The Hindu : New Delhi News : Renaissance man, Renaissance show

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Thursday, Aug 07, 2008
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New Delhi

Renaissance man, Renaissance show

Madhur Tankha

The visual cosmos: P. Khemraj’s painting titled ‘Central Railroad Station in Amsterdam’ (1962).

NEW DELHI: Described as the “Renaissance man of Indian art,” P. Khemraj has left an indelible imprint on the world of art with his vast range of works.

As a tribute to the artist who painted delicate dreams of an idyllic world of lovers, birds and mystical creatures , a special retrospective show of his art works spanning over four decades opens at Delhi Art Gallery in Hauz Khas Village here this coming Monday.

Titled “Wings of Desire,” the exhibition will showcase over 50 of the most sought after works of the late artist in a range of mediums including acrylic, pen and ink on paper, oil, pen and ink on canvas, acrylic and gold paint on ivory board and mixed media on mount board. The exhibition, which is on up to September 5, will also make available a comprehensive book on the artist.

The forthcoming exhibition showcases Khemraj’s mural-sized works on combined boards and early canvases as well as his delicate linear drawings swiftly moving on the surface with fluid grace. His series “Fluttering with hearts” is full of youthful exuberance and reveals his love for life.

According to Delhi Art Gallery director Ashish Anand, the veteran artist, who passed away in 2000, had given a new dimension to modern art with his colourful and often mind-boggling depiction of the female form that reflected sensuality and extravagant view of life.

Shedding light on Khemraj’s brush strokes, veteran art critic Keshav Malik says: “He would invite cognition of creative interplay of different forms of artistic activity brought about by his usual re-reading of his poems, avid strumming of musical instruments and formulate a visual cosmos in his canvas. His creativity represented a play.”

Born in 1934 in a big Gujarati family in Mumbai, Khemraj grew up in an environment of art and music. As a child he would dream of becoming a painter if not a musician and of visiting Paris, the Mecca of Modern Art.

The sarod-playing painter

Khemraj joined the prestigious J.J. School of Art in Mumbai in 1952. However, his undiminished passion for music motivated him to leave Mumbai in 1958 to settle down in Delhi to learn sitar from Pandit Ravi Shankar. The tight schedule of the sitar maestro eventually forced Khemraj to seek a job as an artist in a commercial studio but it never deterred him from pursuing the sargams on sarod and violin. Even after becoming an eminent artist, he would diligently do his rehearsals in music.

Concerned about the increasing domination of commercial forces and disillusioned by the mono-cultural, West-oriented trend of the Nineties, Khemraj along with three Asian artists – Lee Kye Song, Hideo Sakata and Yoko Kamijyo – initiated an art movement called “Lantern of the East.”

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