Shantanu Ukil - Transition of an Indian Artist

Santhal Dance by Shantanu Ukil, January 2005 Medium: Acrylic | Dimension: 48" X 108" Photo by: Sanjay Bhakat

Though trained in the western style of painting under such stalwart as Sailoz Mukherjea, until late 1950s Shantanu Ukil executed his works primarily in the “wash technique”, as popularized by Abanindranath Tagore and Bengal School.

Quite like his father, he is essentially a colourist, but with bolder drawings and swifter execution, which have been the characteristic of his Indian paintings. Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim legends, folklore and life, along with the aura of Mughal Delhi’s afterglow influenced Shantanu deeply.

Mother & Child 02 Oil on canvas (Click on the image for larger picture)

Shantanu was keen to depict the life and colours of Delhi villages amid the shades of cool greens under the neem trees. Or, perhaps the splashes of vermillion and the cascading gold on the branches of gulmohur and amaltaas amid the ruins of Lodi's Delhi. These visual sensibilities were undoubtedly the aesthetic seeds that Sailoz had sowed in his student’s mind. They sprang to life at a later point of time in Shantanu’s career.

Santhal Life 21 Acrylic on paper mounted on board (Click on the image for larger picture)

On the other hand, the romanticism and the inherent rhythm of the aboriginal Santhal life in Bengal and Bihar so inspired Shantanu that he created some of his finest works on their life, while often experimenting with medium, form, pigments and surface texture.

Today, the aged artist fondly recounts his days in New Delhi when at the premises of Sarada Ukil School of Art, he along with his contemporaries...Saradindu Sen Roy, Sukumar Bose, Arup Das, Ramnath Pasricha, Biren De, Abani Sen, Bimal Dasgupta and Harinarayan Bhattacharya...would happily indulge in their respective artistic pursuits, often going out together to do sketches on life in Delhi villages. These villages later got absorbed into the burgeoning metropolis of present New Delhi.

Also, there was the occasional but magnetic presence of Manishi Dey as well, with his monumental and sensitive works on Bengal refugees. Manishi was a close friend of Sailoz and the stories of their bohemian life together could easily fill volumes!

Shantanu has a very great regard for this master artist, about whom he says, people seldom understood!

(Unfortunately, in an era of all-encompassing consumerism, it seems there are few who could possibly be interested in such anecdotes...more so, when as a nation we have done so little in the areas of preserving our oral history and its proper documentation!—Ed.)

There was a time when Sarada Ukil School of Art was a center of much important art activities. Here, eminent artists and scholars such as Stella Kramrisch, artist Qi Baishi of China and Nicholas Roerich visited to exchange their thoughts and techniques with Indian counterparts. In 1952, the AIFACS had organized the Chinese Art Exhibition when Qi Baishi visited India and the interaction Shantanu had with him is still fresh and cherished in his memory.

In 1956, India celebrated 2500 years of Lord Buddha’s Parinirvana in a big way when prominent artists of the day were involved in an important exhibition, where Shantanu Ukil and Saradindu Sen Roy had opted for Italian egg tempera process to do their paintings on the guidelines from fabled treatise of Cennino Cennini (1370-1440), as translated by C. J. Herringham of Ajanta Frescoes fame (India Society, 1915). Their visual idiom was strictly according to the tenets of Indian Shilpashastras and Tagore’s Bengal School. Read the report in the Hindustan Standard, October 4, 1956.

However, just a year later, in 1957, there was a drastic change in the flavour and quality of Shantanu’s creative output. While visiting his in-laws (Mukul Dey and his wife Bina) at “Chitralekha”, Santiniketan he came into contact with artist Kiron Sinha and his Hungarian wife Gertrude at their architecturally stimulating studio-cum-gallery amid the undulating khoai land adjacent to their compound.
Kiron, though an ex-student of Kala-Bhavana, was far removed from the visual language of Nandalal Bose and his batch of students. Instead, he was quite a rebel in his thought and life-style and had vigorously experimented with the neo-Impressionistic imagery with Paul Signac and Seurat’s pointillism.

Kiron was bold and had a fabulous palette, recalls Shantanu - light mauve, emerald, umber, vermillion and black. Kiron’s favourite subject were the Santhals of Birbhum - in all their vitality, flesh, sweat and blood! Shantanu was inspired deeply by Kiron's works.

Thus, from the late-1950s and during the following decade one finds a pronounced change in Ukil’s visual idiom. The delicate yet controlled lines and subtle much-washed hues of Bengal School gradually gave way to the forceful spatula-work of thick impasto with mysterious chiaroscuro of the artist’s immediate environment. It was as if Shantanu got a sudden and tremendous freedom from the shackles that held him fast to rock hard traditions.

Baul Singer Oil on canvas. (Click on the image for larger picture)

It was a freedom that had compelled him to explore an essentially newer palette! Similarly, the artist’s earlier inspiration from India’s Hindu and Buddhist past were gradually replaced by the images from his direct personal experience. He transformed the emotions into vermillion, deep purple, mauve, viridian, gamboge and umber directly, while forming a vigourous reading habit to keep abreast with literature, history and philosophy. His marriage with Mukul

Dey’s daughter Manjari, who did her research in the areas of foreign influences on ancient Indian history and culture from Visva-Bharati University, was a constant source of much inspiration, recalls Shantanu.

