BORN IN PUNE (Maharashtra, India) in 1949, Sudhir Patwardhan qualified as a medical doctor in 1972. He worked as a radiologist in Thane (Bombay) between 1975 and 2005. Then, he moved from medicine to become a full-time artist. Until the 19th of October 2024, there is an exhibition of his paintings at number 3 Cork Street in London’s Mayfair.
The exhibition is called “Cities: built, broken”. As its name suggests, the show is filled with Patwardhan’s paintings, each of which depicts scenes of urban life. His beautifully executed, colourful paintings evoke daily life in Thane and Bombay (Mumbai). As the gallery’s website (www.frieze.com/no9-cork-street/vahdera-art-gallery-sudhir-patwardhan) explained:
“As a man of medicine, Patwardhan displays a profound understanding of the human figure, including its mental distortions and physical vagaries, with early inspiration from Cézanne and Picasso refining his intent. In this recent body of work, Patwardhan’s well-regarded visceral realism explores various dialectics and asymmetries, including class struggles, tensions between the material and spiritual and the emotional theatre of community. The shifting deportment of his figures across a series of charged slice-of-life scenes offers a moving portrait of the bustling annals of cities, where capitalist consumption, gentrification and the erosion of natural spaces are but few of the contested arguments about what constitutes as urban progress. He brings us a visual meditation on the geometric correspondences between various kinds of structures growing out of anarchic infrastructural development – often referred to colloquially in India as jugaad, or a kind of organized chaos.”
I could not have put this better. It describes the subject matter of the paintings beautifully. However, rather than just reading about it, I suggest that you see these wonderful paintings before the exhibition ends.
THERE IS A PHOTOGRAPH in the “Times of India” (Mumbai edition: 19th of December 2023). It is a good image showing a group of women wearing saris, and seated on a wall next to the sea close to the Gateway of India. The picture on its own is a pleasure to see, but what enhanced my enjoyment of it was its wonderfully witty title: “SAREE SOIREE AT THE GATEWAY”
DURING THE FEW DAYS we have been in Bombay, we have visited 10 art galleries. With one exception, the exhibitions have been both beautifully displayed and contained exciting works of art. The exception is an exhibition of Pop Art being held at the recently constructed Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in the Bandra Kurla district of Bombay.
The spacious gallery occupies parts of four floors of a glitzy cultural centre-cum-shopping mall. To view the exhibition, one needs to book a time-slot, and part with 800 Rupees (about £8) per person. When we visited on a Sunday afternoon, the few visitors to the gallery were vastly outnumbered by security personnel and charming, but seemingly poorly informed, young ladies who are employed to provide information about the exhibits.
The flyer for the exhibition promises the visitor the opportunity to see works by 12 exponents of Pop Art. However, the majority of the items were creations of Andy Warhol. Almost my favourite piece was a large creation by Robert Rauschenberg.
Each of the very spacious, well-lit galleries had surprisingly few artworks. Of the four galleries, I thought that the one on the third floor was best. It contained, amongst a few other things, the Rauschenberg, and a work by Claes Oldenburg, and yet more Warhol images.
Would I recommend making a visit to this exhibition? Probably, I would not. If you are familiar with Pop Art it offers little to add to what you already know and/or like. If you are not familiar with this kind of art, I am not sure that the exhibition would provide you with much if any insight. And at 800 Rupees per person, you might be better off buying a decent book about this exciting era of art.
NEAR BOMBAY’S FLORA Fountain there are several booksellers on the pavement. They stock both new (original and pirated copies) and old books. In general, the vendors are amenable to bargaining with their customers.
Today (in December 2023), I found a second-hand, oldish book about the history of Bombay. It looked as if it would satisfy my requirements. I asked the price. It was 800 Rupees. Because I have become accustomed to hagling over the price I offered 600. I was hoping that we would eventually agree on a price of about 700. The bookseller was adamant. He would sell it for 800 and no less. He kept saying it had been 1000 when it was new … long ago. I walked away, and viewed other bookstalls nearby.
