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NEW YORK:
The experience of meeting with one of the best artists in the
world can be beyond imagination of many people.
Mohan
Samant, described by Time magazine as one of the world's 100
best artists, is a person one can hardly find. He is simple,
humble and approachable.
Whether it is a South Asian Forum regular seminar, a qawwali
recital, or a reception at the Consulate General of India, the
silver-haired Samant wearing a pointed beard is there.
He is
a true desi but is beyond the desi meaning of Samant. The last
name -- or may be the title -- of the artist from Mumbai, means
feudal lord in English. And if one talks about Indian feudal
lord, forget it; no one can approach him. Artist Samant, however,
does not fit into this category. He is a lovely (Mohan) feudal
lord with an artistic twist. Maintaining a low profile has become
the lifestyle of Samant. “I love to do my work quietly
and let people judge it,” the 72-year-old artist had responded
when this writer sought his reaction after being honored by
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. It was her senatorial campaign
in Chinatown, Manhattan, where Hillary honored Samant as the
best artist living in New York City.
Samant
sits in his 26th Street home in Manhattan and reminisces the
days on the 1960s when he came to New York. He says, he was
fortunate for not having to go through the grind like the other
artists do.
“I
was introduced by Mrs. Rockefeller who was an ardent collector
of my paintings and I always moved with the cream of the society,”
the artist who arrived in New York with a scholarship said in
an interview.
New York
City -- Manhattan in particular -- is widely criticized as a
concrete jungle, where the artist has chosen to settle with
his wife Jillian. To a question, whether the suffocation, traffic,
lack of open and green space, bother him while creating an art,
his answer was 'no.'
"Many artists
moved to suburbs like Long Island lately for comfort. But now
they have realized that they are missing all the happenings
in the city," he said. “I love the place where I live now.”
And about
India, he has a strange love -- and maybe hate -- relationship.
“I experience adjustment problem when I go to India ...
commuting is cumbersome in Mumbai. You don't get to do what
you want because most of your time is spent solving mundane
problems of life.”
“But
I'm as much an Indian without being in India. I listen to Indian
music, I eat Indian food. How much of Indian I am?” he
emphasized.
Samant
either starts with a freshly stretched canvas or takes an old
painting with which he no longer feels comfortable and uses
it as a background for a new painting. For this new work he
chose an unfinished painting which he has not worked on since
1972.
“I
never start with a subject matter. Painting is a process of
destruction and re-creation in which the subject matter of a
painting is not the painting itself but the process of destruction
of one perception into another,” he said.
During
the 1960s artists were finding it very difficult to find a subject
matter since most subjects had been exhausted. Everybody was
following the elusive idea that the process of painting itself
is the subject of painting. Contrary to that idea Samant's creative
mind has always been searching for painted surfaces which intrigued
me as a starting point. This was one unfinished painting which
was lying forgotten in his closet. It needed to be destroyed
and transformed into a new work.
“The
influences of other works of art from time immemorial whose
power I had absorbed into my entire being needed to be overcome
by a new mode or style. The potential of those works remains
with me and is transformed into my new work. It is as if I am
painting over a 3,000 years old Egyptian wall. ”
Explaining
about one of his paintings, the artist said: “I am destroying
the entire ideology which I had in my head which is represented
by the old painting and re-create something new. This is an
ancient Hindu way of thinking - Kali - destroyer and creator.
Intense flat black or white used in a very specific way is far
more brilliant and concentrating than any other color including
bright red, yellow or green. Both these colors describe the
state of mind of an artist vividly and challenge the aesthetic
sensibilities of the viewer.”
The two
colors, intense flat black and flat white, are the most destructive
and creative tools the artist habitually uses.
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