Exhibition to throw light on remarkable works of rebel artist B.M. Anand

Three decades after the passing away of a painter-illustrator whose independent works mirrored his fiercely anti-establishment spirit, Brij Mohan Anand is making a return of sorts to the art circuit with a landmark exhibition in the capital.

As many as 90 epoch-defining works of Anand from 1928-1986 will be on display at the India International Centre (IIC) starting on Thursday. The 11-day show will unveil how his life and aesthetic intersected with some of the foundational events which defined and shaped modern Indian consciousness.

The exhibition, titled 'Narratives for Indian Modernity: The Aesthetic of Brij Mohan Anand', curated by art scholar Alka Pande, will open with the release of a seminal book on the artist who was a trenchant critic of both Western imperialism and Indian militarism.

"I have chosen from his wide range of almost 1,500 works which are in the B.M. Anand foundation. They belong to almost every genre of his artistic practice," Pande said.

It features more than 90 select works by the left-leaning Anand, who made no attempt to sell his paintings; instead, he believed that art was a powerful medium of social and political commentary that can be used as a voice of dissent and a tool for advancing social justice.

The exhibition will feature 35 sketches, 14 scratchboards, three scratchboard sketches, five ink drawings, six Red Cross posters, 23 book covers and five oil-on-canvas paintings.

The meticulously-researched book, also titled 'Narratives for Indian Modernity: The Aesthetic of Brij Mohan Anand', has been co-authored by writer-biographer Aditi Anand and British art historian Grant Pooke.

The book and the exhibition are the result of an accidental discovery of a massive tranche of lost works from the attic of Anand's West Delhi home, said Neeraj Gulati, founder of B.M. Anand Foundation, which is organizing the event in association with IIC. Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali will be the guest of honour.

Aditi described the Amritsar-born Anand as a highly talented and largely self-taught artist. "His starkly modernist figure compositions and apocalyptic landscapes reflect his defiant and politically subversive stance," she added.

Pooke, who teaches at the University of Kent, said Anand "appears to have retained" relations with the Communist Party of India throughout much of the adult life. "He lived to raise a family, was professionally respected and survived to see India's maturation as a social democracy.

The inaugural evening, in the presence of Culture minister Mahesh Sharma,will also see a round-table by experts from different parts of the country and abroad.

The speakers at the round-table, to be moderated by Dr Pande, include graphic artist-designer Orijit Sen, Pavan Kumar Varma, MP and director-actor-editor Sudhanva Deshpande.

---IANS

pn/vm