 "Artists, framed")
In March this year, when Sotheby's put a massive V S Gaitonde painting from the collection of reclusive artist and 1960s art patron Bal Chhabda for auction, it turned to artist and chronicler Manisha Gera Baswani for a photograph of the collector. Providentially, it was a picture with the work in the background. It was also the last picture ever taken of the collector.
Baswani did not know the reclusive artist personally, but on a trip to Mumbai she called him and mentioned that she'd got him gajak from Delhi. Despite being in depression over his wife's death, Chhabda agreed to see her for a few minutes. A copy of that picture hangs on Baswani's wall. Eerily, it's the only picture in her house that has been ruined by fungus.
Baswani, a painter, has been photographing Indian artists in their working environment and creative spaces since 1992 under an exhaustive project that she calls "Artist Through the Lens". It started by her recording her teacher, A Ramachandran, during the course of a work.
Since it was too expensive to travel outside Delhi to artist studios, she would look for gallery openings in Delhi where artists would come down - although she made an exception for K G Subramanyan whom she flew down to photograph when the 86-year-old was painting a 40-foot mural on the walls of Santiniketan. He, in turn, put her in touch with sculptor Sarbari Roy Choudhury. The artist was wheelchair-bound and couldn't get up but he wanted a photograph in his studio. So, his son carried him. It was the last photograph of the legendary artist.
Baswani has archived more than 200 Indian artists and 30 from Karachi so far for what is essentially a passion, since she isn't funded. However, artists pitch in and Salima Hashmi, "the first lady" of Pakistani art, is currently helping her photograph artists in Lahore.
"It's important," says Hashmi, "to carry the notion on both sides of the great divide that there are working voices of their time. Photographs have a vast audience and travel with ease, which paintings do not. Therefore, access is a huge part of what she is doing".
The ongoing archive was shown at the India Art Fair in 2012 by the Devi Foundation as well as at the Kochi Biennale 2014, with the support of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and Saffronart Foundation. However, her favourite show has been "Subtextual Documentalists" - a joint show with Jyoti Bhatt where one documented groups of artists from the 1950s and '60s and the other documented individual contemporary ones. The difference, says Baswani, is that "most of the artists today are far more confident. But there was far more camaraderie in the Indian art world at that time. Those collective spaces have become less." She also bemoans the fact that there are barely any pictures of artists or art prints from the 1980s.
It's not an easy passion to sustain. I've seen Baswani at events for around five years now and benefited from them, as a senior artist spoke about his art for an unprecedented two hours as Baswani shot photographs - amidst guards shutting down the gallery for the night. (No picture from that evening made it to her final archive). It's also come in handy. "After Hema Upadhyay, Mrinalini Mukherjee and Bal passed away, people came to me for photographs," says Baswani. "As a fellow artist, I've entered fragile spaces where outsiders aren't allowed."
Her works often bring together artist and their artworks in a way no posed portrait could.
Does the project present any ethical dilemmas? "I used to call artists and ask them to tell me when their angst was at its highest. But I also ask each artist if their photos can be shown," she says. "Some have said, 'Not at this time'. Personal rapport is important and I respect that."
Does this archival activity take away from her painting time? "I've taken photographs in the moonlight from 10 pm to 1 am before a show at Aspinwall in Kochi". Among her favourite shoots was Krishna Reddy's. "The 92-year-old printmaker asked me to come back. And, Zarina Hashmi spent two full days in a studio with me."
She would like to shoot Paris Vishwanathan. "That'll complete the Indian part of my project."
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