Artist Satish Gujral’s works strike a balance between the movement of life and stillness of soul. By Uma Nair

He has often been described as a ‘true renaissance artist.’ His works have marked a life-long journey of experimentation through a range of media and forms of expressions. His drawings, sculptures, paintings forms his artistic worldview, reflecting his genius.

Painter, sculptor, muralist, architect and interior designer Satish Gujral’s artistic forms, as he had said earlier, are “determined by the force of necessity, where all of them are locked together in a common structural frame work, measure, system of movement, sonority and echo.”

He brings something similar with the Chawla Art Gallery, where he showcases a symposium of his works at the India Art Fair 2019.

Sculptures of finesse

Homogeneity defines his sensibility. Sculptures have played  a significant role in his artistic growth. His sculptures have been formed by a synthesis of the movement of life and industry with the stillness of the soul. It incorporates the darkness of dense material with the luminosity of enlightenment, referencing the wisdom of an experienced sage.

It is said that during the 1940s and 50s, Gujral’s discontent with the social situation in India during the Partition fuelled his artistic output and cemented his interest in architecture, art and sculpture. Gujral’s firm grounding in applied arts created the basis for his understanding of the medium which he used to analyse space and structure even in the most commonplace objects.

He also explores the architectonic qualities of form through an elegant juxtaposition of minimalist lines and shapes. This is evident in his Untitled burnt wood forms that embrace spirituality and abstraction. During the 1960s, Gujral worked with the architect Le Corbusier on the Capital Complex in Chandigarh. If we look around, we can sense his prowess of line, texture and colour that became as important as the subject itself. He projects ideas through substance and design to create a mood which envelopes his creations.

Untitled works

In an interview in 1994, he said, “While creating a sculpture, I do not begin with an idea. I let my feeling convert itself into form. Form for me is not guided, it grows out of an inner  feeling.” He elucidated, “It is unlikely that an idea comes before form. It’s like an arrow that reaches its target before its sound; or only after a baby has been born, we think of a name. This is one of the reasons I do not give any title to my forms, I want to allow the beholder to find their own form in my sculptures. Art should liberate and not enslave either the artist or the viewer.”

With an in-depth understanding and knowledge of architecture, Gujral reflected upon forms and said, “Even before the form may emerge, many a times the artist is provoked by a medium. I recall that when Louis Kahn was asked as to why he was working in brick for his building in Ahmedabad, he responded, ‘I conceived a form and then I asked what material it wanted to be clad in and it replied brick.’”

Burnt wooden sculptures

His burnt wood sculptures contains cowrie shells, gold leaf and beads.

Once while celebrating Lohri, Gujral was struck by the beautiful pink, red and multi-coloured cinders emerging from a burning log. Both the texture and colour attracted him and he immediately knew that he wanted to work in burnt wood. However, he did not know what he wanted to create with it. He was obsessed with the sooty blackness of burnt wood from which he then created deities and other forms interspersed with a hint of vermillion and gold like the glowing embers of the elemental fire. One of the greatest qualities is the power of the narrative it holds. It brings the traditions forward. The medium was particularly suited to the juxtaposition of tradition and contemporary sensibility which he infused into it. The solo show gives us vignettes into the brilliance of his career and his persevering passion in all forms.