Sign Of The Times

The place I now work is two doors down from the studio of Manjit Bawa. The bearded painter has long been the darling of the salons and soirees of Delhi and Mumbai the ladies who lunch love that air of a dervish about him with his flowing robes,Biblical hairdo and a proclivity to burst into a Sufi song before dinner is served. So,I could not help being a Peeping Jain: we often while away our time waiting for the lift by looking into his studio. Our privileged peeking became all the more pertinent with the news in the papers last week of the controversy about a Bawa miniature that had been sent by a Delhi art gallery for a Christie's auction. Bawa,it seems,had complained to the international auction house that his signature had been forged. The bidding was then stopped. But what added grist to the mill was the statement by his former apprentice Mahinder Soni,who claimed that most of Bawa's oeuvre for which he was paid lakhs was a joint effort by equals. But the frisson of scandal apart,the controversy raises some crucial points about the nature of creativity. Bawa was actually following tradition both of the Renaissance and the one closer to home. Ruebens did it. Rembrandt did it. And so have Jamini Roy and Raja Ravi Varma. And many other artists today do it,away from the public glare. The master conceives of the work of art and the apprentice fills in the insignificant parts of the canvas. Often,the boss-artist makes a drawing on paper and the underling traces it on the canvas.
For example,Raja Ravi Varma used to paint the major portions of a work and leave the background to his brother Raja Raja Varma,his wife Rama Varma or his sister a veritable family affair. Interestingly,in 1621 Ruebens wrote a letter,while in Antwerp,addressed to ''My Lord Ambassador Carlton'',in which he requested that a painting which had been done by him be returned. The astute painter added,the ''new picture'' would be ''entirely by my own hand,without the admixture of the work of anyone else''. As they say: nothing new about this. Shall we say that creativity is not always in the hands of an artist,but in his mind?