For six decades, Delhi-based artist Suraj Ghai has been depicting the deprivation of the homeless, amputees begging for alms on the streets of Banaras and the widening gap between the creamy layer and the downtrodden. But the tragedy is that this octogenarian, who has received critical acclaim in the art world, never highlighted his own long bitter struggle to earn a decent livelihood.
“Life has been a struggle. As a professional artist I’ve had the satisfaction of having solo and group exhibitions but the remuneration from my paintings has only been a pittance. I taught at two arts institutes but it was not rewarding monetarily. Art connoisseurs knew and appreciated my work, which was a satire on our society but still they preferred buying decorative work, which I steered clear of. Only a few people purchased my work. Due to lack of financial stability, I never married,” says Ghai, born at Rawalpindi in 1934 in undivided India.
To make matters worse, Ghai was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was in his 20s. Most of what he earns goes into purchasing daily injections. “Doctors are surprised as to how I have managed to live for 57 years with diabetes.” But now his eyesight has deteriorated and liver problems have cropped up.
Ghai was only 13 when his family had to abandon their palatial house at Rawalpindi and migrate to Delhi where they lived in a tiny nook. Partition was a traumatic experience for him.
“When Partition was declared, I was studying at Class VIII in Rawalpindi. When we moved to Delhi my education suffered. For a year, we lived in a burnt house of a Muslim family near Lodhi Colony. It was a slum-like condition as all the neighbours were living in burnt homes of the minority community.”
His dad and brother were doctors by profession. Ghai was keen to follow in their footsteps. After some unsuccessful attempts at enrolling in medical institutes, Ghai decided to make a career out of his drawings. His brother tried hard to convince him not to join the “unpredictable world of art”.
But, Ghai enrolled at College of Art where illustrious artists like the late Sanyal had kind words for him.
“Those days, Delhi wasn’t a commercial centre. Modern art movement was in its infancy but my moral was boosted by my teachers, hailing from Lahore, during my five-year-long course. Like a writer and musician, I used art to express my feelings.”
Initially, he started as a figurative artist but slowly drifted to abstract where emotions were expressed through essential elements like quality of line, colours and spaces. “My work was met with opposition as people were amazed that I had the guts to show contempt towards society. They could not digest the fact that I was using art to convey oppression and inequality in society. I had the satisfaction of participating in 13 solo exhibitions but I couldn’t recover one-tenth the cost incurred in colours.”
For a decade he taught at the College of Art but the money was “embarrassing(ly) less”.
Teaching at the Banaras Hindu University was intellectually a rewarding experience. “From 1966 to 1968 I taught there but the job wasn’t a permanent one. When I was appointed there was no Vice Chancellor. On the positive side, I studied the acute poverty, treatment of widows and lives of beggars to depict the tragic sight. The work was displayed at Delhi Shilpi Chakra.”
