardware Merchant), Baroda Ukil (Fire Ordeal of Sita), are exhibits which are tested by time and have drawn admiration from all quarters. But then again, Time has not yet said if these artists are being represented with their best works.

Rajput & Mughal Paintings

The most important section of the Exhibition is of course the section of Rajput and Mughal paintings. Here one sees unrivalled workmanship, beautiful colour schemes, detailed drawings and brushwork which is bound to inspire any – whether he be a lover of “modern” art or “academic”. Of these paintings it is difficult to pick and choose and yet they must be mentioned, for it is because of these that Indian Art Exhibition in Soviet Russia will long be remembered by art lovers in Russia.
Altogether there are 12 paintings in this section. All of them are from the collection of the Maharaja of Jaipur. The artist’s names are unknown. The collection includes:
“Emperor Humayun with Kamran Mirza”, “Nine Jogis”, “Emperor Jahangir with ladies”, “Emperor Jahangir sitting on throne” and “Ladies swimming in pool and the King and Queen riding on a horse”.

A similar collection of painting (artists’ names being unknown) with Rajput School of painting technique comes from the private collection of Kailash Chand Jain. There are 8 pieces in this lot and the one which is most likely to attract attention is a painting called “Jehanara Begum” done on ivory.

Younger Contemporaries

Among the younger contemporaries is K. K. Hebbar whose painting “Village Bride’s Toilet” is an outstanding piece. The much travelled Hebbar is one of the five artist delegates to Russia. Some paintings in this section are indeed very bold in their conception and one of them is by Har Krishan (another delegate to Russia, the youngest one) which is called “Rice-girls” – some village girls, with their feet under water, planting paddy seedlings. This painting seems to have Shelly’s Prometheus crying, “No change, no pause, no hope and yet I endure”...

Indra Dugar’s “Mayurakshi in Winter”, Khitin Chakravorty’s “The Divinity”, Kamal Sen’s “Usha and Arundhati”, Kalyan Sen’s “Beauty”, Hebbar’s “Silent Souls”, M. F. Hussain’s “At the work”, Pratap Sen’s “Allied Arts”, Promode K. Chatterji’s “Chandrasekhara”, R. N. Chakravarty’s “Tagore in Santiniketan”, Rathin Maitra’s “Boat Race Festival” and Abani Sen’s “She” are not bad selections.

Among the younger contemporaries there are still a few more who are likely to be appreciated in Russia – “Construction” by D. Badri, Shantanu Ukil’s “Expectancy”, Sukumar Bose’s “Indian Village”, V. D. Chinchalkar’s “Kumaon Maiden”, Anil Roychowdhury’s “Dance” and Sushil Sarkar’s “Red flowers”.
Of Shantanu Ukil I could fairly predict he is bound to stimulate excitement in his works.

Source: Amrita Bazar Patrika, July 1953

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