Born in the early1930s, Piraji Sagara was an artist from Ahmedabad who took his creativity beyond the canvas. Not only did he introduce wood collages, but also painted on brass and tin plates inspired by the Gujarati folk traditions. From 1950s to ‘70s, he travelled extensively to display his work around the world including the Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil, Art Now in India exhibition around Europe, Exhibition of Asian Artists by Fukukoma Museum of Art, Tokyo and was also invited to the 12th international festival of painters at Cagne Sur-Mer, France.
He dedicated the latter part of his life to teaching art. Though he passed away in 2014, his work remains as a manifestation of the Gujarati culture post Independence, and is showcased at an exhibition titled Whittled Spaces at Akara Art, Mumbai, till December 22.
His son and daughter-in-law, Rajesh and Sharmila Sagara, who have researched Piraji Sagara’s career, give us a sneak peek into the life of the artist and his artistic philosophy.
HIS THEMES
“As a young boy Piraji loved to draw, in sand, on roads and to amuse his friends and family. His mother always encouraged him to study art. He received an award by a well-known Gujarati artist Ravishankar Raval. Piraji used to visit his studio, he observed the students from a distance and his inclination towards art grew and he thus pursued it further,” says Rajesh, as Sharmila adds, “Piraji was a voracious reader since an early age. He enjoyed reading French literature, works of Russian writers and major theorists. His art has roots in the forms of human existence, pain, emotions. His expressions have always been questions of human existence. He was rooted to his culture and the works were drawn from his environment. His works were the voice of this culture and thus his art is not separate from himself or his being.”
Sharmila claims that her father-in-law always treated her as an artist and encouraged her to write. “I got a little busy with my work, my teaching at the university but I always had this work waiting. It was a compelling moment a year ago when I started research on Piraji’s life and work. I have seen him closely, working, reading, walking and working. I owe a lot of my interest in world literature, my understanding of contemporary art to him and thus there has been a strong urge to tell his story,” she says.
HIS CAREER
Piraji’s early works from 1950s are mostly on paper or canvas. “I see that phase as an exploration of his understanding of his skill limits and thereby working on it. Since the early 1960s, he started using various materials and thus created his collage and assemblage works. I consider that these wood collages are his unique contribution to Indian Art. It is total deconstruction of forms, mediums, materials and creating plurality. Though he was trained as a painter, his works speak of his negotiations with the space and the dimension. His works are spatial. And thus there isn’t a just linear evolution in forms but it is his wisdom, his existence and the shift in his environment that he kept challenging through various mediums and styles. Even at a much later stage, he was interested to study birds, animals or simply do a pencil portrait of his students,” says Sharmila, adding that through her research and interactions with artists from the 1960s to contemporary artists, it is clear that no one becomes an artist because of their viability, intellectually or financially. “It is that compulsion to express, to tell, to share something which leads them to become an artist. The art is nothing else but the wish to create. When that urge to create is there, one does not think of the viability of the profession, it is their self expression. Artists definitely have more opportunities now but even in the 1960s, there were a lot of openings. Post Independence artists worked towards a modern India. They became a part of the Nehruvian dream. Artists were more connected to each other then than they are now. They lived in a community where they allowed their liking, disliking, differences to grow. Though we are living in the times of internet and social media, we live fragmented lives,” she continues.
HIS TRAVELS
Rajesh Sagara shares that his father spoke a lot of his travels. “When he was young, he travelled to parts of Rajasthan and documented his experiences of local art and craft through his sketches and works on paper. He was always fascinated by mountains, in 1960s, he travelled to Kashmir during which time he created his Kashmir Series. Through portraits of people, houses, mountains, he studied the culture there and explored the relation between man and snow-capped mountains. Through this series, he expresses how he saw places. To him each place has an existence, it lives,” he recalls, adding how his father travelled extensively for work from Brazil to Cagnes- Sur Mer, France to Tokyo, Paris and the Sao Paulo Biennale, and spoke fondly of his love of French Modern Masters and his visits to museums and exploring the streets of Europe.
HIS PEERS
Rajesh believes that his father was a complete people’s person. “Our house was an open studio with many rooms situated at Guptanagar, Ahmedabad. The doors were always open to all his friends and guests. Many of his artist friends would visit often and worked on their own artworks at his studio. There were Indians and foreigners alike and it was a hub of cultural activity. In fact, Jeram Patel started working on his blow torch series at our place,” says Rajesh.
He also remembers how Bhupen Khakhar was a regular visitor who spent a lot of time with him and his siblings singing songs or lullabies at bedtime. “Jagdish Swaminathan, Ghulam Sheikh, Bal Chhabra, MF Husain, K K Hebbar, S H Raza, Sankho Choudhury and Ambadas were regular visitors and I have grown up in their company. The gatherings were filled with much laughter and creativity and that is what I remember most clearly,” he adds.