Miniature art in the contemporary context has become a site of subversion where South Asian artists are beginning to reclaim some of their history, techniques and narratives, and giving it a post-modern twist. One may argue that artists have been revisiting miniatures since the time of Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951) and the Bengal School, but they did so with a revivalist agenda that was incorporated into the swadeshi movement of remembering and reawakening ‘original’ Indian art.
As Professor Ratan Parimoo said, “Tagore sought to modernise Mughal and Rajput styles in order to counter the influence of Western models of art, as taught in art schools under the British Raj.” Rather than just revive the miniatures, what many contemporary artists are doing now is breathe new life into the miniatures and make the ‘traditional’ their own.
Breathing new life: Desmond Lazaro's ‘Classroom’
In this context, ‘Hashiya: The Margin’, an ongoing exhibition in New Delhi, becomes a significant statement, exploring as it does for the first time the tradition of illustrated margins in miniatures through a contemporary lens. Traditionally, the hashiya or margin of the miniature was a space of decoration, a border around the main painting.
Border dispute
But contemporary artists have reclaimed the border as a space for dissent. The exhibition brings together the works and perspectives of 10 distinguished artists who have been painting in a quasi-miniature style for a long while now. They include Manisha Gera Baswani, Alexander Gorlizki, Desmond Lazaro, Ghulam Mohammad, Nusra Latif Qureshi, V. Ramesh, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Nilima Sheikh, Yasir Waqas and Saira Wasim.
“While looking at Indian painting, how often, one might ask oneself, does one notice the border, the hashiya , surrounding it? And yet in many ways one would be missing out on something of interest, even significance, if one does not pay attention,” writes Professor B.N. Goswami whose catalogue essay explains the historical importance of the space. Playing upon this idea, the artists have taken ahead the metaphor of the margin to highlight contemporary issues through rich allegory.
Breathing new life: Alexander Gorlizki’s 'A Forgotten Place’
Painter, art historian, and writer Gulam Mohammed Sheikh is known for a style that references the rich literary and historical heritage of the country in his paintings. He taught art history for nearly three decades at the Faculty of Fine Arts in M.S. University, Baroda, which gives him the scholastic approach we see in his work, and he easily spans formats ranging from intimate handheld scrolls to architectural scale murals.
Where polarities meet
For this show, Sheikh has rendered a work on paper titled ‘Majnun in the Margin’, and says, “Curator Kavita Singh’s text included an image of Majnun waiting while Layla appears in a litter in the margin. I painted Majnun in the margin (who has left the central arena) but there is no sign of Layla. The central area is full of high-rise structures, whereas Majnun is surrounded by trees.”
The arid city in monochromatic red against an ochre backdrop in the centre contrasts the margin around the painting, which is a rich leafy forest where an emaciated Majnun awaits his love, surrounded by deer, tigers and leopards who appear to be tame friends of the abject lover. Sheikh hints that the great wilderness is more compassionate than the city, which is sterile and isolated.
Pakistan-based Yasir Waqas began life as a pilot and aircraft mechanic, but soon found that his calling was art and has been painting since 2013, after a degree from the National College of Arts in Lahore. His work presents aeronautical diagrams of birds with shattered exoskeletons; a representation of how you can bend and break the human spirit in an effort to make it conform, but it still has wings.
“Once, while in conversation with a fellow artist, I was introduced to a unique perspective on the method of differentiation, in which two diverse entities shared the same identity. He told me about two villages and between them ran a river,” continues Waqas.
Breathing new life: Gulam Mohammed Sheikh's ‘Majnun in the Margin’
The people on the eastern side of the river referred to the people on the western side as dariya ke us paar walay (inhabitants of the
other side) and vice versa. “For both, the focal point and frame of reference was their own side; both shared the same identity but had a sense of being distinct,” says the artist.
For the exhibition, he is showing a set of works that uses letters from Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian. The books have been joined together and at a certain point, they merge into one another — much like Persian and Sanskrit merged to form Urdu and Hindi.
“The pieces represent the geographical and cultural history of the subcontinent,” he explains.
Only centre-stage
Delhi-based Manisha Gera Baswani approaches the brief by obliterating the notion of the margin altogether. She opts instead for a vertical format and composition. The painting ‘Desert meets the River’ is a lyrical rendering of two extremities coming together in an unlikely yet essential union.
The metaphor hints towards polarities meeting, adverse ideologies coming together. ‘Dusk on a Crimson Horizon’ is a similar rendering. Baswani, known for her work that interlinks miniatures, folk and popular culture, says, “The three works here explore man’s innate desire to search subconsciously or consciously for a space of equilibrium and inner tranquillity. Nature plays a significant role in centring the mind to look inwards.”
Desmond Lazaro, based in Puducherry , was born in the U.K., but has always felt a deep connection to his motherland and returned home to pursue a fine arts degree in Baroda. He was captivated by Rajasthani miniatures and mastered the technique by studying for 12 years under the Jaipur master, Bannu Vedpal Sharma, one of the few living experts of the ancient tradition. Lazaro combines academic realism with the traditional miniature style in a unique fashion.
The work ‘The Dymaxion Maps’ (inspired by Buckminster Fuller) has three paper works, two large canvases, one mobile (icosahedron), and a vitrine of nine drawings. “The works are small and intimate, with a genuine dialogue between each other while addressing larger questions of home, displacement, identity and nationhood,” says Lazaro. ‘The Classroom’, arranged like a class photo, indicates a multi-ethnic upbringing.
Although their features are erased, one can guess ethnicity through clothes, posture and hair colour. The three paper works and the icosahedron chart the journeys of Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco Da Gama and James Cook. “These 15th century explorers shaped the map (and the global trade that followed) with a predominantly European vision. An ideology that persisted for centuries. In revising the Mercator map, Fuller questions this notion. Borders dissolve and today’s migration patterns converge and dislocate,” says Lazaro.
Saira Wasim, Pakistani-born and U.K.-based, is known for employing her training in miniature painting to make strong political statements. Like many artists who studied in Lahore, Wasim follows the Persian style of miniatures. Her ‘In Guns We Trust’ is a challenging work, where a mythological man-beast leaves the edges to come centre stage, his ceremonial sword staying in the scabbard as he reaches for machine guns and revolver, one pointedly coloured in American flag colours, while a toppling crown is a miniature U.S. Parliament.
As the artists extend, explore and redefine the idea of what remains in the margin and what comes to the centre in this exhibition, they redraw ideas of the subaltern and of the superior.
ON SHOW:
The writer is a critic-curator by day, and a creative writer and visual artist by night. When in the mood, she likes to serenade life with a guitar and a plate of Khao Suey.