Keen to have the book, I returned and offered 750. The stubborn vendor said to me: “What is 50 Rupees to you? You are rich man.” I walked away, and joined my wife who had just engaged a taxi to take us elsewhere. Seeing me board the taxi, the bookseller ran up to our vehicle, and proposed that we pay 780. My wife, who was not yet in the vehicle, offered him 750, which he accepted.
The man was right. What was 50 Rupees to me? Only about 50 pence. However, that was not the point. Getting the book was one thing but the pleasure of fighting to reduce the price, and succeeding, is another. And the sense of achievement after serious bargaining leaves me with a curiously fine sense of contentment.
I HAVE SEEN PHOTOGRAPHS of baobab trees, but until we visited the café of the formerly named Prince of Wales Museum in Bombay, I had never seen one ‘in the flesh’. A member of the mallow family of plants, baobabs are native to Madagascar.
Baobab tree in Bombay
These trees with curious looking conical trunks were imported to India by Arab traders. Although this is the case, this baobab in Bombay is the first such tree I have seen during my 30 years of frequent visits to India.
As we sat with our cold drinks, I looked up at the high branches of the baobab, and saw something flapping about. At first, I thought it was a black plastic bag caught in the branches. Then I noticed that it was a large bat stretching its wings. I saw it was not alone, but one of a large number of bats hanging on the high branches. These large creatures had black wings and dark brown bodies.
Despite the fact we had just seen a wonderful exhibition of ancient sculptures (from India, Ancient Rome and Greece, and Assyria), finding the baobab and seeing the bats in it, made my day.
WE HAVE BEEN VERY fortunate to get a booking at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, located next door to the world famous luxurious Taj Mahal Hotel. Our bedroom is directly opposite the front of the Gateway of India – Bombay’s best known landmark.
The Gateway was built to celebrate the arrival in India of the British King George V – Emperor of India. However, as it was only completed in 1924, the king only got to see a cardboard model of the archway. Construction of this edifice only began in 1915, when the land on which it now stands was first prepared. The Gateway’s foundations only began to be built in 1920.
The magnificent archway was designed by George Wittet (1878-1926), an architect who worked mainly in Bombay. The Gateway was designed in an Indo-Saracenic style with many features borrowed from 16TH mosques found in Gujarat.
The Gateway is a brilliant piece of architecture. In its position next to the sea, it ‘works’ successfully. It has become not only an icon of Bombay but also, I believe, of India. I find it ironic that like that other icon of India, the Taj Mahal in Agra, its construction was inspired not by Indians but by invaders of the Indian Subcontinent. Despite that, Indians love it and flock to see it.
WE PARKED OUR CAR in Ryde on the Isle of Wight. I noticed that we had stopped outside a building that looked as if it had been transported from Marine Drive in Bombay to the Isle of Wight. Like many of the buildings that line Marine Drive, this one in Ryde is a beautiful example of the Art Deco architectural style, which became popular in the 1930s.
The former Royal York Hotel
The building in Ryde was constructed as the former Royal York Hotel. Completed in 1938, it was designed by JB Harrison and HP Gilkes.
When the hotel was opened, Ryde had become a popular destination for ’high society‘ holidaymakers. The then state-of-the-art hotel would have been in high demand. Partly because of the increasing ease of foreign travel, the hotel’s customers gradually decreased in number. So, in 2006, the hotel closed forever, and remained disused and looking dejected.
When we saw it in October 2023, there was scaffolding on the edifice and evidence that work was being carried out. I have read that there are plans to work on the building to create residential flats as well as a new hotel within it. Let us hope that this splendid example of Art Deco architecture will be preserved.
