GULAMMOHAMMED SHEIKH | THE TIME TRAVELLER
"Painting isn't only about beauty. It's also about pain," says the eminent artist Gulammohammed Sheikh, nodding emphatically. The 87-year-old painter and poet, a National Award winner and Padma Shri as well as a Padma Bhushan, has won many accolades and recognition for his artistic achievements worldwide. He has been visiting faculty at universities, participated in the early art biennales across the globe and written extensively about art and art history.
His latest show, the first solo undertaking in Mumbai after 20 years, is titled Kaarawaan and Other Works. Having moved from New Delhi's iconic Vadehra Art Gallery to Mumbai's equally epochal Chemould Prescott Road, it will be on view until May 15. The 80 x 257 inches acrylic on canvas work titled 'Kaarawaan' that we are entranced by is the cynosure of all eyes, and not merely for its incredible size. A plethora of famous faces can be spotted throughout, from Mirabai to Frida Kahlo, from Gandhi to Van Gogh⦠his interest in world history quite evident. Sheikh says that he visualises this boat as a modern-day ark, filled with kindred spirits, each of whom rose up against xenophobia in their own way. Art historian and curator R. Siva Kumar calls it "a precious cargo of cultural memories negotiating turbulent waves, a large map of our troubled world with St Francis and Kabir flanking it like guardian saints".
Sheikh speaks often of pain, which has almost become a leitmotif for him, ever since he read that 'the twentieth century was a century of pain', all manmade. So, while his work depicts wonder and beauty, it also portrays pain. Sheikh references the mourning woman in 'Kaarawaan' as he speaks of how the events in Ukraine and Gaza have influenced the painting. Since a work of art is created over a spectrum of time (he started this one in 2019), such things have come to it across different periods, he explains. His work has depth and a wealth of iconography. From a reference to Amrita Sher-Gil to a speaking tree, to a cityscape and clouds, every aspect is imbued with meaning. There are also drawings, water colours and digital prints that depict the genesis of 'Kaarawaan'.
It's this painting that Sheikh refers to when he speaks about his creative process. He likens it to rummaging through all of the images and stories that one has accumulated since childhood through what you have seen, read, or heard. "You examine each and see if it fits. If it does, then well and good. If not, then you replace it."
This is not the first time that Sheikh's work has a theme that addresses injustice or xenophobia. Even as far back as the 1970s, he depicted the subjugation of people and the erasure of human freedom in two paintingsâ'Man II' and 'Speechless City'âwhich were his response to the war in Vietnam and the Emergency in India.
In this exhibition, his world map in circular form, rooted in a picture postcard of a 13th-century map that he purchased from the British Library, is rich with Indian and Western cultural motifs, comfortable in each other's company, for they transcend borders of religion to make you contemplate complex philosophical constructs. And then there are the four ingenious kaawads, going beyond their prosaic role as travelling shrines, their multiple doors opening into galaxies peopled by the likes of Kabir and Gandhi, and commentary on contemporary subjects such as the mindless construction in our cities.
Sheikh lives and works in Vadodara, the city where he studied Fine Arts (and later taught) at the Maharaja Sayajirao University, before attending the Royal College of Art in London in the 1960s. Both painting and poems as an expression of his creativity and strong opinions have stayed with him since his early years as a schoolboy. Questioning the status quoâbe it in art or current affairsâhas given his mind and work a certain edge that sets him apart from others of his ilk and keeps him relevant. He believes that it was his engagement with the history of Indian and world art that taught him that travelling, meeting and layering of cultures was integral to the historical flow of our collective human story. Through this exhibition, a veritable caravan of cultural wealth, which holds a telling mirror to society in subtle ways, we get a glimpse of his worldview that puts us in a reflective reverie as the best kind of art does.
2024-04-19T16:21:43Z dg43tfdfdgfd