| There was a time, some 40 years ago, when Delhi's Kumar Art Gallery would pay artists a monthly salary of Rs 500 every month, and they were required to paint and give the gallery their works "" on average, at least one every month. |
| Serbjeet Singh remembers even M F Husain being on its rolls, but even though he was initially bonded with the gallery, he opted out soon after. |
| But the gallery still has some of that work which it now sells for Rs 40,000-50,000, he says. |
| For a 77-year-old, Serbjeet Singh is spry and alert, and still paints "" though the passion has now dimmed. But then, even at the height of his career, he was never a busy painter "" unlike his peers in the profession "" but a filmmaker. |
| Nevertheless, Serbjeet Singh has made a name for himself as a man who paints (as indeed he also films) the Himalayas, and his works have been likened to the elemental lines of everyone from B C Sanyal to Ram Kumar. But for all that, he has never commanded a huge market, nor opened himself for commercial exploitation. |
| Part of the reason was his doggedness that did not make room for any change in the kind of work he was doing. For another, collectors always felt he was a filmmaker first and a painter next, and therefore did not give him the due he should have got, says a gallerist. |
| The artist himself has kept gallerists at some distance, preferring to sell his works directly. On average, he says he does no more than a half-dozen paintings every year, and holds an exhibition every five years or so. |
| "People say they would like to do my show at India International Centre, or India Habitat Centre, or at some five-star hotel, but I do not wish to get involved." |
| Despite his maverick ways, Serbjeet Singh's works should get a price. "He is currently not in fashion," says another gallerist, "but the wheel is bound to come around, and because of the rarity of his works, his price will ascend hugely. It is a good thing to have him in your portfolio." |
| Ironically, it is for his digital prints of the Himalayan panoramas that Singh gets paid as much as Rs 1 lakh. But then, he says that he's the only expert of his kind to do panoramas that have earned him the admiration of even the Indian Army. |
| Also, Singh was the first to start using acrylics four decades back, when Satish Gujral4 and Husain were still defending oils. |
| "They're like the tempera Dutch masters would use," he gloats, "and can last over 5,000 years." Or almost as long as the Himalayas he loves to paint. |
Explore Business Standard