Artist Mohan Samant rewrote the rules of the canvas so quietly that no one outside the world of art heard of it
Mohan Samant's works to be displayed at Jhaveri Contemporary
Curators have loved artist Mohan Samant's work way more than the public at large. Art critic Ranjit Hoskote, who co-wrote a book on him, has followed his work since 1993. Dadiba Pundole and Abraham Joel, of Pundole Art Gallery, held a definitive exhibition of his works in 2008; Kamini Sawhney, from Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation (JNAF), held a retrospective in 2013; and, Amrita and Priya Jhaveri, co-owners of Jhaveri Contemporary, have presented him in two different exhibitions in 2018: at the Frieze New York, a mega art fair, in May; and a solo exhibition at their new space in Colaba in October. According to Sawhney, "Mohan Samant was one of the really important artists this country had. He was experimenting with avant-garde possibilities way before his contemporaries." So, why haven't you heard of him?
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After graduating from Sir JJ School of Art in 1952, and participating in a few local exhibitions, Samant moved to New York, initially for six years in 1959, and then forever in 1968. He lived there until his death in 2004. According to Sawhney, "Unlike [SH] Raza, who kept coming back every year and showing here, Mohan Samant did not keep up those links with his country sufficiently." Though his widow, Jillian Samant, says over email, "Mohan did not need to go to India to feel Indian. He claimed he was more Indian than his family, which is still living in Samant Wadi [in Goregaon East]. He carried India inside him at all times."
Man with a Child in a Chair, 1982
Evidence of that is not only in his artworks, but also in his daily life. Jillian says, "Mohan devoted his day to his art. In the morning, he would spend three hours playing [not practising] the sarangi. At noon, he would make his own lunch — rice and beans, take a short nap in his chair and paint in the afternoon. At five o'clock, he [would] walk to one of the cafes nearby, take a cup of coffee and go to Madison Park, where he would sit and contemplate and watch the world pass by." Samant was regular and orderly in life, so that he could be violent and original in his work.
Samant's style doesn't lend itself to easy descriptions. As Priya Jhaveri says, "[His] works marry sculpture, painting, architecture, and so many forms and influences, to arrive at a language that is resolutely its own." He worked in different media, ranging from usual suspects such as watercolour, ink, oil, acrylic, crayon and spackle, to unusual suspects such as sand, straw, pressed butterflies and plastic toys. Sawhney adds, "He [used] stencilling, newspaper clippings, paper collages, three-dimensional figures, wire figures and recess compartments in the canvas." He commented on everything: from the events in Ramayana to one of the darkest incidents in Roman history, the Holocaust. History was current affairs to him, and he borrowed from the visual art of every timeline: from tribal art to classical art to modern art; from cave paintings to miniatures to cubism. Sometime in the 1970s, while he was bedridden from an illness, he also lost all fidelity to the canvas. Paper cut-outs became a distinctive feature of his works, and as Hoskote once wrote, "Samant could rip up, scissor, re-glue and violate the picture surface into a multilayered montage."
Request to Remain Virgin, 1975
While Samant kept the world at bay when it came to his work (he held no public solo exhibitions between 1975 and 1994), music brought him closer to the world. "When he was painting, he was intentionally private," says Sawhney. "But, it doesn't mean he was a recluse. He was sociable when he needed to be. His apartment in New York was this lovely, huge, airy loft, [where] he would host these soirees. Jill [his wife] plays the recorder; she is a classical musician. So, music and art just flowed through their apartment." Musicians such as sarangi player Ram Narayan and sarod player Amjad Ali Khan have performed in his loft; invites would be sent to all the artists they knew.
This October, the Jhaveris have put together an airtight exhibition of 13 paintings, which spans three decades of his practice, including his paper cut-outs to his African art- and Gond-inspired artworks. His greatest hits, so to speak. Priya says the exhibition is an attempt to show an artist who was "written out of the artists' oral narrative in India." It's true that Samant was not a household name in New York, his workplace, and he is not a household name in Mumbai, his birthplace. With its two exhibitions this year, Jhaveri Contemporary is trying to change that.
What: Masked Dance for the Ancestors
When: October 11 to November 17
Where: 3rd floor, Devidas Mansion, 4 Mereweather Road, Colaba
Call: 2202 1051
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