Free spirit

Studio potter, artist and photographer Devi Prasad finally gets the recognition he deserves in this sumptuously produced book

Re-creating the life of someone with as many talents as Devi Prasad — studio potter, artist trained in the tradition of Nandalal Bose, photographer and expert do-it-yourself (DIY) man — is surely an exciting task. More so when the curator of the 2010 exhibition of the same name happens to be the overall author of a visually sumptuous, well-researched book that skillfully uses stunning images interpolated with essays by experts on Devi Prasad’s corpus of work spanning 65 years. Sadly, the artist was not there to see in print his life’s achievements laid out for the informed as well as those interested in the history of contemporary Indian art practice.

The son of a well-to-do cloth merchant from Dehra Dun, Devi Prasad developed an early interest in craft watching his mother Ramkali fashion perfect choolhas and brooms. Encouraged by his older brother, he started applying to art schools and was overjoyed when in 1938 a hand-written post card from Nandalal Bose offered him a place at Kala Bhavan. He was then 17 years old. Devi Prasad spent the next six highly creative years in Viswa Bharati, painting, drawing and imperceptibly absorbing the growing buzz of the freedom movement. He wrote of the influence of Rabindranath Tagore on him and, of course, of Master moshai— as Nandalal Bose was called by his students.

While Tagore, whose educational philosophy was based on a firm belief in East-West synergy, could not agree with some of Gandhi’s views, he would never think of stopping his students from choosing their own ideological positions; many, including Devi Prasad joined the Quit India movement in 1942. In fact, Nandalal had been asked by the Mahatma to organise handicrafts-based exhibitions at the Congress sessions. By then, Devi Prasad was well integrated into the syncretist Kala Bhavan ethos that included a receptive understanding of the influential Bauhaus movement. He found the latter’s emphasis on functional art very appealing and wrote approvingly of the movement that treated “functionality and aesthetics” as “two sides of the same coin”.

In this environment of many influences, currents and eddies, it was not surprising that Devi Prasad experimented with more than one art form, including photography. He had started taking photographs of people and visitors to Shantiniketan, his portfolio adding to the fairly substantial one of Viswa Bharati developed by Shambhu Shaha and others. Devi Prasad’s eye would often zero in on moments unintended for the public gaze of the camera.

By the time he left Viswa Bharati, Devi Prasad’s emotive wash and tempera works reflected the influence of Abanindranath, Benode Behari Mukherjee, Ramkinkar Baij and, of course, Master moshai, rare teachers of a fast-evolving art style that was to be known as the Bengal School. When he moved to Sevagram, Devi Prasad branched out into pottery using terracotta, textiles and exhibition design; it was at Sevagram too that he became an art teacher, gradually evolving what educationist Krishna Kumar calls in his essay, his “theory of peace”. Building on Rabindranath Tagore and M K Gandhi’s understanding of freedom for India, he nurtured the individual child’s quest for freedom and creativity through various art forms.

Devi Prasad’s wanderings and mission of self-discovery were by no means over and in 1962 he arrived in London to work as the Secretary General of the War Resisters’ International, a well-established pacifist organisation. In his assessment, Bob Overy, a British anti-nuclear peace activist, feels that “Devi had achieved a great deal in taking the Gandhian approach to conflict to the European pacifists”. And indeed, Devi Prasad was an articulate exponent on non-violence, writing, speaking and lobbying for what he believed was the way to go. When away from work at the WRI, he was involved in various DIY activities — a necessary pastime in what were financially difficult years for the family. Pottery came back into his life in 1973, when, as a parting gift, his colleagues at WRI gave him a wheel. He now became a professional potter, selling his teapots, bowls and vases to a discerning public. That little is known about Devi Prasad’s contribution to the place of ceramics in the Indian craft movement is brought out well in Kristine Michael’s informative essay, “A Universal Spirit”. Tracing the history of contemporary studio pottery in India, she writes of Devi Prasad’s important role in convincing the “formal art school trained ceramist, the hobby potter and the development field worker, the wisdom and aesthetic of our rich cultural heritage”.

A fitting tribute to a man whose work was rarely exhibited and known mainly by a few cognoscenti. The Making of a Modern Indian Artist-Craftsman — Devi Prasad does well in bringing into focus his life; the publishers too — whose usual fare is academia — need to be commended for bringing out an art book of high quality. A little more attention, however, could have been paid to tightening the language of some of the pieces.

 

Malavika Karlekar edits the Indian Journal of Gender Studies. She is the author of Re-visioning the Past: Early Photography in Bengal 1875-1915

THE MAKING OF A MODERN INDIAN ARTIST-CRAFTSMAN - DEVI PRASAD
Authors: Naman P. Ahuja
Publisher: Routledge
Pages: 317
Price: Rs 2,495