THE BARD OF BENARES
Manu Parekh’s new paintings again pay tribute to a changing Kashi and its unchanging spirit
Widely regarded as one of India’s leading modern lights, Manu Parekh, 80, says, “You can create art from art—or from life.” The “life” that Parekh speaks of is abundant in his work. It was conspicuous at Parekh’s NGMA retrospective last year, and is now evident in 42 of the artist’s new compositions that have been compiled in Manu Parekh: Recent Paintings. The book is defined by Parekh’s belief—“nothing is original.” He says, “This attitude towards revealing my influences is open and very honest.”
Somewhat expectedly, many of Parekh’s new works revolve around Benares. For the past three decades, the artist has created a magical Benares series that has been brimming with beauty and poetic symbolism. In his new work, Parekh again devotes himself to capturing the ‘city of light’. Rather than Monet’s Rouen cathedral experiments, Parekh’s technique is more Vincent Van Gogh and F.N. Souza. There is intimacy and isolation in his Benares landscapes—marked by temple facades, graffiti and the Ganga.
Born in Ahmedabad, Parekh, a Sir J.J. School of Art alumnus, first visited Benares in 1980 after his father’s death. Raised as a devout Hindu, he felt an instant connection to the city. Before him, M.F. Husain and Ram Kumar had famously travelled to Benares together. Husain, restless and nomadic, packed his bags and left after a week, while Kumar stayed and made
Benares his muse.
More than Husain and Kumar, though, it is the radical Souza whose influence can be unmistakably felt on Parekh’s landscape. They were great friends, but Parekh shrugs off the comparison. “I am a great admirer of Souza’s powerful landscapes,” he explains. “Souza once said that when he paints a landscape, he takes a church from England, boats from Amsterdam and trees from Paris to create his own Goan image. In my Benares landscapes, I wanted to create a particularisation of a place, instead.”
If Parekh’s art sometimes resembles a child’s dream, blame it on his affinity for Paul Klee, whose primitive and geometric abstractions continue to surprise him. In much of Parekh’s art, he has found a way of marrying Klee with Indian folk elements. Like Klee, he draws inspiration from things as simple as flowers: “One morning, they are on a God’s head. The next, trampled under the feet of devotees.”
One of the most fascinating works featured in Parekh’s book is a retelling of Van Gogh’s iconic ‘The Potato Eaters’. Parekh, who has worked in Indian villages as a craftsman, recalls visiting a poor famine-struck village in Odisha once. “I immediately connected the situation to ‘The Potato Eaters’.” As someone who believes that everything is connected to everything else, life to art and art to life, Parekh’s work is a constantly evolving theatre of possibilities. The question is urgent—is there a lot more art left in him? “I’ve got a few things on my mind.” ■