The Art-Tryst

Of course I had seen Sumukha Gallery before. Never had reason to register its location earlier though, and that led to a bit of a crawl-search before finding it on Friday afternoon. For all the various write-ups about the exhibition of Sara Abraham's private collection, the place itself was deserted and the security guard seemed bored without having to regulate the crowds that I imagined would be breaking down the gates.

So much the better; I could wander through the exhibition at my pace and not worry if I was spending too much time in front of a piece that wasn't deserving of such attention. And seeing a Raja Ravi Varma original right at the entrance was a good start, indeed.

Surprise in store at the Laxma Gowd 'village' wtihin the exhibition. Without going ga-ga over it, I've always liked Thota Tharani's work. And it was indeed a bit out-of-the-blue to see his efforts being referred to as "repulsively glossy". I guess there must have been phases - or, more surely, early days when all kinds of things were attempted and Gowd happened to be at the receiving end of one such experiment. Tharani's collages were quirky without being extraordinary, and there was no work that could be considered 'glossy', even without the additional adjective to it.

The collection on the ground floor was quite neat, and did have a few names that I recognized - Adimoolam, Akbar Padamsee, Ganesh-es; Pyne and Haloi - though I misinterpreted KH Ara's signature as Sara's.... and that is my big crib. It seemed to be an insider thing, with most of the works not having any identification as to whose it was and none of them having any kind of description. A huge hurdle to climb for the lay fan of art, indeed. Having a catalogue of Sara's collection available at the entrance seemed to be more of a "you-could-have-looked-it-up-if-you-really-wanted-to" statement than a guide to the non-usual gallery goer. And with no one inside the downstairs rooms, there wasn't any chance to 'ask the authorities' about anything!

The collection upstairs was better cared for; with 5 or 6 Hussains there, it had to be. The two large paintings by A Ramachandran were certainly eye-catching. Though I wasn't the only person when I entered the room, the other visitor seemed to be in a grand hurry to leave. After that departure, the manager of the gallery - her office was in a side room upstairs - took pains to make sure that I did spend as much time as I wanted; she pointed out portraits that Sara had painted in her maiden name (Mathen) and had had the subjects autograph. The subjects, by the way, included Lord Mountbatten and Albert Einstein! If that wasn't enough, the lady also pointed out 2 paintings that MF Hussain had sent over as gifts for Sara on her 80th birthday last week. Looking at them, my first thought was that as he gets older, MF Hussain gets more colourful! Bright, vivid reds, yellows and greens made a stunning setting for the paintings - I've always thought his works were certainly more sober and subtle.

The highlight though, was seeing a very unusual Hussain; only a sketch, one that seemed to have been done rather quickly and to capture the true likeness, rather than the abstract figures that seem to define Hussain. To me, that sketch of Zachary Abraham seemed to be the clincher that Hussain is indeed a marvellous artist, if such reiteration were necessary.

The manager told me I could take 'two or three' photographs, and I pushed it to a half-dozen; I'd rather keep some of what I did see there in my mind's eye - my poor photography skills cannot in any way do justice to the richness of many of the works there, but my memory (and imagination) can colour them better as the days go by.