Santhal Life 19 Acrylic on board. (Click on the image for larger picture)

Shantanu got an opportunity to study the various trends of European art in first-hand when he was included in an AIFACS organized cultural delegation that attended the 4th Centenary Celebrations of Dresden Museum in erstwhile East Germany in 1960-61. Back in India, he organized his first show with paintings done in oil in September 1963, New Delhi.

While reviewing the exhibition the noted critic and art historian Keshav Malik wrote in Thought (September 14, 1963):“The first thing that strikes as one enters the hall housing this exhibition is the undoubted skill of the painter. Every work has a neat finish and nothing is left in any doubt; no self-indulgence here in any inadvertent or conscious confusion of forms. And yet, it will be seen that Shantanu is neither an illustrator nor a traditional.”

Emerald Eyes Acrylic on board. (Click on the image for larger picture)

Truly, that was the beginning of a journey in an entirely new direction. An aesthetic journey that is rich with the artist’s visual experiences intertwined with the joys and sorrows of his life - a journey the artist is still continuing with.

Forever in search of the nuances of light, colour, texture and form, Shantanu Ukil had travelled widely in his country and abroad to enrich his mind. In 1982 he was invited to Japan on a Japan Foundation grant to deliver lectures on Indian art. This lecture series at Fukuoka, Kyoto and Tokyo was much appreciated.

Ukil feels that an artist is absolutely free to try out newer styles, techniques and visual idioms with the usage of unconventional surface and medium as it catches his fascination. It is ridiculous to straightjacket him in any particular category.
He declares, “An artist has to have the curiosity of a child...and a mind to play with his medium, and an ability to marvel and wonder at the life around”.
Indeed, an artist must have an ability to marvel!

Though not an unknown name in India, Shantanu Ukil had a solitary existence throughout his artistic career. He never belonged to any group really. At times he exhibited, and often not. During mid-1990s, after a gap of about a decade, Shantanu was introduced to the art lovers of Mumbai by his younger son Shivashri who coaxed the artist out of his shell and had his show organized in the business capital of India. The result was a tremendous success. The whole exhibition was sold out. Not only that his works were acquired by top Mumbai collectors, he got a fabulous press as well!

It is apt to remember here what eminent author Dr. Mulk Raj Anand said about Shantanu in 1999. Dr Anand had known the family since 1920s and was in the editorial board of Roopa Lekha in 1960.

Today the elderly artist and his son Shivashri lives at “Chitralekha” , where Mukul Dey Archives is also located. His wife Manjari, who was one of the best friend he ever had in life, passed away in August 2004.

The artist divides his time between doing paintings and organizing a new kitchen-garden.

Quoted from Hindustan Standard, October 4, 1956

Paintings on Buddha’s Life
Exhibition Next Month
By
A Staff Correspondent

The Exhibition to be held in November next in connection with the 2500th Parinirvana of Lord Buddha will include, among many other things, 28 paintings done by well-known artists. The Lalit Kala Akademi selected seven popular artists each of whom was asked to produce four paintings relating to the 28 important event of Buddha’s life. The artists who were assigned the job by the Akademi are Saradindu Sen Roy, K. K. Hebbar, Shivax Chavda, Kirpal Singh (Shekhawat), Chintamoni Kar, Rani Chanda and Shantanu Ukil. Sen Roy, Ukil and Kirpal Singh, whom I had the occasion to watch while engaged in work, have done their job fairly well. Sen Roy has chosen for his theme Bodhisattva in Tushita Heaven, Dream of Maya, Buddha’s Birth and Seven Steps and Ashita-Devala, while Ukil has illustrated Bajrasana, Sujata’s Offering to Buddha, accompanied by the Maidens of Uruvilla and Buddha and Mara. Kirpal Singh has dwelt on Buddha Coming from Heaven, Buddha Returning to Kapilavastu, Anathpinda’s offering of Jetavana to Buddha and the Miracle of Sravasti.

Quoted from Mulk Raj Anand' writing about Shantanu in 1999:

Artist Shantanu Ukil belongs to the family of Ukil Brothers who played important part in the resurgence of Indian painting in the years before freedom.

Although they were rooted in Bengal, they spread out and were able to bring influences from West and elsewhere to bear upon Indian painters.
The association of Barada Ukil with Amrita Sher-Gil proved to be significant.
The other brothers were commissioned by Government to do frescoes in India House, London.

Shri Shantanu Ukil is the heir to Ukil tradition. He has travelled widely, lived in the west, and, now, brings to painting technique the new acrylic medium, which seems to evoke layers of form by juxtaposition of colours, so that paintings become near sculturesque.

This technique is very suitable for the figures in our country, because the vitality of the human beings, in various moods, comes through almost dramatically. Roughness of form, recreated in the new technique, makes for action-pictures and for dramatic presentation of people, specially folk, in human form”.

— by Satyasri Ukil

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