P M Kolte

Q.How and to what do you trace your art beginnings?
I come from middle class family and have lived and studied in Mumbai. After my 11th standard, I decided to do a five-year diploma course in art from the J.J. School. The call of the art world was too strong for me to resist. After completing my art course, I freelanced as an illustrator and artist for four years, of which I spent two years as a designer at...

Q.How and to what do you trace your art beginnings?
I come from middle class family and have lived and studied in Mumbai. After my 11th standard, I decided to do a five-year diploma course in art from the J.J. School. The call of the art world was too strong for me to resist. After completing my art course, I freelanced as an illustrator and artist for four years, of which I spent two years as a designer at Bombay Dyeing. Then in 1974, I joined JJ as a teacher and was there till 1994, when I took voluntary retirement to be on my own.My family had no art leanings. Except my maternal uncle who used to copy art. I would sit for hours, watching him graph the original on canvas and then copy it. So my perception of art was copying, with which I began.

Q. What are the influences on your work?
I owe a lot to my teachers. I used to study at the habbildas school where my art teacher helped me evolve and understand colours. There were Mr.Dattar, Narkar and Joshi, who have taught me art and music, and to whom I owe my earlier understanding of art. Then my teachers at the Sir J.J. School of Art, especially Shankar Palsikar influenced me spiritually and professionally. I consider him my guru. He used to tell me stories from Sanskrit literature. Among the contemporary artists, I have admired the works of M. F. Husain and V.S. Gaitonde. Frankly, when I started out I new very little about the Progressive Artists Group or about abstractionism and impressionists.Gaitonde is like an idol for me, he has mesmerized me. His abstracts have some fascinating imagery. Today, I can understand Gaitonde etter, because I understand that there doesn't have to be any meaning in art. Art gives meaning to life. The process of making art gives you joy, an adhyatmik (inner) joy. Someone like Mohan Samant also fascinates me because he has experimented with so many alien materials, like Plaster of Paris in his works. Husain I have always admired for his drawings. They are forceful and confident and show the relationship between the artist and his canvas. He absorbs you in his work; it is fluid, like water. Raza is a visually intelligent artist. He constructs painting; his work is well organized; yet not organized. Raza has the tendency to structure, but not obviously.

Q. Your biggest influence has been Swiss painter Paul Klee.
Yes, if Palsikar has given my life a direction, Paul Klee has done the same to my art. Klee has written, "Man is a form of nature and should follow nature. If he does that, he will also paint like nature." Till then, we were imitating nature, not following it. Klee was the one who said that nature is within yourself and you are a part of nature. I think he was a silent revolutionary and a great thinker. He has transformed me thought wise.

Q.The contemporary Indian artists, right from the progressive Artists Group, have attempted going back to the roots. There is a lot of spirituality and the concept of shunya in their work, like yours and Raza's for instance. What prompted this return to the roots?
I think it was a reaction against the British form of Art. The British had established four schools of art Mumbai, Lahore, Kolkata and Chennai. Their main aim was to produce Indian draughtsmen who can be used for town planning and beautifying. The students of Sir J.J. school of Art have for instance have sculpted the entire VT station. They didn't want contemporary art to grow in India. That is why they encouraged artists like Raja Ravi Varma, whose art I consider as popular or calendar art.

Q.Has the Progressive Artists Group had any influence on your work?
I am very junior to them, but if I were to go back in time, I would say that the six artist who formed the group were trying to do some contemporary work, but in the Western art form. They tried to bring change in the art atmosphere dominated by British art, and exposed it to Western or European art form. That art was different; it was based on a lot of isms i.e., expressionism, abstractionism, and impressionism. The Progressive Artists painted something like the European artists. And this restricted their work to an elite group.Even today, Indian art is limited to the elite. Instead of taking it from the West, they could have grown from their Indian roots itself. Among them, Husain has been experimenting a lot. He travels a lot, and I feel his art is alive.

