Kashinath Satyavan Salve

Q. You paint canvases, murals and high-reliefs, and you also make graphic prints. Is there any particular reason why you express yourself in so many different media?
I love to experiment with different materials. I want to see how I express myself on different surfaces, see how the ideas in my mind are affected by a different medium. I love to explore different materials, feel their differing sensitivity. For me...

Q. You paint canvases, murals and high-reliefs, and you also make graphic prints. Is there any particular reason why you express yourself in so many different media?
I love to experiment with different materials. I want to see how I express myself on different surfaces, see how the ideas in my mind are affected by a different medium. I love to explore different materials, feel their differing sensitivity. For me moving from one medium to another is no strain. I am striving towards what I will call "three-dimensional art."

Q. Can you elaborate?
My high-relief paintings are an example, just a preliminary example of course, of the direction that I want to explore. I am going to do more such work from now on.

Q.Which of these forms of expression do you enjoy working in most?
I love high-relief painting. It is interesting to me because it involves more than just paint. I have to use other materials like metal, wood, ceramic and see how I can make them combine aesthetically. I particularly like Satish Gujral's work in this mode, as well as Piraji Sagra’s, who, of course, is basically a sculptor. It’s a pity Gujral doesn't do high-reliefs as much now.

Q.Your work on canvas seems to tend towards the abstract, while your high-reliefs and murals are either referential or symbolical expressions of some idea or the other.
What never fails to fascinate me is what happens to an object when it is lit up from behind. The way light comes into view from the gaps in the object and illuminates the object. As a child I used to spend a lot of time in the woods in my village. The memory of the light playing through the trees may account for the way I treat light in my landscapes. Take my landscape, “Through the Window” (see alongside). As you can see, I am trying to catch a café lit up from within. And in front of it there are natural forms like trees. Just see how the light appears within the blocks of darkness. It is this effect that I try to catch again and again.

Q. You have done many murals. What is it about them that seems to fascinate you so much?
Apart from being inherently experimental, I have this feeling that buildings, or dead masses, gain some life, some motion, from decorative elements like murals. Murals also impart beauty into the otherwise drab living environment of cities. You know I have done the mural in the central lobby of the RBI building in Bombay. It took me four years of work to finish it. Murals are challenging because the area to work in is large, unlike a small canvas which calls for a lot of condensation.

Q. Which do you consider your best mural?
The mural on the door of the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research at Goregaon in Mumbai. It is a mural in copper, and using copper in a mural has its own challenges. As you can see, the symbol zero figures prominently in the mural. The zero is India's contribution to the world. You also see Chanakya’s sutras written out on the right hand side. I tried to connect these references to our past to the economy of the present day, how everything is interlinked, the environment, industry, banking, human relationships, everything…..I consider this mural my favourite, and my most satisfying mural upto now.

Q.You have been teaching almost all your professional life. In fact, you are equally well known as "Sir Salve." Do you enjoy teaching art as much as doing it?
I got into teaching by chance, you know. My performance in the graduation exam at J. J. School of Art got me a fellowship to teach there. And I have been teaching, and painting, ever since! But don’t get the wrong impression. I quite enjoy teaching. Moulding new artists and helping them on is yet another way of artistic self-expression for me. But it is possible that if I had not had to teach, I would have painted much more. In any case, I intend plunging into greater activity when I retire next year. The world still doesn't realize what I am capable of!

Q. How would you describe your current work?
I am working on several murals, and also doing small canvases and high-reliefs for an exhibition scheduled to be held in New York next year. The themes take on from the last book of the Bible, Revelations. You see, I have always been a pure artist. I have not done any social message work. But the world as it is now requires an interpretation which these paintings, I hope, will give. Look at the violence all around, killing for the sake of money, the lack of love for each other. There is collapse everywhere, almost like it is the end of the world. I want to portray this feeling.