Self Portrait By Baburao Sadvelkar
Baburao Sadvelkar grew up at Kolhapur, reading books about world's great painters, while the painters of fame in his city were excellent in portrait-painting. Later in Bombay, at Sir JJ School of Art, his notions changed. Baburao, a 'devotee' of John Singer Sargent, JM Whistler and Augustus John, now paid attention to impressionists : Manet, Monet and Degas. Portraiture was still a passion for Sadvelkar, who wrote : days and nights, I used to work as a portaitoholic. My griefs and joys centred around whether I'd bring on my canvas the exact light and the resultant hues of my model. I wanted my models to be represented aesthetically, with the intriguing folds of their clothes, their limbs rendered expressively. Moreover, I wanted my portraits to suffice the high qualities of a good composition. For this I used to contemplate every patch, every gesture of my palette-knife even while I was not painting.
The Bombay art trinity, viz., Rudolf Von Leyden, Walter Langhammer and
E. Schlesinger, had appreciated Baburao's understanding of portrait-painting. But for Sadvelkar, these accolades were only secondary to his artistic ecstasy that would come only after a good portrait is done. For him, portrait-painting was, 'a spiritual and alluring act ', and his portraits with an impressionist-inspired portraits were truly a journey within. Sadvelkar climbed the ladder of success, but he seems to have distanced himself from commissioned portraits. He did not want his passion to be a lucrative skill.
This self-portrait, in his twenties, looks straight at you. Eyes open with a dream of becoming 'great artist', and lips that want to say something, lead us to the signature Baburao/ Bulganin cut beard, and the forthright shoulders that would late bear the art-directorship of Maharashtra state.
Baburao Sadvelkar's stylistic journey that began with his schooldayKolhapur landscapes in watercolour, went a long way ahead, to hisimpressionist-inspired portraits of 1950s and 60s and then to the'semi-abstract' themes that he handled with rollers and oils the1980s.This picture, Sadvelkar's self-portrait represents a juncture when hewas reckoning with the impressionist painters in practice and thehigh-modern ideas of art in theory. Though the impressionistic orgy ofcolour, common in the great french exponents of this style, isalmost absent here and is replaced by browns, it has a simlar displayof display colour sensations!The painting has free brushwork and lots of patches, prominent amongthese are the 7 to 9 pale ochre patches on the face and ear. theydefine this painting. The still brighter white patches balance thedark tones in a striking manner, and the browns establish the visualcontinuity. There is a scumble of Indian red in the middle, which isappropriated with strokes of similar shade on the shirt. There ishardly any drawing here: the act is 'painting'.The strokes in this self-portrait testifies the joie de vivre of ayound Baburao. Its compositional aspect leads the viewer from light todark, from under the head of the painter to his eye that looksstraight towards the future.
- Abhijeet Tamhane
Baburao Sadvelkar grew up at Kolhapur, reading books about world's great painters, while the painters of fame in his city were excellent in portrait-painting. Later in Bombay, at Sir JJ School of Art, his notions changed. Baburao, a 'devotee' of John Singer Sargent, JM Whistler and Augustus John, now paid attention to impressionists : Manet, Monet and Degas. Portraiture was still a passion for Sadvelkar, who wrote : days and nights, I used to work as a portaitoholic. My griefs and joys centred around whether I'd bring on my canvas the exact light and the resultant hues of my model. I wanted my models to be represented aesthetically, with the intriguing folds of their clothes, their limbs rendered expressively. Moreover, I wanted my portraits to suffice the high qualities of a good composition. For this I used to contemplate every patch, every gesture of my palette-knife even while I was not painting.
The Bombay art trinity, viz., Rudolf Von Leyden, Walter Langhammer and
E. Schlesinger, had appreciated Baburao's understanding of portrait-painting. But for Sadvelkar, these accolades were only secondary to his artistic ecstasy that would come only after a good portrait is done. For him, portrait-painting was, 'a spiritual and alluring act ', and his portraits with an impressionist-inspired portraits were truly a journey within. Sadvelkar climbed the ladder of success, but he seems to have distanced himself from commissioned portraits. He did not want his passion to be a lucrative skill.
This self-portrait, in his twenties, looks straight at you. Eyes open with a dream of becoming 'great artist', and lips that want to say something, lead us to the signature Baburao/ Bulganin cut beard, and the forthright shoulders that would late bear the art-directorship of Maharashtra state.
Baburao Sadvelkar's stylistic journey that began with his schooldayKolhapur landscapes in watercolour, went a long way ahead, to hisimpressionist-inspired portraits of 1950s and 60s and then to the'semi-abstract' themes that he handled with rollers and oils the1980s.This picture, Sadvelkar's self-portrait represents a juncture when hewas reckoning with the impressionist painters in practice and thehigh-modern ideas of art in theory. Though the impressionistic orgy ofcolour, common in the great french exponents of this style, isalmost absent here and is replaced by browns, it has a simlar displayof display colour sensations!The painting has free brushwork and lots of patches, prominent amongthese are the 7 to 9 pale ochre patches on the face and ear. theydefine this painting. The still brighter white patches balance thedark tones in a striking manner, and the browns establish the visualcontinuity. There is a scumble of Indian red in the middle, which isappropriated with strokes of similar shade on the shirt. There ishardly any drawing here: the act is 'painting'.The strokes in this self-portrait testifies the joie de vivre of ayound Baburao. Its compositional aspect leads the viewer from light todark, from under the head of the painter to his eye that looksstraight towards the future.
- Abhijeet Tamhane
posted by abhi at 11:02 AM
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