LONG NIGHT’S JOURNEY INTO THE DAY
Noida-based painter Viren Tanwar lashes out at the ugly underbelly of art and the spinelessness of artists that forced him leave Chandigarh
He says that when they were students, they would come here all the time. Hourlong heated arguments on art and politics would spill over other tables. They would all be excited. There was never a talk about how much money they would make in later years. It was the time of thought, he says. And the manager would wait for them to leave. Well, by the end, the waiter who was attending to us at the Indian Coffee House in Chandigarh was not very happy either.
Noida-based artist Viren Tanwar, like always, is sharply dressed—black pull-over and steel-grey trousers. Neatly trimmed grey stubble and not a hair out of place. He talks about how he started off. An academician’s son in Haryana’s Hisar, who wanted to be a painter. The father wanted his son to be in the Police. Mother wanted him to follow his heart. The son took up non-medical. “One day, the college principal saw my work. He invited IK Gujral, who went on to become the Prime Minister,
to inaugurate the exhibition that showcased 40 of my paintings. Just after that he pleaded my case to dear daddy. I landed up in Chandigarh College of Arts, and graduated in 1974.”
The artist, who in 1984, was given a scholarship by the British Council to do his post-graduation in print making from the Slade School of Arts in London, does not want to eat, just have coffee, like in his old days. The person sitting opposite makes up for it. He is here on the invitation of Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi for an audio-visual presentation titled The Story Goes On, organised in February this year.
The artist is asked if the tale of the American collector Chester E. Herwitz who landed up at his college in the 80s looking for him after being recommended by MF Hussain to see his works is true. “Oh yes. He has a brilliant collector of contemporary Indian art. The man had 40 works of Hussain besides other major Indian painters. I showed him four works that were in the college. He asked me to pack them. He didn’t ask the price. He then requested me to show him my studio. I told him, I couldn’t afford one, and that I painted in my bedroom. He insisted on seeing my bedroom, drawing a long stare from his wife. We reached my house and he bought all the works there. He then saw two blank canvasses and said that he will buy them too. He said he could see what would emerge on them. Herwitz also went to my village, saw my house, and met my friends back there.”
Tanwar, whose fourth-year college work was auctioned by Sotheby’s in the year 1995 along with contemporary masters like MF Hussain, SH Raza, Tyeb Mehta and Ranbir Kaleka, says that when one reaches the top, it doesn’t really go down well with everyone. “In the early 90s, a woman student, whom I had granted low grades complained of moral turpitude against me. I was asked by the investigation committee to leave the college but was free to join any other institute. Don’t you find it strange?” The artist recollects this time when he had no money to buy food or pay fee for his children’s school. “I could not paint for eight long years, though art historian Dr BN Goswamy and the then director of Alliance française in Chandigarh, Gilles Gueys kept exhorting me to. In fact, the latter once threatened to hang me from the exhibition wall of his gallery if I didn’t produce work for a show he was planning. ”
In 2007, Tanwar exhibited his erotic series in Chandigarh and a case under relevant Sections of the IPC was lodged against him. “Yes, the paintings were erotic—a nude man with a finger in mouth, another showed the shape of a flower painted like a vagina. What is vulgar in that? How can human anatomy be disgusting? Some so-called art critics wrote in daily papers that nudity sells. I asked them, why don’t you also paint nudes and try selling them. As an artist, I uncover layers. It is my job. I had to attend several court dates. It was harassing, but I did not give up.”
However, what disturbs Tanwar most is the fact that no one stood by him in tough times. “Of course, I was at the top. Collectors and buyers from all over the world were coming to Chandigarh looking for me. Most artists in the region were jealous. But what hurts most is that they claim to have stood by me but to set the record straight, they didn’t. In 2010, I decided to leave this city for good.” At present working on a series of miniatures on sadhus, Tanwar, whose works are part of the collection of ESSL Museum in Vienna and Peabody Essex Museum, USA and Arts India Gallery in New York, and not to mention in private collection of Lakshmi Mittal besides others, says, “What matters is the eye of those who look at art. At one my exhibitions, my academician father saw a nude. He whispered that I should have covered him. My illiterate mother immediately said that if that was done, it would have destroyed the art work.”
Other art forms I enjoy Music and literature Escaping Art Travelling in India and abroad Most moving artwork I saw recently Untitled (Ink and Graphite on paper) by Nasreen Mohamedi My favourite contemporary Indian artist Bhupen Khakkar, he was way ahead of his times All-time favourite artists? Francis Bacon & Mark Rothko