Right now, it seems like the artist of the moment is Narayan Shridhar Bendre. After a successful show in Kolkata, New Delhi's Vadehra Art Gallery has recently put up 51 works by the modernist master in an exhibition that celebrates his dexterity with watercolour.
N.S. Bendre, who was born in Indore in 1910 and passed away in Mumbai in 1992 at the age of 81, was a lifelong lover of the medium. "In fact, back in the 1940s, my father was a much sought-after watercolour specialist in the Bombay art world. Even though a science student, he had a gift for drawing from a young age, a talent he later honed at Dattaray Deolalikar's art school in Indore," says his Mumbai-based son, Padmanabh N. Bendre.
Featuring a selection of figurative as well as landscape paintings, the works on display are from Padmanabh's personal collection. They cover the full arc of the artist's prodigious career—for example, the earliest dated work is from 1938 and the latest from 1992, the year of his death. "I love how Bendre moved seamlessly between subjects of landscapes, figurative painting and pure abstraction. Not restricting himself to form or colour, he explored the different themes in various styles ranging from academic studies to impressionism, and eventually pointillism as well," says Roshini Vadehra, director at Vadehra Art Gallery.
Joy Through Art
Speaking to AD India, Padmanabh points out that his father enjoyed painting outdoors, a preference he attributes to his rigorous academic training at Mr. Deolalikar's art school. "Himself an alumnus of Sir J.J. School of Art, Mr. Deolalikar was a strong proponent of nature painting. He was a great teacher and he always emphasized outdoor sketching, introducing his students to the importance of line, perspective and shadow and how to observe nature at different hours of the day in order to study the rapidly changing light conditions," Padmanabh says. "My father never stepped out of home without loose sheets of paper or sketch pads and a set of colours in his bag and whenever he found a good spot, he would sit and paint. These works you see are not painted in the studio at all. All were done on site."
Arun Vadehra, founder of the Vadehra Art Gallery, who cherished a friendly relationship with the artist, recollects: "Mr. Bendre was extremely informative about the technique and application of his paintings. His use of colour and form were an example for artists thereafter.” There's something refreshingly old-school and versatile about Bendre's watercolours—a medium deemed one of the oldest but also the most difficult to master.
At the ongoing show, you can see the artist has created impressions of the landscapes he has encountered in his abundant travels and deftly transformed them into a visual experience using only quick brushstrokes and subtle shading. Bendre once called his paintings "a pictorial statement," a reaction to the world he was witnessing. His philosophy of art, as he declared, was to give joy. "There is already a lot of misery in this world; I do not want to add to it. I paint because I derive pleasure from painting and I try to give pleasure to others."
The Kashmir Years
For his art, in particular landscapes, Bendre drew from Impressionism, the miniature tradition, and the Bengal school. It's easy enough to trace the roots of the last influence; Padmanabh explains: "He spent some months in Santiniketan in 1946. Kala Bhavana contributed immensely to his evolution because he was a part of the same artistic circle as Ramkinker Baij, whom he admired deeply, and others like Benode Behari Mukherjee and Nandalal Bose. Even though he had a fundamental difference of opinion with Nandalal Bose about the nature and purpose of art, he made sure it never affected his appreciation for his senior's works."
Bendre was an avid traveller, as demonstrated by the different landscapes he produced in his lifetime. Many works in this show belong to his Kashmir period. His three-year stint in the Valley starting 1939 was a defining event for the artist, both professionally and personally. Padmanabh, while describing it as his golden period, says, "By this time, he was already a reputed painter in Bombay, but when he got a chance to work for the Jammu and Kashmir state tourism department he couldn't resist the offer. One of the reasons was that he felt he could stay on in Kashmir and paint its pristine landscapes while also enjoying a regular income, which allowed him to pursue painting with more freedom."
Unfortunately, though Kashmir today is seen as one of his most prolific periods, he had a personal setback there. One day, the bus he was commuting in met with a near-fatal accident in Uri. There were only three survivors; one of them was Bendre. "He lost his eyesight," Padmanabh recalls, adding, "But it didn't diminish his desire to paint. I feel he adapted rather quickly to his new life with limited vision. He got back to painting, as if nothing had changed. In fact, his handling of colour and perspective—nothing was affected."
A Point About Pointillism
In a different avatar, Bendre worked as a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda from 1950 onwards, and retired as a dean in 1966. His mentoring of younger artists as Jyoti Bhatt, Shanti Dave, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, G.R. Santosh, Kishori Kaul and Jayant Parikh gave birth to the influential Baroda School.
"It was in Baroda that he started experimenting vigorously. One of the techniques he developed was around pointillism," says Padmanabh, who himself studied architecture in Baroda before quitting to become a full-time artist inspired by his father. Talking about the Baroda phase, Roshini Vadehra adds, "Bendre was in Baroda for nearly two decades where he taught and headed the Department of Painting. These years were the most interesting in his professional career. He not only introduced new ideas in art education, but his own work acquired a new meaning as he devised a unique style, combining abstraction, cubism, expressionism and especially, pointillism."
When discussing pointillism, one name springs to mind—Georges Seurat. However, Padmanabh maintains that his father was never inspired directly by Seurat's methods in the first place. "Pointillism was very much present in India even before Seurat," he claims, adding, "Almost 400 years ago, Indian artisans used to paint on ivory. Due to its smooth surface they found it difficult to paint directly on it, so they used the pointillism technique. Seurat's approach, on the other hand, was more scientific."
Recent years have seen a dramatic resurgence in Bendre's pointillist works at auctions. Last year in November, at the Pundole's auction, his painting titled Jaisalmer Fort sold for a record price of Rs. 5 crore, while the Kashmir Landscape fetched Rs. 3.8 crore, followed by another record-breaking sale at AstaGuru's Modern Indian Art auction in December, in which one of his untitled landscapes was picked up by a buyer for over Rs. 6 crore.
Padmanabh is happy that his father's work is finally being valued alongside other modern greats. "It was long overdue," he says. "Dad's contribution was integral to the birth of modern art in India. For me as a son and artist, the interest and curiosity about his work is the most heartening news."
'N.S. Bendre' at the Vadehra Art Gallery is on view till 12 January
