Veteran of abstract art gives Delhi a new show

It's an attitude towards work that is so typical of his generation of artists — an attitude that not just made them but also became the groundwork on which Indian art built its structure that we so love to admire today. Despite old age and despite not- somuch in pink- of- health, Jeram Patel, the 81- year- old renowned artist from Baroda is marking his presence daily at his ongoing exhibition at Triveni Kala Sangam. Even if it involves sniffling almost ceaselessly and sitting with feet stretched on another chair and covered in a blanket.

“ If work has to be done, it has to be done,” he says nonchalantly, making nothing of the special effort he is putting in to be present at his exhibition. That attitude, one can gather, must have been the reason why Patel was able to pursue art in the first place. “ My family didn’t appreciate me taking to painting but I knew that no matter what, I would continue to paint. After all, what is to be done, has to be done,” he repeats the refrain almost unconsciously.

What renders Patel’s art special is the fact that it was not just his love for paints and brushes that made him an artist but also his subconscious ideology to give a new, individual identity to the art of a new nation. Along with fellow artists such as N. S. Bendre, Sankho Chowdhuri and Jagdish Swaminathan, he was instrumental in founding the Group 1890, a collective that sought to free Indian art from the trappings of colonial influences.

“ Today, people don’t have the strength to question and take stands. Art too is purely a business of paying obeisance,” says the artist, almost at the risk of giving vent to a generational angst, that is not totally untrue.

Like his ideology, his art too has stood the test of time — he has painted in black and white for as long as he can remember, and even his latest works follow his tryst with the two colours. It should not come as a surprise that all the 14 canvases on display were finished only in past three months.

Besides Patel, an individual one should not miss meeting if visiting the show, is collector and admirer Asit Shah, who has brought this show to the city. While Patel himself would not like to indulge in talking about his art, Shah offers great insight into what makes Patel’s art great.