Critics and Visionaries

‘Indian Paintings of the New Millennium’ helps to map the diaspora.

By: Megan Sullivan
   In the last few decades, India has experienced a burgeoning modern art movement. Whether addressing cultural values, ethnic identities, or political, social and environmental issues, contemporary South Asian artists of all types have made India the vibrant art scene it is today.
   An exhibition of modern Indian art at Mason Gross Galleries in New Brunswick, Crossings: Contemporary Art of India, is the culminating event in a year-long celebration of the 14th Dalai Lama’s visit to Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Throughout the 2005-2006 academic year, Rutgers has addressed the themes of the Dalai Lama’s keynote speech, "Peace, War and Reconciliation," through special programming for courses, lecture series and arts events. The exhibit, curated by Helen Asquine Fazio and hosted by Mason Gross Galleries under the direction of Lawrence Waung, is on view through June 17.
   The show includes three collections: Indian Paintings of the New Millennium, a selection of paintings from the Sunanda and Umesh Gaur Collection; selections from three series of works by Indian printmaker Zarina Hashmi; and a video installation compiled by former Bombay art gallery owner Arshiya Lokhandawalla. The video installation consists of six simultaneously playing videos, all by woman artists, which explore the themes of gender and discourse of conflict and gaze.
   Ms. Fazio, a specialist in South and East Asian culture, originally curated Indian Paintings of the New Millennium in 2005 at Fairfield University’s Walsh Art Gallery. "In the new millennium, India’s contemporary artists clearly continue to negotiate the socially responsive artist’s roles as critic and visionary," Ms. Fazio writes in the exhibit catalog. "Interrogating, rather than accepting or ameliorating the harsh changes of urbanism and collision, and in many cases, actively searching for criticism, their art makes itself a witness to the daily performance of Indian postmodernity."
   The Gaurs own one of the largest collections of modern and contemporary Indian art in the United States and were named among the top 100 art collectors in America by Art & Antiques this year (and also in 2003). The couple began collecting modern Indian art in the early ’90s, prior to the explosion of attention to this category in the global art market. A rise in interest had occurred in 1997, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of India’s independence. "We were attracted to modern art and more attracted to Indian art because it’s something which we can appreciate more, connecting to the country which we came from," says Mr. Gaur, a North Brunswick resident.
   Mr. Gaur, originally from New Delhi, and Ms. Gaur, who lived in Lucknow, both came to the United States in the late ’70s. At first, the couple was primarily interested in the Progressives, who began painting during the post-independence period around 1947. Now, their main focus is the second generation of modernists.
   Aside from lending pieces for exhibits, a number of the Gaurs’ paintings are currently in storage because they don’t have enough room to display such a substantial collection. "We’re actually in the process of buying a house that will have a gallery space, so we’ll be able to enjoy it better than we are now," Mr. Gaur says.
   Nearly 30 of their more recent acquisitions are on view, each of the artists coming from distinct cultural roots. Ms. Fazio cites K.G. Subramanyan’s "Untitled (Best Bakery)" as one of the show’s iconic images that address the themes of peace, war and reconciliation. The painting illustrates the historical torching of the Muslim-owned Best Bakery in 2002, an act of retaliatory arson carried out by Hindu mobs in reaction to the Godhara train burning, an accident that was attributed to Muslim arsonists, Ms. Fazio says.
   Atul Dodiya’s "Kiss" is another piece in the show Ms. Fazio considers iconic. In the painting, a skeletal, wraith-like figure sails toward a faint outline of India, bestowing an evil kiss upon the country’s northwestern corner. Ms. Fazio writes in the accompanying text that the figure malevolently blesses the state of Gujarat and the contested country of Kashmir with his malignant touch. "It’s kind of spooky," she says of the image. "(Mr. Dodiya) is one of the most important contemporary painters in India right now."
   The painting, with the outline of India, is also about mapping. The motif of the map is very important in the Indian discourse, says Ms. Fazio, who has a master’s degree in art history and a doctorate in comparative literature from Rutgers. Before the British came to India in the 1700s, she says, India was a collection of African kingdoms that rose and fell. When the British arrived, they had the period of the Raj during which India was under the colonial authority of the British Empire. This ended in 1947 when Pakistan and India were granted independence at the onset of World War II. "The idea of the land being cut up into portions through a map," Ms. Fazio says, "that’s part of the sort of tragic discourse of Indian painters."
   Printmaker Zarina Hashmi, who explores cities, border crossings, maps and the dissolution of civilization through war and nationalistic violence in her woodcuts, has 20 prints on view as part of the exhibit. There are nine from the series Works on Cities, five from Works on Countries, and six from Journey to the Edge of Land. "She’s a very mature risen star," Ms. Fazio says. "She travels to India frequently and Pakistan where she has relatives, but most of the work is done here in the States and she has spent most of her adult life here."
   "These are all areas that have been historically important, pivotal areas that have been devastated in ancient times and most especially recently they’ve been (experiencing) great conflict and genocide," she continues.
   Though the small prints are spare and intellectual, they also have strong emotive content, Ms. Fazio says. Each location is inscribed on the prints in Ms. Hashmi’s native tongue, Urdu.
   "Most of my work is a reflection of my life," says Ms. Hashmi, "things I respond to and things I have lived through." Ms. Hashmi was born a Muslim in Aligarh, India, and was 10 years old during the partition of India. Leaving her homeland in her 20s, Ms. Hashmi has lived in many different cities, from Tokyo to Paris to Santa Cruz, before settling in the United States and making New York her base in the ’70s.
   Ms. Hashmi recalls being struck by a photograph of Grozny in The New York Times after the new millennium, in which only rubble was left of the city. The photo was taken after entire neighborhoods were destroyed, as the conflict between Russian troops and Chechen separatists continued. "I really didn’t know anything about Chechnya and I had never met a Chechnyan in my life, but I know about violence…" she says. "I know about borders that are created and how people have to leave their homes and that it’s happened all through life and all through the centuries."
   Ms. Hashmi began collecting images and clippings, reading up on histories of countries and cities and the conflicts they’ve experienced throughout their existence. From Sarajevo to Beirut, Iraq to Bosnia, Ms. Hashmi made mapped places that had been violated or desecrated in the past decade and a half. New York was the final city piece she made after 9/11. "New York has been home for 30 years," she says. "We think homes are safe havens but they’re not."
   While her city and country pieces were made in 2003, she made the prints featured in Journey to the Edge of Land in 1994. The works show aerial views of what Ms. Hashmi saw from her frequent travels in the early ’90s when she lived between New York, Santa Cruz (where she taught studio art) and Pakistan. "You look out and you know where you are, they tell you, ‘You’re flying over Europe,’" Ms. Hashmi says, "but you can’t see what’s going on, all the conflicts and all the horrors at that minute."
Crossings: Contemporary Art of India is on view at Mason Gross Galleries, 33 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, through June 17. Gallery hours: Tues.-Sat. 1-6 p.m. For information, call (732) 932-2222, ext. 798. On the Web: www.masongross.rutgers.edu