In the pantheon of Indian modernists, Piraji Sagara’s name remains obscure. Like other significant artists of the time, Piraji also pushed boundaries and broke new grounds with ‘wood collages’. However, he remained low profile, and faced many a daunting situations -- a constant enigma to art lovers.
In the modern section of Art Dubai 2018, one stood transfixed in front of his burnt wood collages, displayed by Mumbai-based Akara Art gallery. The way rusted iron nails, plain sheets of metal, glass beads, watercolours, pastels sat on wooden boards, revealed the master that he was. The Ahmedabad-based artist's love for wood was genetic: he hailed from Rajasthan's Sagara community which was famous for its woodwork. Drought pushed his family to leave Rajasthan and come to Ahmedabad. So, it was natural for Piraji to turn to wood for his artistic urge but he took the traditional craft and wrote a new language.
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Sagara studied art at the JJ School of Art, Mumbai and featured in the 1971 Sao Paulo Biennale. He did shows in Europe and Japan and also showed alongside MF Husain, SH Raza and JeramPatel. “He and Jeram Patel used to do blowtorch together. After he suffered a stroke in the 80s, he didn’t have the strength to do wood collages. He started creating a fewer number of works. In about three decades, he made only 500 collages, which is not much,” says Puneet Shah of Akara.
He was also very close to well-known architect B.V. Doshi, and taught at Ahmedabad’s School of Architecture (now part of CEPT University), at Doshi’s behest. He got more involved with teaching and taught at the school till his last day in January 2014.
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Since the last few years, Akara has been trying to bring him back to public imagination. They began with “Whittled Space” - an exhibition of 15 woodworks at the gallery in Colaba, Mumbai, last year. Puneet says it was a complete sell-out with well-known art collectors from India and outside making a beeline for it. It wasn’t easy to convince his son and daughter-in-law Rajesh and Sharmila Sagara. “I was really drawn to his wood collages but the family wanted to keep the works. Eventually, they agreed. Artist Ravinder Reddy also helped,” says Puneet. Today, his works are priced anywhere between ₹15 and 35 lakh.
The young art dealer says that Sagara was driven by materiality and his love for architecture and literature. “He was a voracious reader and had good relations with the Sarabhai family. The architect Louis Kahn was his biggest supporter but Piraji never flaunted anything.”
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Kanoria Centre for Arts also owes it to Piraji, for it was his idea to start an open art studio in Ahmedabad. In 1984, Urmila Kanoria went on to establish the landmark cultural site in Ahmedabad.
To Art Dubai, Puneet had brought six of Piraji’s works from the 60s to 80s. “While in the 60s his work was very material centred and he would use things like sand dust, in the 70s, Piraji had started doing collages. From the 60s to 70s, he also incorporated metal into his work but in the 80s, it was pure carving. I also feel, he borrowed from Fauvism in the way he used colour. They are bold and vivid.” Out of six, three works were sold to French and Chinese buyers.
Piraji was concerned with human life which was expressed through an abstract language on an unlikely medium of wood. The ancient folk craft inspired him enough to be turned on its head. He would burn the wood, carve into it different shapes, paint it or add to it metal sheets and iron nails.
“His works had an international feel which is why he was quite a hit with western buyers -- a lot of his works are outside India today. A lot of Parsis also bought his works,” adds Puneet, who is now working towards publishing a retrospective catalogue for the artist by the end of this year.
(The writer was in Dubai at the invitation of Art Dubai)
Published - March 29, 2018 02:57 pm IST
