I start with a quotation of WS Landor, “Nature I
loved, and, next to Nature, Art.” An artists desire is to have an exhibition of
his creations amidst the free flowing natural beauty of Shimla. History supports
it and speaks of The Fine Arts Society formed in 1865. It had arranged
exhibitions in the Bishop Cotton School and the Auckland House in the opening
years. Lord Lytton inaugurated the exhibition in 1876 at ‘Oakover’. He had said,
“When the Greek orator Hyperides was defending the cause of the beautiful Phryne
it occurred to him that the best way of winning that cause would be to stop
speaking and unveil his client. He did so and at once the judges became her
admirers. Allow me to imitate that wise example and declare this exhibition
open.” One of the exhibits was Titian’s ‘Peraro Madonna’ painted by him. Since
1887, the art exhibitions became a regular annual feature at the Town Hall.
Several famous English painters used to participate in these exhibitions. The
few Indians were Pithawala, JP Gangoly and Amrita Shergill. In the Society’s
sixty-third exhibition in 1935, Amrita Shergill sent her ten paintings. Five
were rejected and from among the rejected five, the Grand Salon, Paris, accepted
one. An angry Amrita had not accepted the prize that the judges of Shimla
Exhibition had announced for her painting ‘Conversation’. The Society started
losing its wings during the Second World War and then collapsed. There was a
vacuum in the arts landscape of Shimla till an Arts College that had started at
Nahan in 1962 was shifted to Shimla in July 1968.
I may quote the name of HC Rai
as the pioneer who was instrumental in reviving the interests in fine Arts in
Shimla. He still does a hundred paintings every year at the age of eighty-five.
He was the first Principal of the Arts College and his colleagues Sanat Kumar
Chatterji, M.C. Saxena, Late K.K. Kidwai, Jawahar Lal Sharma all started showing
their talents. The people were awakened to the niceties of fine arts. In June
1981, ‘Paridhi’, a society, organised an exhibition at Masonic Hall of
paintings, sculptures and collages of renowned artists of India including
triennial painting exhibition award winners. It was a hit. No such attempt was
repeated by a non-government organisation.
It is for the Language and Culture
Department to expose the local artists to ‘happenings’ elsewhere in the art
world. Chatterjee in the HP University is running the Department of Visual Arts
single-hand headedly since he joined it in 1993. He earmarks two of his students
Chaman Sharma of Solan and Nand Lal Thakur of Dhami who have carved a niche for
themselves in the world of art. Shimla art scene will never be complete without
the mention of Bani Prosonno, who lives at Chhota Shimla, and is a great draw in
foreign countries, especially in Germany. DK Chopra, Surjit, Billy Malhans,
Sunita Walia, Samuel Masih, Arvind Ranchan, Mujib Hussain and Deepa Seth have
had their exhibitions in the town and have shown flair for fine arts. I have
purposely excluded Pahari miniature painting because that requires a separate
article.
I contacted various artists of Shimla to know about their problems and found
that their heartfelt requirement was an installation of a modern art gallery.
The rejuvenation of The Gaiety is their last hope. The denizens, they observe,
have no taste for fine arts because at the time of planning a new house, no
thought is given to ‘painting-display space’ and the town has no professional
art-buyers. The up-coming artists observed that their seniors could not form a
group, but they intended forming a society. Without a support-group, they feel,
an artist has to fight lonely battles for even art material, that is hardly
available here. HC Rai pointed out to a lacuna in the education system, as it
provided no art course in +1 and +2 classes though the feeder and higher classes
had it. This gap is a damper and needs to be filled.
Tailpiece
I asked a Shimla artist, “Do you do something in the nude?” Blushing, he
replied, “ Only bathing, sir.”
(This Write-up was carried in the Himachal Plus edition of The Tribune Dated
April 4, 2007)
In case you have visited our Page on Principal H.C. Rai, then it is fine, otherwise, please Click on the Link: H.C. Rai to access the same.