SEVERAL OF OUR FRIENDS born in India came to study accountancy in the UK during the late 1960s and early ‘70s. In those days, studying accountancy had two benefits apart from giving our friends the opportunity to have careers in commerce and finance. First, coming to the UK was an opportunity to live abroad, and, more importantly, because they had to study whilst employed by an accountancy firm, they got income to cover their living expenses. All of them have had successful careers in business and/or banking. Some years earlier (in 1950), Lancelot Ribeiro (1933-2010), born in Bombay, came to the UK to study accountancy. However, he did not complete the course. Instead, he began studying art at London’s St Martins School of Art between 1951 and 1953. At that time, he lived in London’s Chalk Farm with his half-brother, the artist Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002), who was born in Goa. In August 1954, Lancelot was conscripted into the RAF. He was released from this in January 1955. Then, he returned to Bombay.
In Bombay, Lancelot was employed by the Life Insurance Corporation. He remained in this company for four years, by which time his poetry and painting were becoming recognised by Bombay’s artistic community, notably by the poet Nissim Ezekiel, the critic and poet Rajagopal Parthasarathy, the critic Rudolf von Leyden (German born, but lived most of his life in Bombay), and the Tata industrial group (who commissioned some of his works). By 1959, he had decided to make painting his profession. By the early 1960s, he was exhibiting in both group shows and solo exhibitions and was gaining wider, and influential recognition. Lancelot and his wife returned to London at the end of 1962/early 1963.
After living in various parts of London, the Ribeiro’s settled in the Belsize Park area of Hampstead – at Belsize Park Gardens – for a few years. By now, Lancelot’s works, and those of other Indian artists living in England, were being exhibited both in the UK and India. Life in London was not easy even in the late 1970s for people with ‘brown’ skins as Lancelot found out the hard way. Several times, he was attacked in the streets near Swiss Cottage, and once badly injured when attacked outside Hampstead Police Station. In addition, some of his pictures were vandalised when on display at the Swiss Cottage Library in 1986-87. However, none of this subdued his irrepressible creativeness.
Some of his prolific and highly inventive artworks were exhibited in Hampstead’s Burgh House when it held an “Indian Month” in 1980. Although he did not enjoy as much fame as his better-known half-brother, Ribeiro’s work is well worth seeing. An opportunity to do so is currently available at Burgh House until the 17th of December 2023. The well-displayed exhibition, “Lancelot Ribeiro: Finding Joy in a Landscape” can be seen free of charge. The Burgh House website describes it as follows:
“A journey through the changing landscapes of Hampstead-based expressionist poet and painter Lancelot Ribeiro, from his roots in pre-Independence 1930s India to life in mid-20th century Britain.
Ribeiro experimented with form and materials, moving from conventional depictions of the Lake District to otherworldly townscapes and sharp, bright abstracts inspired by geology. Each work encourages us to look anew, reconsider the form and substance of our environment, and how we might depict and share those landscapes with others.”
I can strongly recommend that you pay a visit to this show to see the works of an artist, who should be more widely known.
Finally, I wonder what would have become of our few dear friends had they abandoned accountancy prematurely. One of them, in his retirement from many years in banking, has become written a highly acclaimed novel. Another, who retired from a career in an international corporation, is now highly developing his skills as a cook. A third, who dropped out of accountancy, has become a successful translator.
THE KALA GODHA (Black Horse) is a statue in the heart of old Mumbai. It was erected in 2017 and designed by Alfaz Miller and sculpted by Shreehari Bhosle. It stands on the site of an equestrian statue of King Edward VII, which was removed from this spot in 1965 (and can now be seen in Byculla Zoo).
The Kala Godha
The statue gives its name to an annual arts festival, The Kala Godha Festival, that has been held since.1999. It has grown over the years and attracts many visitors. People come to enjoy film, literary events, heritage walks, booksales, exhibitions, artworks, other cultural happenings, and sales of handicrafts from all over India.
Held for nine days in February, this festival is a lot of fun.
yamey 