Entering the Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Convention centre at Jaipur, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Funky art works on car bodies and restored vintage cars parked cheek-by-jowl with sculptures created with spares from local garages by sculptor Hans Raj. No, this wasn’t a conventional vintage car show nor was it a conventional art event. Cartist: An Automobile Art Festival (held in April this year) was the brainchild of the quiet, unassuming Himanshu Jangid of United Restorations, a vintage car restoration workshop at Bagru, on the outskirts of Jaipur.
“I wanted to bring together the best talents of the next generation and the legacy of an era gone by. While restoring these vintage cars, I came to understand how wonderful the past was. I wanted to create an event where these old cars were not just parked in garages, but taken out, photographed, painted, celebrated and appreciated for the craftsmanship that went into them. Also, while restoring, I had come across many artists abroad who celebrated and painted these marques. In India, we have a large collection of vintage cars, but nobody celebrates them like that. I wanted to do something to change that attitude,” he said.
And so he decided to create “a one-of-its-kind annual event in Jaipur. I ensured that young artists from city schools and colleges were given a free hand to observe these old beauties from our workshop — a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, a Mercedes Benz, a Triumph and a Jaguar and two American classic cars from the 1960s: Chevrolet Impala convertible and a Buick.”
The youngsters were given paint and canvases for their ideas to flow. Jangid also invited sculptor Himmat Shah and well-known photographer Raghu Rai to talk to the youngsters.
Talking about his automobile installation, Jangid explains: “I started by taking a 1960s British Ford Cortina and embedding the surface with playing marble on resin, the glass surfaces with stick on mirrors and painting the tyres gold. I decorated it further with marbles too. I also invited an award-winning artist from Bikaner, Shrikant Ranga, to paint two AC Cobra car body shells in his unique style.”
Multi-media artist Atul Sinha from Delhi held mono-printing workshops while natural pigments colourist Amit Kalla and car-icature pair Arvind Jodha and Anjali Shekhawat held sessions with the youngsters and regaled the audience with their work.
Asked what they were doing, one shy girl said, “Nobody asks us to paint cars. This is fun. They should have something like this every year.” A couple of artists from the Rajasthan University Visual Artists department said, “This is a new opportunity for us. We could paint these old cars and sell to collectors. This is opening up new vistas for us.” Another group of boys from Doon School, Dehra Dun, who were welding a monstrous sculpture from car scrap, chorused, “We want to make our work stand out, be different and be the best. We want to ensure our art master Aloke Tirtha Bhowmik is proud of us, and that we too win laurels.”
Visitors couldn’t take their eyes off the well-restored Vintage cars. Yogesh Narula, who came on all four days, said “It’s a great effort but there is a disconnect between being a casual observer like me and an active participant in the workshop. I hope they sort that out next time.”
The last two days were hosted at ITC Rajputana. When I walked up that elaborate foyer to the first floor, I stared in disbelief at the display — the result of four days of work by the young participants. Himmat Shah and art critic Johny ML were the chief guests.
I can’t wait to see what the next edition will bring.