Q.Today there is a growing awareness about art. How do you view this situation?
It is good that there is awareness. My objection is that the process of growth is very slow. There has to be a churning, there has to be debates about a particular artist and his art style. There are only views and anti views. That's because all people involved in art like artists, collectors, connoisseurs, and critics don't want to hurt anybody. Art is considered an investment, and money spoils everything. I challenge that if people stop buying art, 90 per cent of the painters will stop painting. A lot of people paint because art is saleable.

Q.There is a lot of awareness of Indian Art in the West. How do you view this trend?
Yes there is awareness but the Indian art that sells is the one that is defined by the West. They appreciate our miniature and figurative works. There is no appreciation for live art. Even today our artists want appreciation from the West. I don't think you are a global person only because you have studied in the West or sell well there. Sant Tukaram lived in Dehu road. What makes him global is the content of his writing, which is relevant even today, globally.

Q.Do you consider Indian craftsmen as artist? Why do you think modern artist have not adopted the motifs and idioms of folk and tribal art and given a contemporary shape to it?
To answer the first part of your question, I won't ifferentiate between art and craft. A sculpture is more craft oriented. There is craft in painting and painting in craft. But craft has a specific function, which makes it at a level below art. If you buy an antique piece not for its functional use, but because it gives you joy than yes, it can be called art. In Australia, aboriginal artists are not painting in their original, conventional manner. But even if you take the Warlis to Paris, they will still keep their original forms and figures, and their subject too will not change. For the second part, tribal art like Bastar have evolved through thousands of years. They are not merely paintings, but religious rituals. To understand their idiom, we have to go back to their roots, from where they evolve. In this fast moving world, no artist has the time to do that. Yes, if an artist is moved from within to use and experiment with a tribal or folk art form, it may be possible.

Q.Looking back, how has the process of evolution as an artist been like?
I don't come from an elite family. Art was considered the preserve of elite because they had the time and the money to understand and pursue art.I come from a background where it's in your culture to survive first and then do what you want. Today, I am doing what I want and trying to survive. But for 30 years, I was trying to survive. The entire section of society I come from is built like that. It's only now that I have realised that if I desire to paint, I need to forego certain pleasures. This has given me strength. I was fortunate that I got the job in the JJ school because it helped me to understand art and be close to it. It's there I realised why I wanted to paint. It took me years to understand that I am not good for anything else. I can't live without painting. Sanskrit, literature and aesthetics, which I have studied over the years, has opened my inner eye. I strongly feel painting is a visual medium, and deals with the sense of seeing. And I paint to expand this sense of seeing; I try to understand life through my painting.

Q.You did some bits of installation in 1983. What promoted your experimentation with installations?
I have done installations twice. Once, at the Sir J.J. School of Art, where the mood was gloomy. I did an installation called Happening, which in art parlance means to shock viewers so that it may infuse some thought.I wanted to revitalize the mood at the JJ school, which at that time, was almost like a dead body. Me and some of my students wrapped a fiat car in newspapers. When you wrap something in paper, it changes shape and form. The newspapers that wrapped the car contained space within. Newspaper gives you news everyday, yet once you have read it, it becomes stale. In another installation, we tied a huge ladder with gas balloons and released it in air. The very next day, even students and art teachers from other departments came up and asked me why we did that. It created debate. The recent installation I did was by joining two umbrellas and attaching it to pipe. It was a statement against installation. I have nothing against installations, but what we are doing in the name of this art form, is not ours. It is borrowed from the West. I chose the umbrellas because it is such a unique Indian symbol. One, there is a lot of rain in India. And two, it represent some kind of security, a shelter. I feel we Indians are always insecure. Indian society is so corrupt because of this insecurity. For 400 years we have lived under the Mughal and British rule, which was quite brutish. And any kind of shelter gives us security. The umbrella also represents the lotus, which comes out from Vishnu's navel. In this lotus sits Brahma.