As one ages, nostalgia strikes and there is an urge to revisit the roots; as if one wants to complete the ‘full circle’ of life.
Veteran painter Anjolie Ela Menon’s new solo show in Delhi after five years greets the viewer with similar sentiments. She has even returned to her first medium — oil on board — after having delved into almost all media like kitsch, Murano glass, digital, installations, and even mammoth works, for which she has always been known.
Mounted at the Vadehra Art Gallery in Defence Colony, this show, with a few new large paintings, is different from her old works from the 1970s to mid-2000 that are hung on the second floor of the gallery even though they don’t exactly form a part of her new show.
The new exhibition comprises works on “lost” traditions, a woman’s internal conflicts, Anjolie’s beloved characters from a slum at Nizamuddin Dargah, where she runs an NGO for the underprivileged, a scene from the Kumbh Mela, nudes and more. Significantly, the faces of women etched on the canvas are now more poignant, more serene and their eyes reflect more depth.
In one of her works, “Parvati”, Lord Ganesh is seen playing near his mother Parvati, while his chopped head lies near her feet. The Goddess is pensive and stoic. As the myth goes, Parvati, the wife of Lord Shiva, had asked her son not allow anyone nearby while she was bathing. The son forbids even his father from going near her. An angry Shiva chops his head off and later replaces it with the head of an elephant when Parvati is inconsolable following the loss of her son.
Talking about the work, the 75-year-old artist said: “In this show, divine mothers is the theme of few of my works. As I grow, I feel there is so much dichotomy in the attitude of society towards women. On the one hand we worship these divine mothers and their power in the forms of Laksmi, Parvati, Durga, etc., and on the other we denigrate them. So, do we worship or denigrate?”
“On the one hand, the birth of Ganesh is a happy occasion for her, on the other, I think about the anguish she must have gone through when his head was chopped off. For ages women have lived through so much pain, yet they have learnt to remain calm and that reflects on their face.”
“However, today the situation has changed. The woman has an alternative and this has grown into a movement. That ‘air’ of acceptance has changed and will help society immensely in about 20 years from now.”
Another interesting work is that of a janeu ceremony, in which a Hindu child to be baptised, his parents, elders and the priest pose for a portrait in a decorated ambience.
Delighted to elucidate on the work, the artist added: “This work was inspired by events that used to be hugely important enough to be photographed. To mark that event, tabloids were used as a device. I have tried to capture that phase of transition between a photograph and a painting — in that tabloid device, the idea of such gravitas is totally lost now.”
Among her other works are few people from the Nizamuddin slum, where an old man holds his goat lovingly, a woman with her child and a stray cat, and a ‘birthday’ party with just one balloon — the entire series picks people from the slum, “most of whom are sweepers and people from different communities and they live in exemplary harmony”, she adds fondly.
The show is on till April 27.
