Enter veteran artist Anjolie Ela Menon's home at Nizamuddin East, New Delhi, and your artistic journey begins. The eye shifts from one wall to the other: M.F. Husain, Ram Kumar, Thota Vaikuntham, her own painted wooden cabinets… yet it is no luxurious setting.
Recalling her early days, Anjali says, “My father was a surgeon in the Army. We had a happy life in the cantonment areas. We lived almost everywhere — from Jabalpur to Moradabad, Lucknow to Madras. The bane of my childhood was I must have moved 20 times, and as a married woman, 30 times. I am happy I have finally found a place — Delhi.” One wonders at the spectacular hues of Nature — the trees, the earth, the crow — dominating her work. She owes it to her happy childhood. “I was a tomboy, always up on the trees. Whenever we moved to a new house, we would rush to see how many trees it had. The cantonment houses were shabby but always full of trees. My father would make tree houses wherever we lived. We would eat in the tree house,” she chuckles.
Lyrical quality
Anjolie's works have a lyrical quality due, no doubt, to her eclectic education. “I had an American grandmother. She came to live with us after my mother died. I was 14 then. We had a very European upbringing. We were exposed to Western classical music and art much more than orthodox Hindu influences. That came later in life, after I got married. My grandfather belonged to the Brahmo Samaj so we never saw pujas or idol worship of any sort at home.” Art entered her life quite early. “When I went to Lawrence School, Lovedale, my art teacher Sushil Mukherjee allowed me to paint in oil from the age of 12. Later, I got into JJ School of Art, Mumbai. With the arrogance of youth, I thought I knew it all. As a fresher, I got easily bored. They would bring the same bronze model the whole week. But I would finish it on the first day, and spend the rest of week in the café and library. Meanwhile, I got interested in theatre.”
Moving to Delhi opened new horizons. “I told my father I was bored with JJ. So, I opted for a degree in literature, because Delhi in those days (1957) didn't have an art college. But I continued to paint. My teachers in Miranda House were wonderful. They were all trained in Oxford or Cambridge. I made their portraits. Meanwhile, I also met M.F. Husain. He designed my first exhibition and the invitation card.” Her father arranged a display area in the garden of the family's Lodi Estate home. “We hung up the paintings with jute and bamboo. It was two months before my exams.”
Husain had a studio in Nizamuddin. He gave her the freedom to use it. “He taught me that you don't need an easel or studio to paint. He would say, ‘Just carry your bag, lean the canvas against any wall or sit on the floor and paint. Taking his advice, I used to paint in one corner of a house for years, and it really helped me when we were leading a nomadic life.”
Preferred France
Though Anjolie got admission to the London Art School and Slade School of Fine Art, she preferred to go to France. “Pupul Jayakar took me to the U.K. one year before I went to France. She introduced me to Edgar Hoffman. He had an amazing house called ‘Amazing Water' which is now a museum. I stayed there and painted my ‘Harlem' series. I came back and got a scholarship to study art in France.” At 19, Anjolie was sure of herself. “Aftertwo exhibitions. I had this notion that I was the new Amrita Shergil. But, in France, I realised there were so many talented people, and that there were huge gaps in my education. At Atelier Fresque at the Ecole des Beaux Arts I learnt fresco work.”
Anjali returned to India to marry her childhood sweetheart, Raja Menon. But, in Delhi, painting wasn't a money-spinner. “There were times when I painted T-shirts for Rs. 63. I had to educate the kids,” she recalls. “Then one day the doorbell rang.That was Kepu Gandhi. He offered me an exhibition. It was 1974. And by 1988, I had some 10 exhibitions.”
Taj commissioned her to work in Yemen and India. In Delhi she did up their haveli. She got contracts from Birla, and created a Buddha mural in the Prime Minister's reception lounge at the Delhi airport.
Anjolie has been running an NGO named after her parents ‘Omar-ela' at a Nizamuddin basti with her own funds for the past 10 years. It offers tuition to students from Class 1 to 12 in all subjects at a nominal fee and trains girls in tailoring and beauty care for free.
